From the Medieval Research Blog: "Medieval Golden Goose Fables: Eggs, Greed, and Demanding Too Much" // News // Medieval Institute // University of Notre Dame

A medieval illustration depicts three birds on an aged, lined page. A small, brown bird faces a hen with a red comb. To their right, a larger grey bird, possibly a duck or goose, stands facing right. — Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig XV 2, f. 25v.

In the fable of The Goose with the Golden Eggs (Perry Index 87), the titular bird is killed by her foolish owner. This fable warns against seeking great, immediate gain over more modest, long-term gain—particularly when doing the former destroys a valuable, otherwise sustainable resource. The first extant version of this fable is that of Avianus, ca. 400 CE; earlier versions may have featured a hen rather than a goose, as fable scholar Francisco Rodríguez Adrados has argued on metrical grounds. But in Avianus, the creature is a goose, and so the tale was transmitted through the Middle Ages and beyond, becoming essentially proverbial...

This is an excerpt from "Medieval Golden Goose Fables: Eggs, Greed, and Demanding Too Much" by Dr. Linnet Heald. Read the full story.