The Gold-Children Short Story in English for Kids

Are you searching for an adventure-packed, magical story to narrate to your children? Do not fret, as we’ve found the perfect choice for you. In the gold-children short story, children will come across a lot of new characters that take part in adventurous activities filled with magic and enough adventure that is sure to catch your child’s attention. This article attempts to deliver the gold-children fairy tale in a language that can be easily grasped by children.

The Gold-Children Summary in English

The story begins with a poor couple who live in a cottage. One day the man comes across a golden fish while fishing, which promises him a life of riches and wealth on the condition that he does not tell anybody from where he got his sudden fortune from.

After he agrees and returns home, he is overjoyed to see a palace in the place of his cottage with his wife dressed in beautiful and fine robes. His wife was curious as to where he was able to secure so much wealth and he reluctantly told her his secret, which resulted in them going back to their poor state in their cottage.

When the man went fishing he caught the golden fish again and promised not to reveal the secret. He returned home to his wealth and was yet again pressured by his wife about the secret and he told her out of anger, making them lose their life of wealth for the second time.

When the poor man caught the same golden fish for the third time, the fish ordered him to cut him up into 6 pieces and give two to his wife, two to his horses and bury two in the ground and he did so, which led to his wife giving birth to two golden sons, the horses having two golden fowls and two golden lilies growing from the yard.

After a few years when the sons grew up, one of them wanted to go explore into town while the other stayed behind by saying that if the lilies droop down, then it means that one of them has died.

By saying this, the eldest son went into town wearing the skin of a bear to hide his golden skin and laid his eyes on the most beautiful girl in town and married her, after being liked by the girl’s father too as he knew the boy was special due to his golden skin. The next day, he was determined to hunt a stag that appeared in his dream and set out to do just that.

When he reached the forest, he spotted the same stag that appeared in his dream but it ran deeper into the forest and he followed it. He soon came across a witch’s house that had a barking dog. When he threatened to hurt the dog, the witch got angry and turned him into stone.

Back at the palace, the couple saw one lily drooping low and the younger son immediately set out to save his brother from whatever trouble he got himself into. On meeting the stone and the witch, he warned her to turn him back to his human form and she did so, reluctantly.

The two brothers had a fun time reuniting and they both left the forest with one going back to his parents and the other to his beloved wife. Upon returning, the parents were happy as they saw the lily upright again and knew that he had saved their eldest son. The family then lived happily without any despair till their final days.

After saving his brother, the two sons get ready to leave the forest, with the eldest son going back to his beautiful wife and the younger one going back to his parents to deliver the good news.

The Gold-Children Moral 

Just like in any moral story, the gold-children fairy tale moral is to always be content with what you have and to not be kind to animals. In the story, the wife always wanted to know how her husband got them the life of wealth and it resulted in losing their good fortune twice. The eldest son was turned to stone after threatening to kill the witch’s dog. With these examples, children should understand that they must be satisfied with what they have and must also treat animals with love, care, affection and kindness.

Note to Parents 

Story-telling this story to children is an ideal choice as this will introduce them to the world of magic and adventure and will make them look forward to every story-telling session. Parents could also narrate the gold-children summary to make things shorter and easier for them. This will also encourage children to read more stories that have magic, adventure and fantasy in them and will develop the habit of reading.