The Sky is Falling
Encyclopedia
Henny Penny, also known as Chicken Licken or Chicken Little, is a fable
in the form of a cumulative tale
about a chicken
who believes the world is coming to an end. The phrase The sky is falling! features prominently in the story, and has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical
or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent.
type 20C, which includes international examples of folktales that make light of paranoia and mass hysteria.
There are several Western versions of the story, of which the best-known concerns a chick that believes the sky is falling when an acorn
falls on its head. The chick decides to tell the King and on its journey meets other animals (mostly other fowl) which join it in the quest. After this point, there are many endings. In the most familiar, a fox invites them to its lair and there eats them all. Alternatively, the last one, usually Cocky Lockey, survives long enough to warn the chick, who escapes. In others all are rescued and finally speak to the King.
In most retellings, the animals have rhyming names, commonly:
The moral
to be drawn changes, depending on the version. Where there is a 'happy ending', the moral is not to be a 'Chicken' but to have courage. In other versions where the birds are eaten by the fox, the fable is interpreted as a warning not to believe everything you are told.
In the United States the commonest name for the story is "Chicken Little", as attested by illustrated books for children going back to the early 19th century. Other names by which it is better known in Britain and its former colonies include "Henny Penny" and "Chicken Licken". These are also known in the U.S., but used more rarely.
Dictionary
records the first application of the name Chicken Little to 'one who warns of or predicts calamity, especially without justification’ as dating from 1895, although idiomatic use of the name significantly predates that attestation. Because of this association, the tale has became politicised.
Fear mongering
- whether justified or not - can sometimes elicit a societal response called Chicken Little syndrome, described as "inferring catastrophic conclusions possibly resulting in paralysis". It has also been defined as "a sense of despair or passivity which blocks the audience from actions". The term began appearing in the 1950sand the phenomenon has been noted in many different societal contexts.
See also cry wolf
, a similar idiom related to the fable
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
.
Another film adaptation was the animated TV episode "Henny Penny" (1999), which was part of the series Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child. In this modern update the story is given a satirical and political interpretation.
There have also been a number of musical settings and adaptations. American composer Vincent Persichetti
used the fable as the plot of his only opera The Sibyl: A Parable of Chicken Little (Parable XX), op. 135 (1976), which premiered in 1985. In 2007 American singer and composer Gary Bachlund set the text of Margaret Free’s reading version of “Chicken Little” (The Primer, 1910) for high voice and piano. In his note to the score Bachlund makes it clear that he intends a reference to alarmism and its tragic consequences.
On the sitcom The Golden Girls
, there was a 1991 episode in which the characters perform a short musical based on the fable (here titled "Henny Panny") at a school recital. This was followed in 1998 by Joy Chaitin and Sarah Stevens-Estabrook's equally light-hearted musical version of the fable, "Henny Penny". Designed for between six and a hundred junior actors, it has additional characters as optional extras: Funky Monkey, Sheepy Weepy, Mama Llama, Pandy Handy and Giraffy Laughy (plus an aggressive oak-tree).
In Singapore a more involved musical was performed in 2005. This was Brian Seward's The Acorn - the true story of Chicken Licken. It is a tale of mixed motivations as certain creatures (including some among the 'good guys') take advantage of the panic caused by Chicken Licken.
(J 322). In it, the Buddha, on hearing about some particular religious practices, comments that there is no special merit in them, but rather that they are "like the noise the hare heard." He then tells the story of a hare disturbed by a falling fruit who believes that the earth is coming to an end. The hare starts a stampede among the other animals until a lion halts them, investigates the cause of the panic and restores calm. The fable teaches the necessity for deductive reasoning and subsequent investigation. The Tibetan version of the Jataka tale has been told in rhyme by Australian author Ursula Dubosarsky
in her book "The Terrible Plop" (2009), which has since been dramatised. In this, the animal stampede is halted by a bear, rather than a lion. The ending has been changed from the Tibetan original as well.
There also exists a Brer Rabbit story that is closer to the Eastern versions. In this story, Brer Rabbit initiates the panic but does not take part in the mass flight, although Brer Fox does. In this case it is Brer Terrapin that leads the animals back to question Brer Rabbit.
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
in the form of a cumulative tale
Cumulative tale
In a cumulative tale, sometimes also called a chain tale, action or dialogue repeats and builds up in some way as the tale progresses. With only the sparest of plots, these tales often depend upon repetition and rhythm for their effect, and can require a skilled storyteller to negotiate their...
about a chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
who believes the world is coming to an end. The phrase The sky is falling! features prominently in the story, and has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical
Hysteria
Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...
or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent.
The story and its name
The story is listed as Aarne-Thompson-UtherAarne-Thompson classification system
The Aarne–Thompson classification system is a system for classifying folktales. First developed by Antti Aarne and published in 1910, it was translated and enlarged by Stith Thompson...
type 20C, which includes international examples of folktales that make light of paranoia and mass hysteria.
There are several Western versions of the story, of which the best-known concerns a chick that believes the sky is falling when an acorn
Acorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...
falls on its head. The chick decides to tell the King and on its journey meets other animals (mostly other fowl) which join it in the quest. After this point, there are many endings. In the most familiar, a fox invites them to its lair and there eats them all. Alternatively, the last one, usually Cocky Lockey, survives long enough to warn the chick, who escapes. In others all are rescued and finally speak to the King.
In most retellings, the animals have rhyming names, commonly:
- ChickenChickenThe chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
Licken / Chicken Little - HennyChickenThe chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
Penny or Hen-Len - Cocky Lockey
- DuckDuckDuck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
y Lucky (some versions have the non-rhyming Ducky Daddles) - DrakeyDuckDuck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
Lakey - GooseGooseThe word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....
y Loosey, Goosey Poosey or GanderGooseThe word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....
Lander - TurkeyTurkey (bird)A turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, commonly known as the Wild Turkey, is native to the forests of North America. The domestic turkey is a descendant of this species...
Lurkey - FoxFoxFox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
y Loxy or Foxy Woxy
The moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
to be drawn changes, depending on the version. Where there is a 'happy ending', the moral is not to be a 'Chicken' but to have courage. In other versions where the birds are eaten by the fox, the fable is interpreted as a warning not to believe everything you are told.
In the United States the commonest name for the story is "Chicken Little", as attested by illustrated books for children going back to the early 19th century. Other names by which it is better known in Britain and its former colonies include "Henny Penny" and "Chicken Licken". These are also known in the U.S., but used more rarely.
Idiomatic usage
The names of the main characters in the fable - Chicken Little/Chicken Licken and Henny Penny - and the fable's central phrase - The sky is falling! - have been applied to people accused of being unreasonably afraid, or those trying to incite an unreasonable fear in those around them. The Merriam-WebsterMerriam-Webster
Merriam–Webster, which was originally the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language .Merriam-Webster Inc. has been a...
Dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
records the first application of the name Chicken Little to 'one who warns of or predicts calamity, especially without justification’ as dating from 1895, although idiomatic use of the name significantly predates that attestation. Because of this association, the tale has became politicised.
Fear mongering
Fear mongering
Fear mongering is the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end...
- whether justified or not - can sometimes elicit a societal response called Chicken Little syndrome, described as "inferring catastrophic conclusions possibly resulting in paralysis". It has also been defined as "a sense of despair or passivity which blocks the audience from actions". The term began appearing in the 1950sand the phenomenon has been noted in many different societal contexts.
See also cry wolf
Cry Wolf
Cry_Wolf is a 2005 American horror/slasher murder mystery directed by Jeff Wadlow after he won $1,000,000 at the 2002 Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival.-Plot:...
, a similar idiom related to the fable
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf, is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom 'to cry wolf', meaning to give a false alarm.-The fable and its history:...
.
Adaptations
Walt Disney Studios has made two animated versions of the story:- The first adaptationChicken Little (1943 film)Chicken Little is a short film created by Walt Disney during World War II. Unlike the company's 2005 feature film of the same name, this short was based on the actual classic tale itself. -Plot summary:...
was an animated short released during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It tells a variant of the parable in which Foxy Loxy takes the advice of a book on psychology by striking the least intelligent first and convinces dim-witted Chicken Little that the sky is falling. It was one of a series of four cartoons produced by the Walt Disney StudiosWalt Disney PicturesWalt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
at the request of the U.S. government during World War II for the purpose of discrediting totalitarianismTotalitarianismTotalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
in general and NazismNazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in particular. Its dark comedy is used as an allegory for the idea that fear-mongering weakens the war effort and costs lives. In it, Chicken Little jumps to a conclusion and whips the populace into mass hysteria, which the unscrupulous fox manipulates for his own benefit.
- The second Disney adaptationChicken Little (2005 film)Chicken Little is a 2005 computer-animated science fiction family comedy film loosely based on the fable The Sky Is Falling. It was the 46th animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation...
, released in 2005, is a feature-length computer-animatedComputer animationComputer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
film. It tells an updated science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
sequel to the original fable in which Chicken Little is partly justified in his fears.
Another film adaptation was the animated TV episode "Henny Penny" (1999), which was part of the series Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child. In this modern update the story is given a satirical and political interpretation.
There have also been a number of musical settings and adaptations. American composer Vincent Persichetti
Vincent Persichetti
Vincent Ludwig Persichetti was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, Persichetti was a native of Philadelphia...
used the fable as the plot of his only opera The Sibyl: A Parable of Chicken Little (Parable XX), op. 135 (1976), which premiered in 1985. In 2007 American singer and composer Gary Bachlund set the text of Margaret Free’s reading version of “Chicken Little” (The Primer, 1910) for high voice and piano. In his note to the score Bachlund makes it clear that he intends a reference to alarmism and its tragic consequences.
On the sitcom The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
, there was a 1991 episode in which the characters perform a short musical based on the fable (here titled "Henny Panny") at a school recital. This was followed in 1998 by Joy Chaitin and Sarah Stevens-Estabrook's equally light-hearted musical version of the fable, "Henny Penny". Designed for between six and a hundred junior actors, it has additional characters as optional extras: Funky Monkey, Sheepy Weepy, Mama Llama, Pandy Handy and Giraffy Laughy (plus an aggressive oak-tree).
In Singapore a more involved musical was performed in 2005. This was Brian Seward's The Acorn - the true story of Chicken Licken. It is a tale of mixed motivations as certain creatures (including some among the 'good guys') take advantage of the panic caused by Chicken Licken.
Popular references
There are many novels, films, CDs and songs titled "The Sky is Falling", but the majority refer to the idiomatic use of the phrase rather than to the fable from which it derives. The following are some lyrics which genuinely refer or allude to the story:- During the later 1940s, Lightnin’ Hopkins had a song titled "Henny Penny Blues", largely on the strength of the line 'She's my little chicken, she's my honey pie'. In 2005 the Canadian poet David Pekrul borrowed the title for a lyric of his own satirising those too quick to believe prophecies of doom.
- British band Happy MondaysHappy MondaysHappy Mondays are an English alternative rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1980, the band's original line-up was Shaun Ryder on lead vocals, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, lead guitarist Mark Day, keyboardist Paul Davis, and drummer Gary Whelan...
have the lines "Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey, Ducky Lucky, Chicken Little, It seems they are all on the move when the sun is falling in" in the song "Moving in with" on their second album, Bummed (1986). - The AerosmithAerosmithAerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
song "Livin' on the EdgeLivin' on the Edge"Livin' on the Edge" is a song by American hard rock band Aerosmith. The song was written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Mark Hudson. It was released in 1993 as the first single from the band's commercially successful album Get a Grip...
" (1993) has the lines "If Chicken Little tells you that the sky is falling, Even if it wasn't would you still come crawling back again?" - "Chicken Little" is a song from the 1997 album Fancy, by the California avantrock band Idiot FleshIdiot FleshIdiot Flesh was a band formed in Barrington Hall, a student co-op at the University of California at Berkeley. They formed in 1985 under the name Acid Rain, and their demo album "We Were All Very Worried" was released as a cassette-only edition in 1987...
; it contains the line 'The sky is falling, gotta tell the king'. - "The Sky Is Falling" is a song by OwsleyOwsleyOwsley may refer to:* Owsley Stanley , also known as Owsley or Bear, "underground" LSD chemist and early Grateful Dead soundman* Owsley , the stage name of Will Owsley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist...
from the 1999 debut album Owsley; it includes the line "Chicken Little had a big day today". - British band RadioheadRadioheadRadiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
used the line "Go and tell the King that the sky is falling in" in their song "2+2=5", included on the album Hail to the Thief (2003).
Related stories
A very early example containing the basic motif and many of the elements of the tale is some 25 centuries old and appears in the Buddhist scriptures as the Daddabha JatakaJataka
The Jātakas refer to a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of the Buddha....
(J 322). In it, the Buddha, on hearing about some particular religious practices, comments that there is no special merit in them, but rather that they are "like the noise the hare heard." He then tells the story of a hare disturbed by a falling fruit who believes that the earth is coming to an end. The hare starts a stampede among the other animals until a lion halts them, investigates the cause of the panic and restores calm. The fable teaches the necessity for deductive reasoning and subsequent investigation. The Tibetan version of the Jataka tale has been told in rhyme by Australian author Ursula Dubosarsky
Ursula Dubosarsky
Ursula Dubosarsky is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults. She has won nine national literary prizes, including five NSW Premier's Literary Awards, more than any other writer in the Awards' 30 year history...
in her book "The Terrible Plop" (2009), which has since been dramatised. In this, the animal stampede is halted by a bear, rather than a lion. The ending has been changed from the Tibetan original as well.
There also exists a Brer Rabbit story that is closer to the Eastern versions. In this story, Brer Rabbit initiates the panic but does not take part in the mass flight, although Brer Fox does. In this case it is Brer Terrapin that leads the animals back to question Brer Rabbit.
External links
- The Remarkable Story of Chicken Little printed in Boston between 1865-71.
- SurLaLune Fairy Tale Site, Henny-Penny as collected by Joseph JacobsJoseph JacobsJoseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...
, 1890 - The Cock and Hen That Went to the Dovrefell a Norwegian variant, 1888
- Happy Ending Version