The Tortoise and the Hare
Told by AesopAncient GreeceTale type Perry 226
- Age
- 3 to 8
- Reading time
- 4 minutes
- Scariness
- 0 of 5Nothing alarming happens
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The story
There was a hare who could run faster than anything in the field, and who mentioned it a great deal.
One morning he found a tortoise crossing the path, and stood watching him for a while, because there was time.
"Do you know," said the hare, "I could have gone to the far hill and back before you got across this path?"
"Probably," said the tortoise.
"I could have gone twice."
"Probably."
The hare had expected an argument, and was slightly annoyed not to get one. "You don't mind being slow?"
The tortoise thought about it. "I'll race you," he said.
The hare laughed so hard he had to sit down.
Every animal in the field came to watch, mostly because they wanted to see the tortoise change his mind. He did not. The fox marked a line in the dust and another one at the old olive tree at the top of the slope, and said go.
The hare was gone. He was a brown streak through the grass and then he was a dot and then he was nothing at all.
The tortoise started walking.
Halfway up the slope the hare stopped and looked back down the hill. He could see the whole field, and somewhere near the bottom of it, a small dark shape moving very slowly through the grass.
"Well," said the hare.
The sun was warm. There was a patch of soft grass in the shade of a rock. The hare thought that he could sleep for an hour, wake up, run the rest, and still win by so much that people would talk about it for years.
So he lay down.
The tortoise came up the slope. He did not hurry, because he could not, and he did not stop, because there was no reason to. He went past the rock where the hare was asleep and did not wake him, which some of the animals thought was very sporting and some thought was extremely funny.
The hare woke because of the cheering.
He was up and running before he was properly awake, and he ran better than he had ever run in his life, and he was still running when the tortoise put one foot over the line at the olive tree.
Nobody said anything unkind to the hare. They did not have to.
What is the moral of The Tortoise and the Hare?
Slow and steady wins the race.
The hare does not lose because he is slow. He loses because he stops. That is a more useful lesson than it first appears: most things are not won by the fastest person but by the one who is still going. Children hear this fable as being about a slow animal beating a fast one, but it is really about the difference between having an advantage and using it.
Talk about it
- Why do you think the hare decided to have a nap?
- The tortoise knew he was slower. Why race at all?
- Have you ever kept going at something that took a very long time?
- Was the hare unkind, or just silly?
- What would you have said to the hare when he woke up?
Who is in the story
The Tortoise
protagonist · tortoise
Crossing a path, minding his own business, until somebody makes it a competition.
- Kind
- 8 out of 10
- Brave
- 9 out of 10
- Clever
- 8 out of 10
- Honest
- 9 out of 10
- Curious
- 5 out of 10
- Patient
- 10 out of 10
The Hare
antagonist · hare
The fastest thing in the field, and keen that everybody knows it.
- Kind
- 5 out of 10
- Brave
- 6 out of 10
- Clever
- 4 out of 10
- Honest
- 7 out of 10
- Curious
- 5 out of 10
- Patient
- 1 out of 10
In a nutshell
A hare laughs at a tortoise for being slow, so the tortoise challenges him to a race. The hare is so far ahead that he lies down for a nap, and wakes up to find the tortoise has already finished.
Scene by scene
12 moments from the tale.
- Scene 1The Fieldpleased with himself
Faster than anything in the field
The hare crosses the whole field at speed for no particular reason and stops dead in the middle of the path. There is nobody out here to see it. He announces it anyway.
The fastest thing in the field. He mentioned it
- Scene 2The Fieldidle
Because there was time
A tortoise is getting across the dirt path one foot at a time. The hare arrives, and instead of going round he sits down in the dust to watch the whole business through.
He stopped to watch. He had plenty to spare
- Scene 3The Fieldteasing
I could have gone twice
The hare boasts about his speed to a tortoise crossing the path, and the tortoise agrees with every word, which is not what the hare wanted.
He wanted an argument. He got agreement
- Scene 4The Fieldwrong-footed
I'll race you
The hare tries once more to get a rise out of him. The tortoise thinks about it properly, the way he does everything, and then says the one thing the hare had not prepared for.
He wanted an argument. He got a race
- Scene 5The Fieldquietly expectant
He did not change his mind
A line is scratched across the dust and the field fills up along the stone wall. Everyone has come for the same thing, which is the moment the tortoise understands what he agreed to and goes home.
They came to watch him back out. He did not
- Scene 6The Fieldexcited
A brown streak
The fox marks a line, says go, and the hare vanishes up the field. The tortoise starts walking.
One of them was gone. One started walking
- Scene 7The Slopesmug
Well, said the hare
Halfway up, the hare stops to see how the race is going. The whole field lies out below him, and the tortoise is a dark speck in it that does not appear to be moving at all.
A dot at the bottom of a very long hill
- Scene 8The Slopedrowsy
The shade of the rock
Halfway up the slope the hare looks back, sees a tiny shape far below, and decides there is time for a sleep.
He had time. He was sure of it
- Scene 9The Slopesteady
He did not stop
The tortoise works his way up the dirt path in the heat, one foot and then the other foot. The olive tree at the crest is a long way off, and it gets slightly closer the entire time.
He could not hurry. He did not need to
- Scene 10The Slopedelicate
Past the rock
The tortoise reaches the flat grey rock. The hare lies asleep in the shade beside the path with his ears folded down over his eyes. The tortoise goes by at the only speed he has and carries on.
He went past. He did not wake him
- Scene 11The Slopesudden
The cheering woke him
The hare wakes to cheering, runs better than he ever has, and is still running when the tortoise crosses the line.
He was still running when it ended
- Scene 12The Slopequiet
They did not have to
At the top of the hill the hare stands under the olive tree getting his breath back. The crest has gone quiet around him. Nothing is explained to him, because nothing is left that needs explaining.
Nobody said anything. The line had said it
Where it happens
The Field
meadow
A dry golden field at the bottom of the slope, where the race begins.
The Slope
hillside
The long climb to the olive tree, with a shaded rock about halfway up.
How they are connected
The TortoiseThe Harerival
One of them wants an argument. The other one keeps agreeing with him.
Things you might not know
La Fontaine's French version, in book six of his Fables, puts the moral first instead of last. Its opening line, Rien ne sert de courir, il faut partir a point, means there is no use running, you have to set off at the right time.
Folklorists number Aesop's fables using the Perry Index. The Tortoise and the Hare is Perry 226.
In some older versions the hare does not fall asleep at all. He stops to eat, or to talk to other animals, which makes the moral about distraction rather than laziness.
Nobody is certain Aesop existed. No writing by him survives, no contemporary mentions him, and the first collection of his fables was assembled around two hundred and forty years after he supposedly died.
Aesop's fables were among the first books ever printed in English. William Caxton produced an edition in 1484, and they have not been out of print for a single year since.
In a West African version, the tortoise wins by stationing identical-looking relatives along the route. Exactly the same race, and the opposite moral.
Another famous race with a tortoise puzzled the ancient Greeks. The philosopher Zeno argued that swift Achilles could never overtake a tortoise with a head start, because each time he reached where it had been, it had moved on a little. It is a different story, but the slow tortoise has been winning arguments ever since.
The hare is still the fastest animal in the field at the exact moment he loses. Nothing about his ability changes at any point in the story.
What things stand for
- The race itself
- A contest nobody thought worth watching, entered by the one animal guaranteed to lose it. That is the only reason anybody remembers it.
- The shaded rock
- Comfort arriving at exactly the wrong moment. Nothing forces the hare to stop; the shade is simply there, and he has time.
- The word 'probably'
- The tortoise's only weapon. Agreeing with every insult takes all the fun out of it, and it is what provokes the race in the first place.
- The old olive tree
- A finish line that does not move. The tortoise wins because the target stayed where it was and so did he.
- The dust cloud
- Everything the hare has, spent in the first ten seconds. The tortoise is still lifting his front foot when it settles.
The same story elsewhere
Folk tales are not owned by whoever wrote them down first.
The Hare and the Tortoise
Greece, c. 600 BC
The oldest surviving shape, catalogued as Perry 226, in which the moral is squarely about the hare's arrogance rather than the tortoise's persistence.
The Tortoise and the Elephant
West Africa, traditional
A tortoise beats a much faster animal by stationing identical-looking relatives along the route, so cunning wins rather than steadiness. Same race, opposite moral.
The Fox and the Snail
Europe, traditional
A snail beats a fox by gripping the fox's tail and letting go at the finish, which is cheating and is presented as admirable.
The Hedgehog and the Hare
Germany, 1843
The Grimms collected a version in which a hedgehog and his wife, who look identical, stand at opposite ends of a furrow and run the hare to exhaustion.
Where you might already know it from
Most children meet a screen version first. Here is what those changed.
Aesop's Fables
book, Arthur Rackham, translated by V. S. Vernon Jones, 1912
A new English translation with an introduction by G. K. Chesterton and pictures by Arthur Rackham.
The Hare and the Tortoise
book, Brian Wildsmith, 1966
A celebrated picture-book version which gives the race a full crowd of watching animals and makes the whole thing a public spectacle.
Slow and steady wins the race
other, -
The moral escaped the story entirely and became one of the most quoted proverbs in English, usually by people who have never read the fable.
Questions parents ask
- What is the moral of The Tortoise and the Hare?
- Slow and steady wins the race.
- What is The Tortoise and the Hare about?
- A hare laughs at a tortoise for being slow, so the tortoise challenges him to a race. The hare is so far ahead that he lies down for a nap, and wakes up to find the tortoise has already finished.
- What age is The Tortoise and the Hare for?
- The Tortoise and the Hare suits ages 3-8.
- How long does The Tortoise and the Hare take to read?
- About 4 minutes read aloud.
- Where does The Tortoise and the Hare come from?
- The Tortoise and the Hare is a traditional tale from Ancient Greece.
Sing it
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One Foot Then the Other
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