The Eagle and the Owl by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: The Eagle and the Owl
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

The eagle and the owl make peace and swear not to eat one another’s chicks. When the owl asks whether the eagle can recognise his young, the eagle admits he cannot. The owl fears that the eagle, like kings and gods who group everything before them into one category, will fail to distinguish them. Asked to describe them, the owl proudly says that his children are the most beautiful birds ever hatched and therefore cannot be mistaken. Later, while the owl is away seeking food, the eagle finds the owlets on a rock or in a ruined wall. Their grim appearance and shrieking voices make them seem ugly and infernal to him, so he concludes that they cannot be the owl’s beloved young and eats them. The owl returns to find only claws and calls on the gods to punish the offender. A god answers that the owl himself, or rather nature’s law, is to blame: every creature considers its own kind the loveliest, and the owl’s flattering description gave the eagle no true likeness by which to recognise his chicks.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Fiction · 657 words

First lines

The eagle and the owl, resolved to cease / Their war, embraced in pledge of peace. / On faith of king, on faith of owl, they swore / That they would eat each other's chicks no more. / 'But know you mine? ' said Wisdom's bird.[1] / 'Not I, indeed,' the eagle cried. / 'The worse for that,' the owl replied: / 'I fear your oath's a useless word; / I fear that you, as king, will not / Consider duly who or what: / You kings and gods, of what's before ye, / Are apt to make one category. / Adieu, my young, if you should meet them! ' / 'Describe them, then, or let me greet them, / And, on my life, I will not eat them,' / The eagle said. The owl replied: / 'My little ones, I say with pride, / For grace of form cannot be match'd, -- / The prettiest birds that e'er were hatch'd; / By this you cannot fail to know them; / 'Tis needless, therefore, that I show them. / Pray don't forget, but keep this mark in view, / Lest fate should curse my happy nest by you. ' / At length God gives the owl a set of heirs, / And while at early eve abroad he fares, / In quest of birds and mice for food, / Our eagle haply spies the brood, / As on some craggy rock they sprawl, / Or nestle in some ruined wall, / (But which it matters not at all,) / And thinks them ugly little frights, / Grim, sad, with voice like shrieking sprites. / 'These chicks,' says he, 'with looks almost infernal, / Can't be the darlings of our friend nocturnal. / I'll sup of them. ' And so he did, not slightly: -- / He never sups, if he can help it, lightly. / The owl return'd; and, sad, he found / Nought left but claws upon the ground. / He pray'd the gods above and gods below / To smite the brigand who had caused his woe. / Quoth one, 'On you alone the blame must fall; / Or rather on the law of nature, / Which wills that every earthly creature / Shall think its like the loveliest of all. / You told the eagle of your young ones' graces; / You gave the picture of their faces: -- / Had it of likeness any traces? '[2]

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Similar titles

Genres

Fable — The work is a brief animal tale in which an eagle and an owl act and speak like people, ending with an explicit moral about parental bias and mistaken judgment.
Didactic Literature — Its central purpose is instruction: the narrative demonstrates that individuals commonly overvalue what belongs to them and communicate poorly when relying on subjective praise.
Animal Fiction — Bird characters drive the plot, with the eagle and owl embodying recognizable motives, conflicts, and social roles.
Moral Tale — The eagle's consumption of the owl's chicks and the final divine explanation frame the story as a cautionary lesson on self-deception, vanity, and consequences.

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The Eagle and the Owl is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1668 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Fiction, Moral Tale, Allegory
Length: 657 words
Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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