How Sheep Came to Be 🐑✨🐑 Bedtime Story for Kids

Two children hear the story about the magic that made sheep the wonderful creatures they are today.

Narrated by: TK Kellman
Written by: Lottie Finklaire

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Snuggle, cozy stories for kids. This episode is
called How Sheep Came to Be. Snuggle is a production
of Slumber Studios. To listen ad free and support the show,
sign up for our premium feed. Hey friend, it's Tom.

(00:29):
It means an awful lot to have your company here
on Snuggle. As we prepare to enjoy another awesome story,
our friend TK will be reading this one, and it's
all about how a little bit of magic made sheep
into the wonderful, sleepy creatures they are today. You might

(00:55):
have tried counting sheep before to help you fall asleep.
It's an age old trick that works for a lot
of people. So while you listen along, feel free to
counterway and enjoy a nice, dreamy snooze. Our story begins

(01:19):
in the vast open countryside of Scotland, where a kind
old woman lives in a little cottage.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
In a teeny tiny cottage on the edge of the
wild countryside in northern Scotland, there lived a lovely old
lady called Nana. She had thick, wiry gray hair that

(02:08):
she wore in a braid that reached halfway down her back.
Her eyes were warm and brown like coffee, and her
smile was soft and sweet. She always wore a wooly

(02:30):
cardigan made from patches of knobby bobbly knitting. Each patch
had a different multi colored pattern woven into it, and
some of them had pom poms and tassels. Nana knitted

(02:55):
this cardigan herself, and she was careful to give it wide,
deep pockets so that she could keep storybooks and boiled
sweets inside them. Nana's cottage was as colorful as she was.

(03:20):
It was small and square, with only four rooms, a kitchen,
a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom. The outside
of the house was painted sky blue, but the inside

(03:44):
was painted deep yellow and gold. Nana's favorite room was
the living room. The floor was made from flagstones and
lined with thick, colorful rugs. In the center of the

(04:09):
back wall, there was an old stone fireplace with a
brass firegrate for burning dry wood. The walls inside the
fireplace were black with soot from all the years of use.

(04:35):
Because every night in the winter, Nana would light a
fire and sit with her grandchildren and tell them stories
about why the world is as it is. One night,

(04:58):
Nana sat with her grandchildren Rose and Benji She looked
at Rose's shiny, copper colored hair and Benji's bright, mischievous smile.

(05:19):
They were holding cups of warm cocoa in their little hands.
The steam from each cup was curling and twisting into
the air. Rose poked at the little marshmallows Bobby on

(05:42):
the surface of hers Nana smiled. It was story time.
She cleared her throat, and the children turned to her excited.

(06:04):
She smiled her special twinkling smile, and she reached into
the pocket of her cardigan to bring out her favorite
story book. It was one she had written herself. She

(06:25):
turned to an ear marked page and told the children
that tonight they would learn how sheep came to be.
Rose and Benji got themselves comfortable. They wriggled into the

(06:50):
squashy seats of their armchairs and cut the cocoa against
their chests with a relax. When they were ready, Nana
smiled again, and she started her story. Long ago, when

(07:18):
the earth had just learned to turn, there were no
such things as countries. The land had not yet been
broken up by the sea, and so nobody tried to
claim it as their own. It was a magical time

(07:45):
when people could talk with everything around them, and remembered
that all things were as one. Up in the northern
hemisphere there lived a tribe of creatures. They were small

(08:07):
and hoofed like goats. They had gentle, long faces and thin,
knobby knees. Their coats were colored white green and sometimes
speckled brown. Their hair was short and smooth like a dog.

(08:38):
They were peaceful and gentle, but they didn't always know
how to handle their struggles in life. One day, the
creatures were walking to their summer feeding grounds, and they
came across a great river that was flowing very fast.

(09:07):
On the other side were lush green fields that were
perfect for the creatures to graze in. The creatures looked
longingly at the fields and tried to think of a
way to cross the river, but there was no way

(09:31):
to safely get to the other side. But then a
magnificent man arrived. He rode a chestnut brown horse, and
even though he was old, he was tall and powerful.

(09:55):
His long silver hair fell to his shoulders, and his
skin seemed to grow like a diamond. As soon as
he saw the creatures, he felt sorry for them. They
were hungry and stuck on the wrong side of the river.

(10:20):
With no idea what to do. He walked over to
them and greeted them kindly. The creatures looked around, happy
to hear his smooth, deep voice. They greeted him back.

(10:45):
The man told them that he could help them cross
the river, but the creatures shook their heads. They couldn't
ask him to carry them one by one across the water.
The man laughed. He opened up his traveling cape to

(11:06):
show them his outfit, which glittered gold and bronze. The
creatures were in awe. This was the great King of
the North, and he had magical powers. They bowed their
heads in respect, and the great King chuckled. He dismounted

(11:34):
his horse, walked over to the river bed and let
his feet touch the cool water. He breathed in a deep,
peaceful breath as the water ran in between his toes

(11:56):
and danced around his ankles. With one swift, graceful movement,
he bent down and plucked five stones from the river bed.
They were round and smooth in his hand, eroded and

(12:19):
shaped by the endless flow of the river water. The
creatures watched him curiously, their eyes wide and their breathing soft.
Then the king held the stones to his forehead. He

(12:43):
closed his eyes and told him that he wished for
the creatures to cross the river. The stones quivered in
his hand, then he cast them into the river, just
like a farmer throws seeds to the soil. As soon

(13:11):
as the stones touched the water, they swelled in size,
until they were no longer the size of pebbles, but
the size of mountain boulders. As the bowlders bloomed into being,

(13:33):
they found a way to line up across the width
of the river, just like a bridge of stepping stones.
The king smiled and turned to the creatures. The creatures

(13:54):
were amazed. They bleated happily and wagon their stumpy tails
full of joy. They began to cross the river, jumping
from one stone to the next, their hooves clacking with

(14:15):
each jump. But the queen of the creatures stayed behind.
She looked at the king with her round, innocent eyes
and told him how grateful she was for his help.

(14:37):
The king waved his hand. It was no bother at all,
but the queen was a good queen and full of
good manners. She sank unto one knee and told the
king that she wanted to help him and his people

(14:59):
in real turn. The king looked at her curiously. He
breathed in the fresh country air. Then he told her
to come to his kingdom in the North. Perhaps there
would be some use for her there. With that, he

(15:24):
turned and climbed back on to his horse and rode
off into the distance. The queen was a creature of
her word. The very next day she set out for
the Kingdom of the North. She walked alone and made

(15:49):
sure that no one would follow her. The journey took
many weeks. She wandered over great plains and fields. She
trudged through muddy waters and boggy ground. She tiptoed through

(16:14):
ancient forests and mossy woods, and all the time she
headed north. But the further she walked, the colder it got.
She could feel the air changing with each step. Wind

(16:39):
whipped over the plains, bringing with it a biting cold.
It whistled over the muddy waters and through the forests,
and in the mornings she would see how it had
shaped the frost. Her breath started to form in clouds

(17:07):
at night, and her hooves started to harden against the ground,
but she kept walking. Slowly. She realized that her coat
was beginning to change She didn't know how, but it

(17:31):
was becoming thicker and thicker. Her once smooth, short hairs
were now long and curly. The more her coat grew,
the less she felt the cold. In fact, she was

(17:57):
almost too warm, but the coat didn't seem to stop growing.
One night, she caught sight of herself in the reflection
of the lake. She gasped in the cold night air.

(18:19):
Then she giggled and giggled. She looked just like a
fluffy white cloud with four spinly legs. But still she
kept going. Then finally, one morning, just as she felt

(18:45):
she would run out of land to walk on, she
reached the kingdom in the north. It was a curious kingdom.
It reached out right into the sky, and it was

(19:06):
difficult to tell where the buildings ended and the clouds began.
But she walked inside and clip clopped her way to
a great hall that stood in the middle of the kingdom.

(19:27):
Inside the hall there was a huge four poster bed
made out of pearls and shells. Lying in the bend
was the old King, but he was no longer glowing
like a diamond. It seemed weak and tired. The Queen

(19:55):
of the Creatures rushed over to him and asked what
was wrong. He looked at her and told her that
he had become too cold and couldn't warm up. The
queen smiled relieved. She looked at the king and she

(20:19):
told him if he could take it off her, he
could have her coat. She was too warm in it now.
The king nodded. He held out his hand and touched
the queen's coat. Immediately, it fell off of her in

(20:46):
one piece. She wriggled in delight. It felt so good
to be cool again. Then she picked up her coat
from the floor and placed it over the king like

(21:08):
a blaggett. Instantly, warmth spread over him, color flooded his face,
and his diamond glow came back. He smiled at the
queen and told her what a lovely, wooly coat it was.

(21:35):
The queen smiled too, She was happy to have helped.
The King explained to her that in the north there
was magic all around. The queen was surprised, but the

(21:57):
King kept talking. He told her that because of her journey,
the coat she had grown would continue to grow. She
would need to give it away every few months, and

(22:20):
because she was the queen, her people would also have
long coats too. The King of the North asked the
queen what her people were called. She told him that
they didn't have a name, they were just wanderers. He

(22:47):
thought for a while, and then he told her that
they would call her people sheep and sheep and the
people of the North would forever be friends. The people
would look after the sheep just like the old king had.

(23:14):
In return, the sheep would give them their coats. The
queen thought that sounded fair, and she bleeded happily. It
was so wonderful to have a name and a purpose,

(23:35):
and to know her people would be looked after, just
as they looked after others. She thought about it as
she walked all the way back home. When she got there,
she saw that her people now also had thick wooly cot,

(24:01):
so she told them about her time with the King
of the North. Everyone was excited. They stamped their hoofs
and jumped and celebrated all day and all night, until

(24:22):
finally they couldn't dance anymore, and so they slept sweetly
and soundly, with peace in their hearts. And that is

(24:43):
how sheep came to be. Nana closed the story book
with a soft thud. The fire was crackling merrily, casting

(25:03):
a warm glow onto the room, but Rose and Benji
were fast asleep, curled up in their armchairs with their
eyes closed and their breathing soft. Nenna smiled a warm smile.

(25:36):
She took their cocoa cups to the kitchen and pulled
out her old camp bed from the cupboard, setting it
up by the fire. She placed her soft, squashy pillows
on the bed and brought out a pile of warm,

(26:01):
wully blankets, and one by one she carried Rose and
Benji to the bed and laid them down, making sure
their heads were resting on the pillows. She took out

(26:29):
her biggest, softest, woolliest blanket and threw it over the children,
tucking the covers underneath them. Then she walked over to
her sofa, plumped up her cushions, and laid down on top.

(27:00):
The firelight danced and fluttered. Nana looked around her living room.
She breathed in a sweet, satisfying breath and felt her
arms and legs relax. She looked at Rose and Bengji,

(27:31):
and her heart seemed to glow warm and bright. She
felt the wolf of the blanket on her skin and
thought of the sheep that had given their coats. She

(27:51):
smiled gratefully. Then slowly, slowly, she let her eyelids close,
and ever so gently she was carried off into dreams

(28:14):
studded with diamonds and pearls, and the clip clopping sound
of the hoofs of sheep M Yasmin and