Circular tale

A circular tale or a circular song is a tale or song that can be repeated endlessly, because the last element of the narrative introduces the repetition of the first one.^[1]

An example, called "Circular Tale", from The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales goes as follows:

Three brigands were seated on a stone. The youngest said to the oldest: "Tell us a story, Edward." And Edward began: "Four brigands were seated on a stone. The youngest said to the oldest: 'Tell us a story, Edward'. And Edward began: 'Five brigands were seated on a stone...'"^[2]

In Russian folkloristics, circular tales are known as "annoying skazka" (Докучная сказка), named so because it is supposed to annoy the listeners.^[3] The best known ones are the song "У попа была собака" ("A Priest Had a Dog") and "Сказка про белого бычка" ("A Tale about the White Calf"). The first one goes as follows: "A priest had a dog. He liked her. She ate a piece of meat, and he killed her. He buried her and put a note 'A priest had a dog. etc...'" The second one is actually is a verbal game with the intention to annoy the listener and is recorded by Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev in his Russian Fairy Tales:

Do you want me to tell you a story about a white calf?" - "Tell me." - "You tell me, and I'll tell you, should I tell you a story about a white calf?" - "Tell me." - "You tell me, and I'll tell you, what will happen to us, and how long will it be! Should I tell you a story about a white calf?"

This continues until one of the two gets bored.^[4] The story gave rise to the Russian idiomatic expression "a tale about the white calf" in reference to endless excuses or endless pointless repetitive discourse.^[5][6]

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In a story with circular plot, the ending of the story is closely connected to its beginning, i.e., the story makes a full circle.

• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• "There's a Hole in My Bucket"
• "The Song That Doesn't End"
• "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

• Cumulative song
• Repetitive song, a more general type of songs
  • "99 Bottles of Beer", a "reverse counting" song
• Repetition (rhetorical device)
• Groundhog Day

• Juan Luis Toribio Vazquez, Circular Narratives in Modern European Literature