{{Short description|Story whose beginning can follow its end}} 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.<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/circular%20tale circular tale]</ref>
An example, called "Circular Tale", from ''The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales'' goes as follows: {{blockquote|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...'"<ref>"Circular Tale", In: ''The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales'' [https://archive.org/details/borzoibookoffren00dela/page/354/mode/2up p.354]</ref>}}
==Russian annoying tales== [[File:Ivan Bilibin 008 full page.jpg|thumb|[[Ivan Bilibin]]: "Once upon a time there lived a tsar, In the tsar's yard there was a stake, On the stake there was [[Bast fibre|bast]]; Should we start the tale from the beginning?" (It rhymes in Russian)]] In Russian folkloristics, circular tales are known as "annoying ''[[skazka]]''" ({{lang|ru|Докучная сказка}}), named so because it is supposed to annoy the listeners.<ref>[[Andrei Sinyavsky]], "Иван-дурак. Очерки русской народной веры" [ [[Ivan the Fool]]: An Essay on Russian Folk Faith], Agraf, Moscow, 2001</ref> 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]]'': {{bquote| 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.<ref>[[s:ru:Народные русские сказки (Афанасьев)/Докучные сказки]]</ref> The story gave rise to the Russian [[idiomatic expression ]] [[wikt:ru:сказка про белого бычка|"a tale about the white calf"]] in reference to endless excuses or endless pointless repetitive discourse.<ref>[https://phraseology.academic.ru/11619/Сказка_про_белого_бычка Сказка про белого бычка] In: Фразеологический словарь русского литературного языка. — М.: Астрель, АСТ. А. И. Фёдоров. 2008.</ref><ref>[https://newslab.ru/article/172672 Сказка про белого бычка]</ref>
==Circular plot device== {{expand section|date=December 2025}} <!-- I got bored with browsing thru numerous "write-it-yourself" instructions. Surely there must be serious literary sources, but... --> 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.
==Notable examples ==
*''[[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?]]"
==See also== *[[Cumulative song]] *[[Repetitive song]], a more general type of songs **"[[99 Bottles of Beer]]", a "reverse counting" song *[[Repetition (rhetorical device)]] *''[[Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day]]''
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *Juan Luis Toribio Vazquez, ''Circular Narratives in Modern European Literature''
[[Category:Song forms]] [[Category:Jokes]] [[Category:Russian folklore]]