The Sheep is a character, created by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a.k.a.

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

. It appeared in Dodgson's 1871 book, ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...

'', the sequel to his 1865 book ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

.''

Storyline

The Sheep is first mentioned in the fifth chapter of ''

'', "Wool and Water". The White Queen is talking to

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

, when she suddenly starts "baa-ing" and then seems to 'wrap herself in wool'. Alice figures out she is in a shop, and that The White Queen has turned into a sheep. The Sheep sits in her chair knitting as Alice looks around the shop. She gives Alice a pair of her knitting needles, and asks her if she can row. As Alice begins to answer, she realizes that they are in a little boat, and that the needles have turned into oars. As they glide along the water, the Sheep repeatedly shouts out "Feather", which means to lift the oar blades out of the water, turn them to a horizontal plane and swing them toward the bow so they don't get 'caught' in the water. The sheep then tells Alice that they will be catching 'crabs' (which is rowing terminology for getting one's blades stuck in the water if one fails to feather properly). Alice's attention is then put onto some scented rushes growing in the water. She tries picking them, but they are only 'dream rushes' and melt away. She then "catches a crab" and they are all suddenly in the shop again. Alice buys an egg from the Sheep (that ends up turning into

Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle, and is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from ...

) and the two part ways.

References

* Fictional sheep Fictional shopkeepers Anthropomorphic sheep Female characters in literature Lewis Carroll characters Literary characters introduced in 1871 {{child-lit-char-stub