<P> Henny Penny, more commonly known in the United States as Chicken Little and sometimes as Chicken Licken, is a folk tale with a moral in the form of a cumulative tale about a chicken who believes the world is coming to an end . The phrase "The sky is falling!" features prominently in the story, and has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent . Versions of the story go back more than 25 centuries; it continues to be referred to in a variety of media . </P> <P> The story is listed as Aarne - Thompson - Uther type 20C, which includes international examples of folktales that make light of paranoia and mass hysteria . There are several Western versions of the story, of which the best - known concerns a chick that believes the sky is falling when an acorn falls on its head . The chick decides to tell the King and on its journey meets other animals (mostly other fowl) which join it in the quest . After this point, there are many endings . In the most familiar, a fox invites them to its lair and then eats them all . Alternatively, the last one, usually Cocky Lockey, survives long enough to warn the chick, who escapes . In others all are rescued and finally speak to the King . </P>

Where does the phrase the sky is falling come from