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.
An example, called "Circular Tale", from The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales goes as follows:
In Russian folkloristics, circular tales are known as "annoying skazka" (), named so because it is supposed to annoy the listeners. The best known ones are the song "ã ÿþÿð ñÃÂûð ÃÂþñðúð" ("A Priest Had a Dog") and "áúð÷úð ÿÃÂþ ñõûþóþ ñÃÂÃÂúð" ("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:
This continues until one of the two gets bored. The story gave rise to the Russian idiomatic expression in reference to endless excuses or endless pointless repetitive discourse.
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.