Brother and Sister
Brother and Sister or Little Brother and Little Sister is a fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers which is sometimes confused with way more popular Hansel and Gretel. While both plots share some similarities, it's a completely different story.
It starts with a man who had lost his wife and stayed alone with two children: a boy and a girl.
He remarries with a widow who already has a daughter from before.
The new wife immediately starts to intimidate her stepson and stepdaughter.
They decide to run away.
They run into the woods but their stepmother who is also skilled in magic, courses the brooks in the woods. When the kids become thirsty they want to drink.
When the boy is already kneeling to drink from the spring his sister hears a voice that everybody who drinks this water turns into a lion. She stops her brother.
Then they find another spring. The boy wants to drink but the girl is warned again. This time the distant voice tells her that everybody who drinks from here turns into a wolf. The girl stops the boy again.
The third brook is cursed too and she is warned for one more time. Everybody who drinks from this spring will turn into a deer. Her brother can't wait anymore and he transforms into a deer.
A bit later they find an empty cottage and start living there. They get accustomed to the wilderness. For some time they were fine. The girl puts her gold necklace around her brother's neck and takes care of the household. He spends most of the time running around the woods.
Then a king comes by. He notices a strange deer with a gold chain around the neck.
The king is curious and pursues the animal until he finds the cottage and the girl.
He falls in love and she likes him as well. They decide to move to the king's castle and take the deer with them.
The king marries the girl and they have a child. Their happiness is noticed by the wicked stepmother who sneaks into the castle and kills the young queen. With her magic she changes the look of her own daughter who replaces the dead queen.
The dead queen returns one night to breastfeed her baby and pet the deer. She comes every night but never speaks. Then, one night, she says that she will come back for just two more times.
The nurse hears that and informs the king about the night visits.
He waits for the ghost for the next night and sees the woman looking exactly like his wife. He doesn't dare to speak with her.
The next night, when she visits for the last time, he shows himself and says that she must be his wife.
She tells him that he is right. At the very same moment, she becomes alive again.
When the king finds out about the crimes of the wicked stepmother and her daughter, they are both punished. The stepmother is burned at the stake, and when she dies, her curse is destroyed as well. Queen's brother who spent so many years as a deer turns into a young man.
Everybody lives happily from then on.
This fairy tale is loaded with themes known from other fairy tales. Let's list some of them:
- mother dies and a widower who stays with a child or children remarries (Cinderella, Snow White),
- stepmother already has a child or children from before (Cinderella, Mother Hulda),
- right after the marriage, the father falls out of the picture (Cinderella, Snow White),
- stepmother is also a witch (Snow White),
- at least one of the main characters can't resist the temptation (Bluebeard, Red Riding Hood),
- at least one of the main characters turns into an animal (Six Swans, Seven Ravens),
- a victim gets a powerful protector (Frog King, Goose Girl),
- the opponent persists in destroying the main character even if this character starts living in a new place (Snow White),
- a spouse is replaced with a false one (Maid Maleen),
- a victim returns from death (Red Cap, Briar Rose),
- a stepmother is cruelly punished (Juniper Tree, Snow White).
To explore more about the popular fairy tale themes with numerous examples, visit: https://themesoffairytales.exblog.jp/