THE TWELVE BROTHERS

Edition and rights: Original English text from Project Gutenberg ebook #540, marked public domain in the USA. The literary text below is reproduced without AI rewriting.

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There were once upon a time a King and a Queen who lived happily together, and
they had twelve children, all of whom were boys. One day the King said to his
wife:

‘If our thirteenth child is a girl, all her twelve brothers must die, so
that she may be very rich and the kingdom hers alone.’

Then he ordered twelve coffins to be made, and filled them with shavings, and
placed a little pillow in each. These he put away in an empty room, and, giving
the key to his wife, he bade her tell no one of it.

The Queen grieved over the sad fate of her sons and refused to be comforted, so
much so that the youngest boy, who was always with her, and whom she had
christened Benjamin, said to her one day:

‘Dear mother, why are you so sad?’

‘My child,’ she answered, ‘I may not tell you the
reason.’

But he left her no peace, till she went and unlocked the room and showed him
the twelve coffins filled with shavings, and with the little pillow laid in
each.

Then she said: ‘My dearest Benjamin, your father has had these coffins
made for you and your eleven brothers, because if I bring a girl into the world
you are all to be killed and buried in them.’

She wept bitterly as she spoke, but her son comforted her and said:

‘Don’t cry, dear mother; we’ll manage to escape somehow, and
will fly for our lives.’

‘Yes,’ replied his mother, ‘that is what you must do—go
with your eleven brothers out into the wood, and let one of you always sit on
the highest tree you can find, keeping watch on the tower of the castle. If I
give birth to a little son I will wave a white flag, and then you may safely
return; but if I give birth to a little daughter I will wave a red flag, which
will warn you to fly away as quickly as you can, and may the kind Heaven have
pity on you. Every night I will get up and pray for you, in winter that you may
always have a fire to warm yourselves by, and in summer that you may not
languish in the heat.’

Then she blessed her sons and they set out into the wood. They found a very
high oak tree, and there they sat, turn about, keeping their eyes always fixed
on the castle tower. On the twelfth day, when the turn came to Benjamin, he
noticed a flag waving in the air, but alas! it was not white, but blood red,
the sign which told them they must all die. When the brothers heard this they
were very angry, and said:

‘Shall we forsooth suffer death for the sake of a wretched girl? Let us
swear vengeance, and vow that wherever and whenever we shall meet one of her
sex, she shall die at our hands.’

Then they went their way deeper into the wood, and in the middle of it, where
it was thickest and darkest, they came upon a little enchanted house which
stood empty.

‘Here,’ they said, ‘let us take up our abode, and you,
Benjamin, you are the youngest and weakest, you shall stay at home and keep
house for us; we others will go out and fetch food.’ So they went forth
into the wood, and shot hares and roe-deer, birds and wood-pigeons, and any
other game they came across. They always brought their spoils home to Benjamin,
who soon learnt to make them into dainty dishes. So they lived for ten years in
this little house, and the time slipped merrily away.

In the meantime their little sister at home was growing up quickly. She was
kind-hearted and of a fair countenance, and she had a gold star right in the
middle of her forehead. One day a big washing was going on at the palace, and
the girl looking down from her window saw twelve men’s shirts hanging up
to dry, and asked her mother:

‘Who in the world do these shirts belong to? Surely they are far too
small for my father?’

And the Queen answered sadly: ‘Dear child, they belong to your twelve
brothers.’

‘But where are my twelve brothers?’ said the girl. ‘I have
never even heard of them.’

‘Heaven alone knows in what part of the wide world they are
wandering,’ replied her mother.

Then she took the girl and opened the locked-up room; she showed her the twelve
coffins filled with shavings, and with the little pillow laid in each.

‘These coffins,’ she said, ‘were intended for your brothers,
but they stole secretly away before you were born.’

Then she proceeded to tell her all that had happened, and when she had finished
her daughter said:

‘Do not cry, dearest mother; I will go and seek my brothers till I find
them.’

So she took the twelve shirts and went on straight into the middle of the big
wood. She walked all day long, and came in the evening to the little enchanted
house. She stepped in and found a youth who, marvelling at her beauty, at the
royal robes she wore, and at the golden star on her forehead, asked her where
she came from and whither she was going.

‘I am a Princess,’ she answered, ‘and am seeking for my
twelve brothers. I mean to wander as far as the blue sky stretches over the
earth till I find them.’

Then she showed him the twelve shirts which she had taken with her, and
Benjamin saw that it must be his sister, and said:

‘I am Benjamin, your youngest brother.’

So they wept for joy, and kissed and hugged each other again and again. After a
time Benjamin said:

‘Dear sister, there is still a little difficulty, for we had all agreed
that any girl we met should die at our hands, because it was for the sake of a
girl that we had to leave our kingdom.’

‘But,’ she replied, ‘I will gladly die if by that means I can
restore my twelve brothers to their own.’

‘No,’ he answered, ‘there is no need for that; only go and
hide under that tub till our eleven brothers come in, and I’ll soon make
matters right with them.’

She did as she was bid, and soon the others came home from the chase and sat
down to supper.

‘Well, Benjamin, what’s the news?’ they asked. But he
replied, ‘I like that; have you nothing to tell me?’

‘No,’ they answered.

Then he said: ‘Well, now, you’ve been out in the wood all the day
and I’ve stayed quietly at home, and all the same I know more than you
do.’

‘Then tell us,’ they cried.

But he answered: ‘Only on condition that you promise faithfully that the
first girl we meet shall not be killed.’

‘She shall be spared,’ they promised, ‘only tell us the
news.’

Then Benjamin said: ‘Our sister is here!’ and he lifted up the tub
and the Princess stepped forward, with her royal robes and with the golden star
on her forehead, looking so lovely and sweet and charming that they all fell in
love with her on the spot.

They arranged that she should stay at home with Benjamin and help him in the
house work, while the rest of the brothers went out into the wood and shot
hares and roe-deer, birds and wood-pigeons. And Benjamin and his sister cooked
their meals for them. She gathered herbs to cook the vegetables in, fetched the
wood, and watched the pots on the fire, and always when her eleven brothers
returned she had their supper ready for them. Besides this, she kept the house
in order, tidied all the rooms, and made herself so generally useful that her
brothers were delighted, and they all lived happily together.

One day the two at home prepared a fine feast, and when they were all assembled
they sat down and ate and drank and made merry.

Now there was a little garden round the enchanted house, in which grew twelve
tall lilies. The girl, wishing to please her brothers, plucked the twelve
flowers, meaning to present one to each of them as they sat at supper. But
hardly had she plucked the flowers when her brothers were turned into twelve
ravens, who flew croaking over the wood, and the house and garden vanished
also.

So the poor girl found herself left all alone in the wood, and as she looked
round her she noticed an old woman standing close beside her, who said:

‘My child, what have you done? Why didn’t you leave the flowers
alone? They were your twelve brothers. Now they are changed for ever into
ravens.’

The girl asked, sobbing: ‘Is there no means of setting them free?’

‘No,’ said the old woman, ‘there is only one way in the whole
world, and that is so difficult that you won’t free them by it, for you
would have to be dumb and not laugh for seven years, and if you spoke a single
word, though but an hour were wanting to the time, your silence would all have
been in vain, and that one word would slay your brothers.’

Then the girl said to herself: ‘If that is all I am quite sure I can free
my brothers.’ So she searched for a high tree, and when she had found one
she climbed up it and spun all day long, never laughing or speaking one word.

Now it happened one day that a King who was hunting in the wood had a large
greyhound, who ran sniffing to the tree on which the girl sat, and jumped round
it, yelping and barking furiously. The King’s attention was attracted,
and when he looked up and beheld the beautiful Princess with the golden star on
her forehead, he was so enchanted by her beauty that he asked her on the spot
to be his wife. She gave no answer, but nodded slightly with her head. Then he
climbed up the tree himself, lifted her down, put her on his horse and bore her
home to his palace.

The marriage was celebrated with much pomp and ceremony, but the bride neither
spoke nor laughed.

When they had lived a few years happily together, the King’s mother, who
was a wicked old woman, began to slander the young Queen, and said to the King:

‘She is only a low-born beggar maid that you have married; who knows what
mischief she is up to? If she is deaf and can’t speak, she might at least
laugh; depend upon it, those who don’t laugh have a bad
conscience.’ At first the King paid no heed to her words, but the old
woman harped so long on the subject, and accused the young Queen of so many bad
things, that at last he let himself be talked over, and condemned his beautiful
wife to death.

So a great fire was lit in the courtyard of the palace, where she was to be
burnt, and the King watched the proceedings from an upper window, crying
bitterly the while, for he still loved his wife dearly. But just as she had
been bound to the stake, and the flames were licking her garments with their
red tongues, the very last moment of the seven years had come. Then a sudden
rushing sound was heard in the air, and twelve ravens were seen flying
overhead. They swooped downwards, and as soon as they touched the ground they
turned into her twelve brothers, and she knew that she had freed them.

They quenched the flames and put out the fire, and, unbinding their dear sister
from the stake, they kissed and hugged her again and again. And now that she
was able to open her mouth and speak, she told the King why she had been dumb
and not able to laugh.

The King rejoiced greatly when he heard she was innocent, and they all lived
happily ever afterwards.[22]

[22]
Grimm.