The Twelve Brothers

THE TWELVE BROTHERS

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.