THE GOLDEN-HAIRED TWINS
by Unknown · from Serbian Fairy Tales
Adapted Version
Once there was a King. He wanted kin. He met three girls. The first girl made a promise. The second girl made a promise. She said, "I will have two babies. They will have gold hair." King liked this promise. He chose this girl. He wanted gold-hair boys.
The King married the girl. She was the Queen. The King went on a long trip. He left the Queen. The bad woman was not kind. She stayed with the Queen.
The Queen had two baby boys. They had golden hair. The bad woman was tricky. She took the babies away. She put two small dogs there. She told the King a big lie. The King felt very sad.
The King believed the lie. He was very sad. He sent the Queen away. She went to a quiet place. The Queen was very sad there. She missed her baby boys.
Nine years went by. The King came home. He walked in the garden. He saw two trees. They had golden leaves. They had golden flowers. The trees grew where babies were taken. The King liked these trees much.
The bad woman was not kind. She pretended to be sick. She saw the golden trees. She did not like them. She told the King, "Cut them down. Make a bed for me."
The King cut the trees. He made a bed. The bad woman slept there. At night, the bed spoke. "We are the babies!" it said. The bad woman heard this. She wanted to burn the bed.
The King burned the bed. Two sparks flew out. They became two small lambs. They had golden wool. The King loved the lambs. They were very special. He kept them safe.
The bad woman was tricky again. She pretended to be sick. She saw the golden lambs. She did not like them. She told King, "Take them away!" King was sad. He put their golden wool in the river.
The golden wool went in the river. It became a small box. Inside were two baby boys. They had golden hair. A Kind Hunter saw the box. He took the boys home. He raised them as his sons.
The boys grew up. They were young men. They wore simple clothes. They went to the King's palace. They wanted to sing a song. The King said, "Yes, you can sing."
The Gold-Hair Boys sang. Their song was special. It told their story. It was about two babies. They had golden hair. The King listened. He loved their good song.
The boys showed their hair. It was long and golden. They told King, "We are your sons." They told him about the bad woman. She was not kind. The King was very surprised.
The King sent the bad woman away. She was not kind. He found the Queen. She was not sad now. King had his kin. They were all close. They were happy always. The end.
Original Story
THE GOLDEN-HAIRED TWINS
Once upon a time, a long, long while ago, there lived a young king who wished very much to marry, but could not decide where he had better look for a wife.
One evening as he was walking disguised through the streets of his capital, as it was his frequent custom to do, he stopped to listen near an open window where he heard three young girls chatting gaily together.
The girls were talking about a report which had been lately spread through the city, that the king intended soon to marry.
One of the girls exclaimed, “If the king would marry me I would give him a son who should be the greatest hero in the world.”
The second girl said, “And if I were to be his wife I would present him with two sons at once. Two twins with golden hair.”
And the third girl declared that were the king to marry her she would give him a daughter so beautiful that there should not be her equal in the whole wide world!
The young king listened to all this, and for some time thought over their words, and tried to make up his mind which of the three girls he should choose for his wife. At last he decided that he would marry the one who had said she would bring him twins with golden hair.
Having once settled this in his own mind, he ordered that all preparations for his marriage should be made forthwith, and shortly after, when all was ready, he married the second girl of the three.
Several months after his marriage, the young king, who was at war with one of the neighbouring princes, received tidings of the defeat of his army, and heard that his presence was immediately required in the camp. He accordingly left his capital and went to his army, leaving the young queen in his palace to the care of his stepmother.
Now the king’s stepmother hated her daughter-in-law very much indeed, so when the golden-haired twins were born, the old queen contrived to steal them out of their cradle, and put in their place two ugly little dogs. She then caused the two beautiful golden-haired boys to be buried alive in an out-of-the-way spot in the palace gardens, and then sent word to the king that the young queen had given him two little dogs instead of the heirs he was hoping for. The wicked stepmother said in her letter to the king that she herself was not surprised at this, though she was very sorry for his disappointment. As to herself, she had a long time suspected the young queen of having too great a friendship for goblins and elves, and all kinds of evil spirits.
When the king received this letter, he fell into a frightful rage, because he had only married the young girl in order to have the golden-haired twins she had promised him as heirs to his throne.
So he sent word back to the old queen that his wife should be put at once into the dampest dungeon in the castle, an order which the wicked woman took good care to see carried out without delay. Accordingly the poor young queen was thrown into a miserably dark dungeon under the palace, and kept on bread and water.
Now there was only a very small hole in this prison—hardly large enough to let in light and air—yet the old queen managed to cause a great many people to pass by this hole, and whoever passed was ordered to spit at and abuse the unhappy young queen, calling out to her, “Are you really the queen? Are you the girl who cheated the king in order to be a queen? Where are your golden-haired twins? You cheated the king and your friends, and now the witches have cheated you!”
But the young king, though terribly angry and mortified at his great disappointment, was, at the same time, too sad and troubled to be willing to return to his palace. So he remained away for fully nine years. When he at last consented to return, the first thing he noticed in the palace gardens were two fine young trees, exactly the same size and the same shape.
These trees had both golden leaves and golden blossoms, and had grown up of themselves from the very spot where the stepmother of the king had buried the two golden-haired boys she had stolen from their cradle. The king admired these two trees exceedingly, and was never weary of looking at them. This, however, did not at all please the old queen, for she knew that the two young princes were buried just where the trees grew, and she always feared that by some means what she had done would come to the king’s ears. She therefore pretended that she was very sick, and declared that she was sure she should die unless her stepson, the king, ordered the two golden-leaved trees to be cut down, and a bed made for her out of their wood.
As the king was not willing to be the cause of her death, he ordered that her wishes should be attended to, although he was exceedingly sorry to lose his favourite trees.
A bed was soon made from the two trees, and the seemingly sick old queen was laid on it as she desired. She was quite delighted that the golden-leaved trees had disappeared from the garden; but when midnight came she could not sleep a bit, for it seemed to her that she heard the boards of which her bed was made in conversation with each other!
At last it seemed to her that one board said, quite plainly, “How are you, my brother?” And the other board answered, “Thank you, I am very well; how are you?” “Oh, I am all right,” returned the first board; “but I wonder how our poor mother is in her dark dungeon! Perhaps she is hungry and thirsty!”
The wicked old queen could not sleep a minute all night, after hearing this conversation between the boards of her new bed; so next morning she got up very early and went to see the king. She thanked him for attending to her wish, and said she already was much better, but she felt quite sure she would never recover thoroughly unless the boards of her new bed were cut up and thrown into a fire. The king was sorry to lose entirely even the boards made out of his two favourite trees, nevertheless he could not refuse to use the means pointed out for his stepmother’s perfect recovery.
So the new bed was cut to pieces and thrown into the fire. But whilst the boards were blazing and crackling, two sparks from the fire flew into the courtyard, and in the next moment two beautiful lambs with golden fleeces and golden horns were seen gambolling about the yard.
The king admired them greatly, and made many inquiries who had sent them there, and to whom they belonged. He even sent the public crier many times through the city, calling on the owners of the golden-fleeced lambs to appear and claim them; but no one came, so at length he thought he might fairly take them as his own property.
The king took very great care of these two beautiful lambs, and every day directed that they should be well fed and attended to; this, however, did not at all please his stepmother. She could not endure even to look on the lambs with their golden fleeces and golden horns, for they always reminded her of the golden-haired twins. So, in a little while she pretended again to be dangerously sick, and declared she felt sure she should soon die unless the two lambs were killed and cooked for her.
The king was even fonder of his golden-fleeced lambs than he had been of the golden-leaved trees, but he could not long resist the tears and prayers of the old queen, especially as she seemed to be very ill. Accordingly, the lambs were killed, and a servant was ordered to carry their golden fleeces down to the river and to wash them well. But whilst the servant held them under the water, they slipped, in some way or another, out of his fingers, and floated down the stream, which just at that place flowed very rapidly. Now it happened that a hunter was passing near the river a little lower down, and, as he chanced to look in the water, he saw something strange in it. So he stepped into the stream, and soon fished out a small box which he carried to his house and there opened it. To his unspeakably great surprise, he found in the box two golden-haired boys. Now the hunter had no children of his own; he therefore adopted the twins he had fished out of the river, and brought them up just as if they had been his own sons. When the twins were grown up into handsome young men, one of them said to his foster-father, “Make us two suits of beggar’s clothes, and let us go and wander a little about the world!” The hunter, however, replied and said, “No, I will have a fine suit made for each of you, such as is fitting for two such noble-looking young men.” But as the twins begged hard that he should not spend his money uselessly in buying fine clothes, telling him that they wished to travel about as beggars, the hunter—who always liked to do as his two handsome foster-sons wished—did as they desired, and ordered two suits of clothes, like those worn by beggars, to be prepared for them. The two sons then dressed themselves up as beggars, and as well as they could hid their beautiful golden locks, and then set out to see the world. They took with them a gusle1 and a cymbal, and maintained themselves with their singing and playing.
They had wandered about in this way some time when one day they came to the king’s palace. As the afternoon was already pretty far advanced, the young musicians begged to be allowed to pass the night in one of the outbuildings belonging to the Court, as they were poor men, and quite strangers in the city. The old queen, however, who happened to be just then in the courtyard saw them, and hearing their request, said sharply that beggars could not be permitted to enter any part of the king’s palace. The two travellers said they had hoped to pay for their night’s lodging by their songs and music, as one of them played and sung to the gusle, and the other to the cymbal.
The old queen, however, was not moved by this, but insisted on their going away at once. Happily for the two brothers the king himself came out into the courtyard just as his stepmother angrily ordered them to go away, and at once directed his servants to find a place for the musicians to sleep in, and ordered them to provide the brothers with a good supper. After they had supped, the king commanded them to be brought before him that he might judge of their skill as musicians, and that their singing might help him to pass the time more pleasantly.
Accordingly, after the two young men had taken the refreshment provided for them, the servants took them into the king’s presence, and they began to sing this ballad:—
“The pretty bird, the swallow, built her nest with care, in the palace of the king. In the nest she reared up happily two of her little ones. A black, ugly-looking bird, however, came to the swallow’s nest to mar her happiness, and to kill her two little ones. And the ugly black bird succeeded in destroying the happiness of the poor little swallow; the little ones, however, although yet weak and unfledged, were saved, and, when they were grown up and able to fly, they came to look at the palace where their mother, the pretty swallow, had built her nest.”
This strange song the two minstrels sang so very sweetly that the king was quite charmed, and asked them the meaning of the words.
Whereupon the two meanly dressed young men took off their hats, so that the rich tresses of their golden hair fell down over their shoulders, and the light glanced so brightly upon it that the whole hall was illuminated by the shining. They then stepped forward together, and told the king all that had happened to them and to their mother, and convinced him that they were really his own sons.
The king was exceedingly angry when he heard all the cruel things his stepmother had done, and he gave orders that she should be burnt to death. He then went with the two golden-haired princes to the miserable dungeon wherein his unfortunate wife had been confined so many years, and brought her once more into her beautiful palace. There, looking on her golden-haired sons, and seeing how much the king, their father, loved them, she soon forgot all her long years of misery. As to the king, he felt that he could never do enough to make amends for all the misfortunes his queen had lived through, and all the dangers to which his twin sons had been exposed. He felt that he had too easily believed the stories of the old queen, because he would not trouble himself to inquire more particularly into the truth or falsehood of the strange things she had told him.
After all this mortification, and trouble, and misery, everything came right at last. So the king and his wife, with their golden-haired twins, lived together long and happily.
Story DNA
Moral
Truth, though often hidden, will eventually come to light, and justice will be served.
Plot Summary
A king marries a girl who promises him golden-haired twins. While he is away at war, his wicked stepmother replaces the newborn twins with dogs, buries them, and has the queen imprisoned. The twins miraculously transform from buried children into golden-leaved trees, then into golden-fleeced lambs, and finally, after being thrown into a river, are reborn as boys and raised by a hunter. Years later, the grown twins, disguised as beggars, come to the king's palace and reveal their true story through a song, exposing the stepmother's treachery. The king punishes his stepmother, frees his queen, and reunites with his long-lost sons, living happily ever after.
Themes
Emotional Arc
suffering to triumph
Writing Style
Narrative Elements
Cultural Context
The motif of a wicked stepmother, false accusations, and miraculous transformations of abandoned children is common in European folklore, often reflecting societal anxieties about succession, family loyalty, and the vulnerability of women.
Plot Beats (14)
- A king, seeking a wife, overhears three girls' promises and chooses the one who promises golden-haired twins.
- The king marries the second girl and goes to war, leaving her in the care of his wicked stepmother.
- When the queen gives birth to golden-haired twins, the stepmother replaces them with puppies, buries the boys, and sends a false letter to the king.
- The king, enraged, orders his wife imprisoned in a dungeon, where she is abused by passersby.
- Nine years later, the king returns and admires two golden-leaved trees that have grown where the twins were buried.
- The wicked stepmother feigns illness and demands the trees be cut down to make her a bed.
- The bed boards speak, revealing their identity as the twins, which the stepmother overhears and demands the bed be burned.
- Two sparks from the burning bed transform into golden-fleeced lambs, which the king cherishes.
- The stepmother again feigns illness, demanding the lambs be killed and cooked; their fleeces are thrown into the river.
- The fleeces transform into a box containing the golden-haired twins, who are rescued by a hunter and raised as his sons.
- As young men, the twins, disguised as beggars, travel to the king's palace and are reluctantly allowed to perform.
- The twins sing a ballad recounting their story, which the king finds enchanting.
- The twins reveal their golden hair and explain their true identity to the king, exposing the stepmother's crimes.
- The king punishes his stepmother, frees his queen from the dungeon, and reunites with his family, living happily ever after.
Characters
The Young King
A man of noble bearing, likely of average height and build, with features that would be considered handsome and regal for his station. His appearance is not explicitly detailed but implied to be commanding.
Attire: When disguised, simple, unassuming clothes of a commoner, perhaps a dark wool cloak and plain tunic. As king, rich, tailored garments of fine wool or silk, possibly with embroidered details, a crown or circlet for formal occasions, and a sword at his hip.
Wants: To secure an heir, specifically golden-haired twins, to ensure the continuation of his royal line. Later, to make amends for his past mistakes and ensure his family's happiness.
Flaw: Gullibility and a lack of critical inquiry; he too easily believes his stepmother's lies without investigating.
Starts as an impulsive and somewhat naive ruler, easily manipulated. He endures nine years of absence and regret, eventually learning to question and seek truth, becoming a more just and loving husband and father.
Impulsive (marries based on a promise), easily swayed (by his stepmother's lies), regretful, loving (towards his children and eventually his wife), just (once he knows the truth).
The Young Queen
A young woman of gentle appearance, likely slender and graceful, with features that would have been considered beautiful enough to attract a king. Her suffering in the dungeon would have left her pale and thin.
Attire: Initially, simple but neat clothing of a commoner, perhaps a linen dress. As queen, elegant gowns of fine fabric like silk or brocade, in soft colors, befitting a young queen. During imprisonment, rags.
Wants: To fulfill her promise to the king and bear him heirs, and later, to survive her unjust imprisonment.
Flaw: Vulnerability to the machinations of others, particularly her stepmother-in-law.
Transforms from a hopeful young woman into a victim of cruel injustice, enduring years of suffering. She ultimately finds redemption and happiness, her resilience rewarded.
Hopeful, resilient, enduring, loving (towards her children), patient.
The Old Queen (Stepmother)
An older woman, likely with a gaunt or sharp appearance, reflecting her cruel nature. Her features would be severe and unwelcoming.
Attire: Dark, heavy gowns of rich but somber fabrics like dark velvet or brocade, perhaps with high collars and long sleeves. She might wear a severe head covering or a simple, unadorned crown, emphasizing her authority and lack of warmth.
Wants: Hatred and jealousy of her daughter-in-law, and a desire to maintain power or influence over the king.
Flaw: Her overwhelming malice and fear of exposure, which drives her to increasingly desperate and obvious acts.
Remains consistently evil throughout the story, escalating her cruelties until her ultimate downfall and death.
Wicked, jealous, manipulative, cruel, deceitful, persistent in her malice.
The Golden-Haired Twins
Two identical young men, exceptionally handsome, with striking golden hair that is their most distinguishing feature. They would be of strong, healthy build from their upbringing with the hunter.
Attire: Initially, two suits of coarse, patched beggar's clothes, designed to conceal their noble appearance. Later, implied to be dressed in fine attire befitting princes. They carry a gusle and a cymbal.
Wants: To discover their origins and the truth about their past, and to find their mother.
Flaw: Their initial vulnerability as infants, and their need to conceal their true identities.
From innocent victims to resourceful young men who uncover the truth of their birth and restore their family.
Resourceful, observant, artistic (musicians), determined, loving (towards their mother), intelligent.
The Hunter
A sturdy, capable man, likely with a weathered face from spending time outdoors. His build would be strong and practical.
Attire: Practical, durable clothing suitable for a hunter: sturdy leather tunic or jerkin, rough wool trousers, and strong boots. He might carry a hunting knife or a bow.
Wants: To live a simple life, and later, to raise the boys he found as his own sons.
Flaw: None explicitly shown, but perhaps a trusting nature.
Remains a steadfast and loving foster father, providing a stable home for the twins until they embark on their quest.
Kind, compassionate, generous, honest, practical, loving (as a foster father).
Locations
King's Capital City Street
A bustling street in the king's capital city, with an open window from which the sounds of conversation emanate.
Mood: Lively, curious, fateful.
The king, disguised, overhears the three girls' declarations, leading to his choice of a queen.
Royal Palace Gardens
Extensive palace gardens, initially a place of beauty, later becoming the burial spot for the twins, from which two golden-leaved, golden-blossomed trees grow.
Mood: Initially serene, then ominous, later wondrous and mysterious.
The twins are buried here, and later, the magical golden trees grow from their burial spot, catching the king's attention.
Palace Dungeon
A miserably dark and damp dungeon located under the palace, with only a very small hole for light and air. It is a place of torment and isolation.
Mood: Desolate, oppressive, miserable, dark.
The innocent queen is imprisoned here for nine years, enduring abuse and hardship.
River Bank
A rapidly flowing river where the golden fleeces are washed, and where a hunter later discovers the golden-haired twins in a box.
Mood: Dynamic, fateful, a place of unexpected discovery.
The golden fleeces are lost here, leading to the miraculous discovery of the twins by a hunter.
King's Palace Throne Room
The grand hall of the king's palace, where the king holds court and where the twins reveal their identity through song and the illumination of their golden hair.
Mood: Formal, expectant, then dramatically illuminated and revelatory.
The twins perform for the king, reveal their true identity, and expose the stepmother's treachery.