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Brother and Sister is a well known European fairy tale which was, among others, written down by the Brothers Grimm in their collection of Children's and Household Tales. It is alternatively known as Little Sister and Little Brother or (in the Grimm's version) Brüderchen und Schwesterchen.
Plot synopsis
Tired of the cruel mistreatement they endured from their stepmother, a brother and sister ran away from home one day. The two children wandered off into the countryside and spent the night in the woods. When the next morning came, the brother was thirsty and the pair went on the lookout for a spring of clear water. The evil stepmother however, had already caught on with their escape and, a powerful witch as she was, bewitched all the springs in the forest. The brother was about to drink from one, when his sister heard how its rushing sound said, "Whoever drinks from me will become a tiger."
Desperately, the sister begged her brother not to drink from the well, lest he transform into a wild animal and tear her to pieces. So they went back on their way, but when they came to the second spring the sister heard it say as well, "Whoever drinks from me will become a wolf."
Again, the sister desperately tried to prevent her brother from drinking. Reluctantly, he eventually agreed to his sister's pleas but insisted he would drink at the next spring they encountered. And so they arrived at the third spring, and his sister overheard the rushing water cry, "Whoever drinks from me will become a deer." But it was too late, because the brother had already drunk from the water, and changed into a deer.
As the initial feeling of despair cleared up, the pair decided to stay and live in the woods forever. The sister would take care of her brother, and tied her gold chain around his neck. They went to live in a little house deep within the woods and lived there happily for some years, until they were disturbed one day by a hunting party, and the king himself followed the strange deer home. Upon seeing the beautiful sister, he immediately asked her to marry him, a proposal she accepted. Thus the sister became queen and they all went to live happily in the king's castle.
Her stepmother however soon discovered that the pair were still alive and plotted against them. One night she killed the queen and substituted her for her own ugly daughter, who she had transformed to resemble her. When the queen's ghost secretly visited the bed-side of her infant son for three consecutive nights however, the king caught on and the stepmother's evil plan was exposed. The queen came back to life and the witches were tried for their crimes.
The daughter was banished into the woods and torn to pieces by animals. The stepmother was burned at the stake. At the exact moment of her death, the brother became human again and at long last, the family was reunited. They all lived happily ever after.
Origins
The first recorded appearance of Brother and Sister is in Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone around the 17th century. It was written down as the tale of Ninnillo and Nennella. Since then it has circulated in a number of European countries under varying titles but with most of the main story intact. In Russia the story was more commonly known as Sister Alionushka, Brother Ivanushka and popularized by Alexander Afanasyev.
At times, Brother and Sister has been confused with Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel has been known as Little Brother and Little Sister which is also an alternate title for this tale. The Grimms selected Hansel and Gretel for the tale by that name and kept the Brother and Sister title for this tale. Some publications of the Hansel and Gretel tale still use the Little Brother and Little Sister title, causing confusion for readers.
The story as the Grimm's told it was first published in the original 1812 edition of their Children's and Household Tales, and subsequently featured in all later editions, with several additions in 1819.
Analysis
In the Aarne and Thompson classification system of fairy tales, Brother and Sister is categorized as its own type as number 480, the brother and sister.
Modern psycho-analysis interprets the relation between brother and sister in this story as a metaphor for the animalistic and spiritual duality in humans. The brother represents the instinctive and the sister the rational side. As Brother and Sister opens, the two children are still in their youth and clearly in conflict over each others choices. The brother cannot control his impulse to drink from the wellspring and is subsequently "punished" by being turned into a deer. Note then the symbolical gesture with which the girl ties her gold chain around her brother's neck, as if to suggest the taming of the animalistic side. Following is a period of relative happiness in which the two sides live in harmony with each other. In this context, Brother and Sister could be viewed as a veiled coming of age tale. It's interesting to observe then that in this story the animalistic side is associated with the male and the spiritual/rational side with the female.
To the Grimms however, the story was probably important for its messages about family fidelity through adversity and separation.
See also
External links
- Brother and Sister at SurLaLune Fairy Tales - Annotated version of the fairy tale.
"Brother and Sister"