Brüderchen und Schwesterchen

***Little Brother and Little Sister*** is a German folktale collected by brothers Grimm from Marie Hassenpflug, first published in the first volumen of *Children and Household's Tales*' first edition in 1812.

## Synopsis

After ranting to his sister about how unhappy they are since their father remarried because of how badly their stepmother treats them, a boy and his sister run away from home. They walk around the whole day, and when it starts to rain the sister comments that It seems like even the sky is crying for them. After spending the night inside a hollow tree the next day the weather is so hot that the brother is thirsty, and they start to look for a spring. But the siblings’ stepmother, who’s also a witch, has already found out her stepchildren ran away and has bewitched all the springs in the forest. That way, when the siblings find the first spring before the brother drinks the water the sister hears a voice saying that if her brother drinks that water he will turn into a tigger. Fearing the outcome the girl begs her brother not to drink, and they continue looking for another spring. The second they find is also enchanted, and the sister hears that whoever drinks from it we’ll turn into a wolf. As a result the brother doesn’t drink from that spring either, but warns her daughter that he’s so thirsty he will drink from the next spring they find, no matter what. When they find the third spring, the brother doesn’t listen to his sister asking him not to drink because she can hear that whoever drinks from that one will be turned into a roebuck, and as a result the brother is turned into a roebuck. After crying about what happened the sister decides she will look out after her brother, and after a whole day wandering around the woods they find an abandoned house where they decide to live.

The sister and her bewitched brother live alone in the forest for a period of time until one day the king of that land goes hunting to the same forest the siblings live, and when the roebuck hears the sounds the horns and the dogs make he gets excited and ask his sister to let him go and join the hunt. The sister agrees, under the condition he would be back for the evening and knock at the door when he comes back, because she will lock the door. The roebuck spends the whole day enjoying being followed by the huntsmen without getting hurt, and by the evening he returns home and knocks out the door so his sister will open it. The next day the king returns to the forest to hunt, and the roebuck again goes out to join in after asking permission to his sister. But that day one of the huntsmen manages to hurt the roebuck on his feet, and when the sister finds out the next day when the roebuck wants to go out again and join the hunt she refuses to let him go because she’s afraid this time the huntsmen will kill him, although she finally gives in and lets the roebuck go. What neither the roebuck nor his sister know is that the day before one of the king’s huntsmen followed the roebuck to the house, saw the roebuck knocking at the door and the sister letting him in, and told everything he saw to the king, who decides to return to the forest the next day to discover who’s the girl. So, while the roebuck is followed by the huntsmen, who are ordered to follow him but not hurt him at all cost, the king is lead to the house by the same huntsman that followed the roebuck the previous day and knocks at the door saying the same words the huntsman heard the roebuck say. Because of that the girl opens the door thinking her brother is the one knocking, and is surprised when she sees the king instead, who asks her to come with him to his castle and marry him. The girl accepts under the condition the roebuck can come with her, and the king doesn’t have any issue with it.

The king takes the girl to his castle and marries her, while the roebuck is taken care of by the servants. Although the siblings are happy living in the palace, soon their stepmother finds out about their whereabouts, and wanting to sabotage their happiness, she plots a new scheme. Soon after the young queen gives birth to a baby while her husband is out hunting, and seizing the opportunity the stepmother, taking the form of the queen’s chambermaid, takes her to a room where a fire is light and locks her stepdaughter there, so she would die suffocated. Then the stepmother’s biological daughter takes the queen’s place in the bed. When the king finally comes back and hears the news about the baby his wife just had, he runs to see whom he believes is his wife laying on the bed, but before he opens the bed curtains the stepmother begs him not to do it, saying his wife is still too weak after giving birth and no one should bother her. That same night while everyone’s sleeping, at midnight the true queen enters the room where her son and her brother are and takes care of both of them, leaving before the sunrise. The next morning the nurse, who was in the room and saw everything, asks the watchmen if they saw anyone come in and out the castle last night, but none of them had. Since that night the nurse sees the true queen come every night and takes care of her son and her brother without saying a single word, until one night when before leaving she says that she will only come back two more times, and then they won’t see her again. The next morning the nurse finally tells the king about it, and that night he keeps watching with her. That way the king sees his true wife, who before leaving she tells her brother and son that she will only come back one last time, and then they won’t see her again. The next night, when the true queen comes back, before she leaves she says that she won’t come back ever again, and this time the king comes out from his hiding place and recognizes her as his wife. After that the queen doesn’t have to leave, and she tells her husband about her stepmother and stepsister’s crimes. As punishment the stepsister is left to her own demise in the forest, where the wild beasts tear her to shreds, and the stepmother is burned at the stake. And the moment she burns to ashes her stepson finally recovers his human form.