I don’t recall ever having a student who was familiar with The Twelve Brothers by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm before I passed out copies of it. In fact, I was not familiar with it myself until I became a teacher and started designing my first unit on fairy tales. I was looking for something a little different than the usual line-up, and The Twelve Brothers was perfect.

It has just the right amount of hardship and heartache to warrant its happily ever after ending. Not only that, its bizarre storyline provides tremendous insight into the mindset and realities of the Middle Ages.

PLOT ANALYSIS

Exposition – The Background

There once lived a king and queen who had twelve sons. It happened that the queen was expecting, and her husband said, “If the thirteenth child which thou art about to bring into the world is a girl, the twelve boys shall die, in order that her possessions may be great, and that the kingdom may fall to her alone.”

Inciting Incident – The Problem

The queen was so sad upon hearing this order that her youngest son, Benjamin, would give her no peace until she explained the reason for her sadness. So hearing, he came up with a plan to hide with his brothers in the woods until the baby was born. If the child was a boy, they would return to the palace. If a girl, they would leave forever.

To the boys’ disappointment, the baby was a girl. So they ventured deeper and deeper into the woods until they came upon an enchanted cottage, which they made their home.

Rising Action – The Build-up

After the passing of ten years, the girl, who was beautiful and good and had a star on her forehead, learned she had brothers who nearly died for her sake and set off to find them. She chanced upon their very cottage and found Benjamin home alone for his brothers were out hunting, and it was his job to keep the house.

The two were happily reunited, but he feared his brothers would not share his joy. As it turned out, they had vowed to kill all maidens since they had suffered on the account of a maiden. Benjamin then used the lure of gossip to persuade his brothers not to kill the next maiden they met. Having obtained their word, he brought his sister out of hiding. Just like that, the old vendetta vanished, and the siblings were happily united.

Climax – The Breaking Point

One night soon thereafter, however, the sister picked twelve flowers from the garden of their enchanted cottage, and her brothers were all transformed into crows. By some unexplained sorcery, the brothers’ lives were contained in the flowers, and the only way for them to become men again was for their sister to stop talking for the next seven years.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

The sister immediately made a vow of silence. Alone as she was, it might not have been that hard to fulfill, but she soon found herself sought after by a king who wanted to marry her. Nevertheless, she stayed true to her vow during their courtship and marriage, even in the face of slanderous talk from her evil stepmother-in-law that ultimately condemned her to death by fire.

Resolution – Happily Ever After

Just as the first flame from the fiery stake was about to burn the sister, the term of her seven years of silence expired, and twelve crows flew down to stomp out the fire. Instantly, they turned into her brothers. The siblings were reunited; the king took his wife back; and the evil stepmother-in-law was killed. In short, everyone (but the stepmother-in-law) lived happily ever after.

MOTIFS

Primogeniture

In order to understand the bizarre twists in this fairy tale, we have to read it as a critique of primogeniture, which refers to the passing of wealth, land, and titles onto the oldest male heir. That was common practice in the Middle Ages. A king, for example, needed a son to bequeath his realm to. Only in the rarest of circumstances would a daughter receive the crown. In such cases, the daughter would really give the power of rule over to her husband.

(Queen Elizabeth is one such example. She refused to marry because she knew it would strip her of power. Not only that, her dad, King Henry VIII, married and divorced SIX times in large part to get a son.)

Against this backdrop, the king in The Twelve Brothers is rather odd. Though he has sons in spades, he not only wants a daughter but prefers to give her everything. He is even going to kill his sons to make sure they have no chance of claiming their lawful inheritance. Hence, the story turns primogeniture on its head to show how unfair it is. Primogeniture figuratively “killed” daughters in the same way that the king plans to kill his sons.

Once my students realize this, they stop thinking the story bizarre and realize that it’s really quite progressive. Children should be treated equally, whether male or female, youngest or oldest.

Girl Power

What’s more, the story celebrates “girl power” and even suggests that women would be great rulers. Beginning with her birth and ending with her vow of silence, the sister holds the power of life and death over her brothers. Yet, she does not wield that power for her own benefit. Rather, she does so sacrificially.

She gives up her inheritance in order to take care of her brothers and later gives up her voice and everything that went with it in order to turn her brothers back into men.

Her “power,” therefore, is not simply something she inherited. Indeed, she gave that kind of worldly power up. Instead, she has true power, that which is born out of sacrificial love. We see this represented by the star on her forehead. It is not just a birthmark; it is an outward sign of the inner grace that “crowns” her very self.

CONCLUSION

That kind of crown is the birthright of everyone, and whether we wear it or not is always within our power. Therein lies the full message of The Twelve Brothers. We may not always get what we deserve in life, but we should always live as the kings and queens God made us to be. Put differently, life is not about getting; it is about giving.

Like so many fairy tales, the message of The Twelve Brothers transcends time and place, offering lessons well beyond the literal storyline. It reminds us that we are all born to greatness.