"Brother and Sister" (also "Little Sister and Little Brother"; ) is a European fairy tale which was, among others, written down by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 11). It is a tale of Aarne–Thompson Type 450. In Russia the story was more commonly known as "Sister Alionushka, Brother Ivanushka", and collected by Alexander Afanasyev in his Narodnye russkie skazki.
Origin 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 collected by Alexander Afanasyev in his Narodnye russkie skazki."Сестрица Алёнушка, братец Иванушка". In: Афанасьев, Александр. "Народные русские сказки". Tom 2. Tales nr. 260—263.
A shorter version of the tale was published by the Brothers Grimm in the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812, then substantially expanded and revised in the second edition (1819). Their version is based on the account of the German storyteller Marie Hassenpflug (1788–1856).
At times, Brother and Sister has been confused with Hansel and Gretel, which has also been known under the alternate title of Little Brother and Little Sister. 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 Polish folklorist Julian Krzyżanowski suggested that a 1558 Latin language booklet by a Polish author and poet, , contains a literary treatment of the tale type: a pair of siblings escapes from home; the boy drinks from "dangerous waters" cursed by a witch and becomes a lamb; his sister marries a king, but a creature named Invidia shoves her into the sea and replaces her; the sister becomes a fish.
Synopsis Tired of the cruel mistreatment they endure from their stepmother, who is an evil witch, a brother and sister run away from home, wander off into the countryside, and spend the night in the woods. By morning, the boy is thirsty, so the children go looking for a spring of clear water. However, their stepmother has already discovered their escape and has bewitched all the springs in the forest. The boy is about to drink from one, when his sister hears how its rushing sound says, "whoever drinks from me will become a tiger" (or lion).
Desperately, the girl begs her brother not to drink from the spring, lest he transform into a tiger and attack her. So they continue on their way, but when they come to the second spring, the girl hears it say, "whoever drinks from me will become a wolf". Again, she desperately tries to prevent her brother from drinking from it. Reluctantly, he eventually agrees to her pleas but insists he drink from the next spring they encounter. And so they arrive at the third spring, and the girl overhears the rushing water cry, "whoever drinks from me will become a deer". But before she could stop her brother, he has already drunk from it, and turned into a deer.
As the initial feeling of despair passes, the children decide to live in the woods forever. The girl takes care of her brother, and ties her gold chain around his neck. They go to live in a little house deep within the woods and live there happily for some years, until they are disturbed one day by a hunting party and the king himself who has followed the strange deer home. Upon seeing the beautiful girl, he immediately asks her to marry him and she accepts. Thus she becomes queen and they all live happily in the king's castle. Time passes and the queen gives birth to a son.
The witch, however, soon discovers that they are still alive, and plots against them. One night, she kills the queen and replaces her with her own disfigured daughter, whom she has transformed into a physical copy of her. When the queen's ghost secretly visits her baby's bedside for three consecutive nights, the king catches on and her stepmother's evil plan is exposed.
The queen comes back to life when the king embraces her, and her stepfamily is tried for their crimes. The witch's daughter is banished into the woods where she is eaten by wild animals, and the wicked stepmother herself is burned at the stake. At the exact moment of the witch's death, the deer becomes human again, and at long last the family is reunited, and they lived happily ever after.
Analysis Tale type "Brother and Sister" is similar to other AT-450 tales, such as "The Lambkin and the Little Fish". In some versions the queen is not killed but merely put in a trance by the wicked stepmother until she is awakened by the king.Lily Owens, ed. (1981). The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales. pp. 43–48. Avenel Books. In West-Slavic variants, the reason the siblings escape from home is to thwart a cannibalistic attempt by their parents.Dégh, Linda (1996). Hungarian Folktales: The Art of Zsuzsanna Palkó. New York and London: Garland Publishing. p. 93. .
Relation to other tale types The tale has been noted to contain similarities, among others, to tale types AaTh 403, "The Black and the White Bride"; AaTh 451, "The Seven Ravens"; AaTh 706, "Salvatica"; and AaTh 710, "Our Lady's Child". Hungarian-American folklorist Linda Dégh and Stith Thompson also remarked on the closeness between types 450 and 403.Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. pp. 118-119. . In this regard, German folklorist Ines Köhler noted the commonalities between both types (e.g., the role of the heroine's brother and the heroine's substitution), but remarked that the "main feature" of type ATU 450 is the brother's animal transformation.
Variants According to folklorist Paul Delarue, the tale type is "very well known in Eastern Europe" but "not widely disseminated in Western Europe".Delarue, Paul Delarue. The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1956. p. 376. In this regard, Swedish scholar argued that the tale type was distributed along the Lower Danube region, in the West Slavic-speaking regions and in the Balkans.Liungman, Waldemar. Die Schwedischen Volksmärchen: Herkunft und Geschichte. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022 . p. 104. .
Stith Thompson located variants in Eastern Europe (Russia, Baltic region and the Balkans), but also across the Near East and into India.Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. p. 119. . Likewise, Lithuanian folklorist Bronislava Kerbelyte stated that the tale is "popular" in Lithuania and neighbouring countries.Литовские народные сказки [Lithuanian Folk Tales]. Составитель [Compilation]: Б. Кербелите. Moskva: ФОРУМ; НЕОЛИТ, 2015. p. 366. ;
Europe In the early 20th century, Elsabet Róna-Sklarek also claimed that the story was "sehr beliebten" ("very popular") in Hungary.Róna-Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Neue Folge. Leipzig: Dieterich. 1909. pp. 288-289. In this regard, the Hungarian Folktale Catalogue (MNK) registers 48 variants, classified as type 450, Az őztestvér ("The Roe Deer Sibling").Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). pp. 224-227.
According to German scholar Kurt Ranke, tale type ATU 450 is "not very common" in Germany, but he lists up to fourteen texts collected after the Grimm's tale.
Southern Europe Scholars Anna Angelopoulou and Aigle Broskou state that tale type 450 is "widespread" in Greece, with 124 variants recorded.Angelopoulou, Anna; Broskou, Aigle. "ΕΠΕΞΕΡΓΑΣΙΑ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΙΑΚΩΝ ΤΥΠΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΑΛΛΑΓΩΝ AT 300-499". Tome B: AT 400-499. Athens, Greece: ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΝΕΟΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΩΝ ΕΡΕΥΝΩΝ Ε.Ι.Ε. 1999. p. 825.
Iberian Peninsula Hasan El-Shamy noted that the tale type does appear in Iberian Peninsula, although it seems to be "infrequent". In the same vein, folktale catalogues of Portugal and Spain attest few variants in both countries (regionally in Spain and sparsely in Portugal).Atiénzar García, Mª del Carmen. Cuentos populares de Chinchilla. España, Albacete: Instituto de Estudios Albacetenses "Don Juan Manuel", 2017. pp. 326-327. .
Slavic peoples
In the East Slavic Folktale Classification (), tale type ATU 450 is classified as type SUS 450, "Братец и сестрица" ("Little Brother and Little Sister"), wherein the heroine's brother becomes a kid goat. Most of the indexed variants are located in Russia, but the tale type is also reported in Ukraine and Belarus.Barag, Lev. "Сравнительный указатель сюжетов. Восточнославянская сказка". Leningrad: НАУКА, 1979. p. 135.
The tale type is also attested in the Polish Folktale Catalogue by Julian Krzyżanowski, indexed as Polish type T 450, Brat-baranek ("Brother Lamb"). In the Polish type, the sibling pair either escapes from home or are abandoned in the forest by their parents; later, the boy drinks some water from an animal's footprint and becomes a lamb, a goat or a bull; the sister eventually marries a king, but is replaced by her stepmother or a rival.Krzyżanowski, Julian. Polska bajka ludowa w ukìadzie systematycznym: Wa̜tki 1-999. Wydawn. Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1962. p. 140.
The type is also attested in the Bulgarian Folktale Catalogue with the title "Братчето еленче" ("Little Fawn Brother") or Brüderchen Hirsch ("Little Hart Brother"): the brother and sister escape from a cannibalistic attempt by their parents in a "Magical Flight" sequence by throwing objects behind them (a comb, a jug of water, razors), or their stepmother convinces their father to abandon the two in the forest; while traversing the woods, the boy drinks water from a deer's hoofprints and becomes one; they settle in the forest, the sister atop a tree near a spring, and the deer underneath it; eventually, the sister is found by a king and marries him.Даскалова-Перковска, Лиляна et al. "Български фолклорни приказки: каталог". Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", 1994. pp. 156-157. .Liliana Daskalova Perkowski, Doroteja Dobreva, Jordanka Koceva & Evgenija Miceva. Typenverzeichnis der bulgarischen Volksmärchen. Bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Klaus Roth. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1995. p. 95. .
Baltic region The tale type is also registered in the Estonian Folktale Catalogue, indexed as type 450, Vennake ja õeke ("Little Brother and Little Sister"): the siblings escape from their evil stepmother; the brother drinks from a spring and becomes a roe; a king finds the sister and marries her; the evil stepmother kills the sister and substitutes her own daughter in her place.Järv, Risto; Kaasik, Mairi; Toomeos-Orglaan, Kärri. Monumenta Estoniae antiquae V. Eesti muinasjutud. I: 1. Imemuinasjutud. Tekstid redigeerinud: Paul Hagu, Kanni Labi. Tartu Ülikooli eesti ja võrdleva rahvaluule osakond, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Eesti Rahvaluule Arhiiv, 2009. pp. 570, 611. .
According to the Latvian Folktale Catalogue, the tale type is also found in Latvia, indexed as type 450, Apburtais brālis ("Enchanted Brother"): the pair of siblings escape from their stepmother; the brother drinks water and becomes an animal (deer, ram, wolf, goat, or horse); the sister marries a king, but the stepmother comes back and shoves her into the water.Arājs, Kārlis; Medne, A. Latviešu pasaku tipu rādītājs. Zinātne, 1977. p. 69.