Brother and Sister

"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 (Grimm's Fairy Tales). It is alternatively known as "Little Sister and Little Brother" or (in the Grimm's version) "Brüderchen und Schwesterchen".

Tired of the cruel mistreatment they endure from their wicked stepmother, who is also a witch, a brother and sister run away from home one day. They wander off into the countryside and spend the night in the woods. By morning the boy is thirsty, and so the children go looking for a spring of clear water. But 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".

Desperately, the girl begs her brother not to drink from the spring, lest he transform into a tiger and tear her to pieces. 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 it is too late, because her brother has already drunk from it, and changes into a deer.

As the initial feeling of despair clears up, the children decide to stay and live in the woods forever. The girl would take 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 became queen and they all live happily in the king's castle. Time passes and the queen gives birth to a son.

Their stepmother, 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 to resemble 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.

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