German-Speaking World: In the Land of Marvels: Folk-tales from Austria and Bohemia -The Seven Ravens
A. Context
The Seven Ravens is one of the folk tales from Weißenkirchen on the Danumbe, collected by Prof. Theodor Vernaleken and originally published in 1884 as a supplement to the Brothers Grimm’s Children’s and Household Stories. The title of this collection is In the Land of Marvels: Folk-tales from Austria and Bohemia and it contains sixty tales faithfully written down from word of mouth, as E. Johnson said in the preface of the volume from 1889.
B. Summary
This tale is about a woman who had seven sons and one daughter. On one occasion, the mother was so angry at her sons’ greediness that she said she wished them all to be turned into ravens. Unfortunately, her wish came true.
After many years in which the daughter always asked about her brothers, the mother told her the cruel truth. The girl decided to find her brothers and save them. She went into a great forest where the wife of the Lord of the Wind helped her hide from the husband who had a bad temper while being hungry.
After being fed, the giant heard the story of the little intruder and gave her the bones of his meal, telling her they will help her later. The next day, the Wind showed her the way to the glass castle in which her brothers were kept. There, she used the bones to build a ladder and climb the wall into the castle where she saw twelve beds and twelve tables with a bowl of soup on each of them them. She ate from one of the bowel, put the ring that she took from her mother before the departure in the bowl and took a nap. Meanwhile, twelve ravens flew in at the window and changed into men once they settled on the ground. Seven of them were the brothers, who started to search into the castle as soon as they saw the ring. Once they found their sister, they asked her to leave, because the only way to break the curse was for her to remain silent for seven years. But the maiden refused to leave and stayed with them from then on without uttering a word. But one day, while she was in the forest, the king found her and cast her into prison.
As she refused to talk, the king ordered her execution. Fortunately, by that time, those seven years of silence were passed and the brothers came and told everything to the king who was so impressed by the girl’s courage that he married her.
C. Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index
The Seven Ravens belongs to the Tales of Magic, the subcathegory of Brother or Sister (452-452), ATU possition 451-453: The maiden who seeks her brothers.
D. Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp
The hero: the sister of the seven brothers;
The villain: the curse bestowed on the seven brothers;
The dispatcher: the mother who tells the girl about how her brothers were turned into ravens;
The helper: the wife of the Lord of the Wind who advise the girl what to do in order for her to escape from her cruel husband;
The donor: the Lord of the Wind who gives the maiden the bones and who creates a path into the forest for the girl;
The prize: the marriage with the king;
The brothers: the characters who need to be rescued by the hero from evil.
E. The Functions of the Fairy Tale According to Vladimir Propp
The initial situation: The main characters are being introduced
The Abstentation: The brothers are turned into ravens and they leave their home;
Interdiction: the mother begs the girl to stay home and not to go after the brothers;
Violation of interdiction: the girl embarks on a quest to find her brothers, in spite of her mother’s tears and prayers;
Reconnaissance: The girls goes into a forest and ends up in the house of a cruel giant who wants to eat her, but with the help of the wife she escapes and she finds
Receipt of a magical agent: the giant gives the girl the bones from the fat hen he ate;
Guidance: the Lord of the Wind shows the girl the way to the glass castle;
Branding: the girl becomes dumb for seven years;
The initial misfortune or lack is liquidated: those seven years in which the girl is not allowed to say anything if she wants to save her brothers are over;
Exposure: as soon as the curse is broken, the brothers came to the castle in order to tell the king everything and save their little sister from being executed;
Recognition: The spell is broken and the girl is praised by the king for her courage
Wedding: the king marries the girl.
F. Similarities
This fairy tale bears a resemblance to many stories in which the little sister (or sisters) save the brothers who are rushly turned into birds after not listening to their parents. The curse is not made by a witch, but by the words said in anger by one of the parents.
In the notes section at the end of the book, there is additional information about this particular tale:
"According to a tale from near Pisck, in Bohemia, the maiden came first to the moon, then to the sun, and at last to the tempest hut. Other variants in L. Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, widely diffused. In one of these, instead of the ravens appears seven fieldfares, which, by means of seven good works of the sisters, are relieved one by one.’’
In Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s The Seven Ravens the girl is also trying to save her brothers who were turned into ravens when she was only a baby. Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans is also very similar with this tale, except that there the brothers are turned into swans and the girl has to also make clothes out of nettles without complaining and saying anything during a long period of time. Another similar tale is, The Twelve Brothers, a German tale in which the brothers run from home and are saved by their little sister.
Bibliography:
Vernaleken, Theodor. In the Land of Marvels: Folk-tales from Austria and Bohemia. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Go Paternoster Square, 1889. Web:
https://archive.org/stream/inlandmarvel ... 6/mode/2up.
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sixs ... story.html
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