All Topics  
The Twelve Wild Ducks

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

The Twelve Wild Ducks
 
 
  Topics The Twelve Wild Ducks Topic Home

The Twelve Wild Ducks is a Norwegian fairy tale
Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folklore characters such as Fairy, goblins, Elf, trolls, giant , and talking animals, and usually enchanted, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events....
 collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen

Peter Christen Asbj?rnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and J?rgen Moe were collectors of Norway folklore. They were so closely united in their lifes' work that their folk tale collections are commonly mentioned only as "Asbj?rnsen and Moe"....
 and Jørgen Moe
Jørgen Moe

J?rgen Engebretsen Moe was a Norway bishop and author.He is best known for the Norske Folkeeventyr, a collection of Norwegian Scandinavian folklore which he edited in collaboration with Peter Christen Asbj?rnsen....
 in Norske Folkeeventyr
Norske Folkeeventyr

Norwegian Folktales is a collection of Norway folktales and legends by Peter Christen Asbj?rnsen and J?rgen Moe. It is also known as Asbj?rnsen and Moe, after the collectors....
.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 451, the brothers who were turned into birds.

een who had twelve sons and no daughter said she would not care what happened to her sons if she had a daughter as white as snow and as red as blood. A troll
Troll

A troll is a fearsome member of a race of creatures from Norse mythology. Originally more or less the Nordic equivalents of giant , although often smaller in size, the different depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants ? similar to the ogres of England ? to a devious, more human-like folk of the wilderness, living underground...
 witch told her that she would have a daughter, and the witch would have her sons as soon as the baby was baptized.

Her daughter was born and christened "Snow-white and Rosy-red," and all her brothers were turned
Shapeshifting

Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is a :wikt:metamorphosis of a person or animal....
 into wild ducks and flew away.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'The Twelve Wild Ducks'
Start a new discussion about 'The Twelve Wild Ducks'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Twelve Wild Ducks is a Norwegian fairy tale
Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folklore characters such as Fairy, goblins, Elf, trolls, giant , and talking animals, and usually enchanted, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events....
 collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen

Peter Christen Asbj?rnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and J?rgen Moe were collectors of Norway folklore. They were so closely united in their lifes' work that their folk tale collections are commonly mentioned only as "Asbj?rnsen and Moe"....
 and Jørgen Moe
Jørgen Moe

J?rgen Engebretsen Moe was a Norway bishop and author.He is best known for the Norske Folkeeventyr, a collection of Norwegian Scandinavian folklore which he edited in collaboration with Peter Christen Asbj?rnsen....
 in Norske Folkeeventyr
Norske Folkeeventyr

Norwegian Folktales is a collection of Norway folktales and legends by Peter Christen Asbj?rnsen and J?rgen Moe. It is also known as Asbj?rnsen and Moe, after the collectors....
.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 451, the brothers who were turned into birds.

Plot summary

A queen who had twelve sons and no daughter said she would not care what happened to her sons if she had a daughter as white as snow and as red as blood. A troll
Troll

A troll is a fearsome member of a race of creatures from Norse mythology. Originally more or less the Nordic equivalents of giant , although often smaller in size, the different depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants ? similar to the ogres of England ? to a devious, more human-like folk of the wilderness, living underground...
 witch told her that she would have a daughter, and the witch would have her sons as soon as the baby was baptized.

Her daughter was born and christened "Snow-white and Rosy-red," and all her brothers were turned
Shapeshifting

Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is a :wikt:metamorphosis of a person or animal....
 into wild ducks and flew away. Snow-white and Rosy-red was often sad when growing up, and one day the queen asked her why, and she said that everyone else had brothers and sisters, but she had none. So the queen told her about her brothers.

She set out and, after three years, found the cottage where her brothers lived. Having done all the housework, she slept in her youngest brother's bed. Her brothers found her, and her oldest brother wanted to kill her as the cause of their problems, but her youngest brother
Youngest son

The youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the rule of three son, but sometimes there are sibling, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters....
 argued that it was their mother's fault, and the sister pled that she had searched for them for three years. They told her that she could set them free by weaving cloth of thistle-down, and making them all neckerchiefs, shirts, and coats, without crying, laughing, or speaking. She set to work. Her brothers flew off as wild ducks every day, but returned as men every night.

A king found her and brought her to his castle to marry her, over his stepmother
Stepfamily

Traditionally, a stepfamily is the family one acquires when a parent enters a new marriage, whether the parent was widowed or divorced. For example, if one's mother/father death and one's father/mother marries another woman/man, the new woman is one's stepmother and vice versa....
's objections. She kept on sewing, but when she had a son, the old queen threw the baby into a pit of snakes and smeared her mouth with blood, to tell her stepson that the young queen killed and ate her baby. This happened three
Rule of three (writing)

The rule of three is a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things....
 times, and the old queen finally persuaded the king to have his wife burned at the stake, but she finished the shirts. Her brothers came to take them and having turned back into men, told her to speak. She told the truth, and the princes showed them their babies, still alive in the snake pit.

The king asked his mother what a fitting punishment would be for such a crime, and she prescribed being torn apart by twelve horses, and so she was.

See also

  • The Raven
    The Raven (Brothers Grimm)

    The Raven is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 93 in their collections.It is Aarne-Thompson type 401, the girl transformed into an animal....
  • The Seven Ravens
    The Seven Ravens

    The Seven Ravens is a German fairy tale Grimm's Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm.It is tale number 25, and Aarne-Thompson type 451, the brothers who were turned into birds....
  • The Six Swans
    The Six Swans

    The Six Swans is a German fairy tale Grimm's Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm. It is tale number 49, and Aarne-Thompson type 451, the brothers who were turned into birds....
  • Sleeping Beauty
    Sleeping Beauty

    Sleeping Beauty is a fairy tale classic, the first in the set published in 1697 by Charles Perrault, Contes de ma M?re l'Oye .While Perrault's version is better known, an older variant, the tale Sun, Moon, and Talia, was contained in Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone ....
  • Snow White
    Snow White

    Snow White is the title fictional character of a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm....
  • Udea and her Seven Brothers
    Udea and her Seven Brothers

    Udea and her Seven Brothers is a Northern African fairy tale collected by Hans von Stumme in M?rchen und Gedichte aus der Stadt Tripolis. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book....
  • The Wild Swans
    The Wild Swans

    "The Wild Swans" is a fairy tale by Denmark poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a princess who rescues her brothers from a spell cast by a wicked queen....
  • The Twelve Brothers
    The Twelve Brothers

    The Twelve Brothers is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 9. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book....
  • The Lassie and Her Godmother
    The Lassie and Her Godmother

    The Lassie and Her Godmother is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbj?rnsen and J?rgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr.The Brothers Grimm noted its similarity to their Mary's Child, and also to the Italian The Goat-faced Girl....
  • Mary's Child
    Mary's Child

    Mary's Child or Our Lady's Child is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales as tale number 3.The Brothers Grimm noted its similarity to the Italian The Goat-faced Girl and the Norwegian The Lassie and Her Godmother....


External links