The Seven Ravens

A man had seven sons and, last of all, one daughter. Though she was very pretty, she was so weak and small they feared she would not live, yet they said she must be christened at once.

The father sent one son in haste to the spring for water, but the other six ran with him. Each meant to be first; in their hurry all dropped their pitchers into the well. They stood looking foolishly at one another, and none dared go home. The father grew uneasy at the delay. Surely, he thought, the whole seven must have forgotten themselves over some game. When he had waited still longer and they did not come, he flew into a rage and wished them all turned into ravens. Scarcely had he spoken when he heard croaking overhead and saw seven ravens as black as coal flying round. Sorry as he was to see his wish fulfilled, he did not know how to undo it, and comforted himself for the loss of his sons with his little daughter, who soon grew stronger and more beautiful every day.

For a long time she did not know she had ever had brothers; her parents took care not to speak of them before her. One day she overheard people say she was beautiful indeed, but it was a pity her brothers had been lost for her sake. Much grieved, she asked her father and mother if she had brothers and what had become of them. They told her what had happened, calling it Heaven’s will and saying that her birth had been an innocent cause. Yet it was her father’s angry wish that had changed the boys. The girl mourned every day and felt bound to bring her brothers back. She had neither rest nor ease until she stole away into the wide world to find them and free them, whatever it cost.

She took only a little ring her parents had given her, a loaf if she grew hungry, a small pitcher of water if thirsty, and a little stool to rest on when weary. On and on she journeyed to the world’s end. She came to the sun, but it looked too hot and fiery, so she ran to the moon; the moon was cold and chilly and said it smelled flesh and blood that way, so she hurried on to the stars. The stars were friendly; each sat on its own little stool. The morning star rose and gave her a little piece of wood: without it she could not unlock the castle on the glass-mountain where her brothers lived. She rolled the wood in a cloth and went on to the glass-mountain. The door was shut. When she unwrapped the cloth the wood was gone—she had lost the stars’ gift. What was to be done? She meant to save her brothers and had no key, so this faithful sister took a knife from her pocket, cut off her little finger (just the size of the lost wood), put it in the door, and opened it.

Inside, a little dwarf asked what she sought. “My brothers, the seven ravens,” she said. The dwarf said his masters were not at home; if she would wait, she might step in. He was getting their dinner ready—seven little plates and seven little glasses. Out of each plate she ate a small piece, out of each glass she drank a small drop, and she let her ring fall into the last glass.

Suddenly she heard fluttering and croaking. “Here come my masters,” said the dwarf. The ravens came in wanting to eat and drink. One after another they asked who had eaten from their little plate and drunk from their little glass, and croaked:

Caw! Caw! Clear as day—
Mortal lips have passed this way!

When the seventh came to the bottom of his glass and found the ring, he knew it for their parents’ ring and cried that if only their little sister would come, they would be free. She had stood behind the door listening; she ran forward, and in an instant all the ravens took human form again. They hugged and kissed one another, and went home merry.

Where this story comes from

“The Seven Ravens” is from Germany and was collected by the Brothers Grimm; it is not an Indian tale. It is number 25 in Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation (Die sieben Raben). The English followed here comes from the Gutenberg edition based on Taylor and Edwardes.

This telling links an angry parental wish to a sister’s search for her lost brothers. Compare the bird transformations in “The Six Swans” and “The Twelve Brothers”; the conditions for rescue differ.

The sister cuts off her finger to open the door. This is a disturbing fairy-tale event, not an example of what someone should do to help a family member.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales, tr. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes (Project Gutenberg #2591, The Seven Ravens)

Reading guidance: older readers. Includes a parent wishing harm on children, a threatening moon, and deliberate self-injury. The sister is not responsible for her father’s wish and does not owe anyone an injury to prove love.

Reading the story closely

The father guesses that the boys are playing, although the reader knows they have lost the water vessels. Later, the villagers and parents connect the disaster to the sister’s birth. Both moments show explanations being formed without fairly assigning responsibility. Her courage can be admired without accepting the blame placed on her.

List what the father knows, what the reader knows and what the sister is told. At the castle, the ring supplies a different kind of knowledge: a recognizable family object. Explain why recognition, rather than an account of her painful journey, completes the reunion.

Talk about it

• Why did the father’s angry words turn his sons into ravens?
• The sister had no one to tell her what to do. What does her journey show about her?
• When she lost the stars’ key, she found another way in. What else could she have tried?

Related stories

• The Six Swans — a Grimm sister who suffers in silence to turn her swan brothers back into men
• The Raven — a Grimm princess turned into a raven by her mother’s careless wish
• Mother Holle — a hard-working Grimm girl rewarded on a strange journey to another world