The Twelve Huntsmen

There was once a king’s son who was engaged to a girl he loved very much. One day, as he sat happily beside her, news came that his father was dying and wanted to see him one last time. “I must leave you now,” he said to her. “Take this ring to remember me by. When I am king, I will come back for you.”

He rode away, and when he reached his father, the old king was very ill and close to death. “My dear son,” said the king, “I wanted to see you once more before I die. Promise me that you will marry the bride I choose.” And he named the daughter of a certain king.

The son was so upset that he did not think about what he was saying. “Yes, dear father,” he said, “it shall be as you wish.” Then the old king closed his eyes and died.

When the son had been crowned king and the time of mourning was over, he chose to act on the promise to his father, breaking the one he had made to his first love. He sent to ask for the other king’s daughter, and she was promised to him. His first love heard about it, and she was so heartbroken at his unfaithfulness that she almost died of grief.

Her father said to her, “Dearest child, why are you so sad? You shall have anything you wish for.”

She thought for a moment and said, “Dear father, I wish for eleven girls who look exactly like me in face, figure and height.”

“If it can be done, it shall be,” said her father, and he had his whole kingdom searched until eleven girls were found who looked just like his daughter. When they came, she had twelve huntsmen’s outfits made, all exactly alike. The eleven girls put on eleven of them, and she put on the twelfth. Then she said goodbye to her father and rode off with them to the court of the young king she still loved so much.

She asked him whether he needed any huntsmen, and whether he would take all twelve of them into his service. The king looked at her but did not recognise her. They were such handsome fellows that he said yes, he would gladly take them on. And so they became the king’s twelve huntsmen.

Now the king had a lion, a marvellous animal that knew every hidden secret. One evening the lion said to the king, “You think you have twelve huntsmen?”

“Yes,” said the king, “twelve huntsmen.”

“You are wrong,” said the lion. “They are twelve girls.”

“That cannot be true,” said the king. “How will you prove it?”

“Just have some peas scattered on the floor of your hall,” said the lion, “and you will soon see. Men have a firm tread, and when they walk over peas, not one of them moves. But girls trip and skip and shuffle their feet, and the peas roll about.”

The king liked the idea and had the peas scattered. But one of his servants was fond of the huntsmen, and when he heard about the test, he went and told them everything. “The lion wants to make the king believe you are girls,” he said. The princess thanked him and said to her companions, “Be strong, and step down hard on the peas.”

The next morning, when the king called his twelve huntsmen and they came through the hall where the peas lay, they walked so firmly and steadily that not a single pea rolled or even stirred. When they had gone, the king said to the lion, “You lied to me. They walk just like men.”

“They knew they were going to be tested,” said the lion, “and they made themselves walk strongly. Have twelve spinning wheels put in the hall one day. They will go straight to them and be delighted with them, and no man would do that.”

The king liked that idea too and had the spinning wheels put in the hall. But the kind servant went to the huntsmen again and told them the plan. When they were alone, the princess said to her eleven girls, “Control yourselves, and do not even look at the spinning wheels.”

The next morning the king called his huntsmen, and they walked through the hall without once glancing at the spinning wheels. Again the king said to the lion, “You have tricked me. They are men, for they did not look at the spinning wheels.”

“They knew they would be tested,” said the lion, “and they held themselves back.” But the king would not believe the lion any more.

The twelve huntsmen always rode with the king when he went hunting, and he liked them better every day. Then one day, while they were out hunting, news came that the king’s new bride was on her way. When the true bride heard this, it hurt her so much that her heart almost broke, and she fainted and fell to the ground.

The king thought something had happened to his dear huntsman. He ran to help, and pulled off the huntsman’s glove, and there he saw the ring he had given to his first love. He looked into her face and knew her. His heart was so moved that he kissed her, and when she opened her eyes he said, “You are mine and I am yours, and nobody in the world can change that.”

He sent a messenger to the other bride, asking her to go back to her own kingdom, saying that he had recovered his first promised bride. He compared the women to an old dish and a new one—a dismissive way to describe people whose lives his promises had changed. Then the wedding was held, and the lion was taken back into the king’s favour, because he had been telling the truth all along.

Where this story comes from

“The Twelve Huntsmen” is number 67 in the Brothers Grimm’s Children’s and Household Tales. This telling follows the English translation by Margaret Hunt (1884). The cited English source is Hunt’s story 67.

The tests with the peas and the spinning wheels were meant to catch out girls by what people in the past thought girls did. The princess and her friends pass every test, which is part of the fun. The lion knows who they are within the fantasy, but its proposed tests rely on stereotypes rather than reliable evidence. A person’s walk or interest in spinning cannot establish their gender.

Read the original: Grimm, Household Tales, translated by Margaret Hunt (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 9–12 — a princess in disguise, a truth-telling lion and a lost ring.

Reading the story closely

The ring identifies a particular relationship, whereas the lion’s tests try to identify a whole group from supposed habits. The women defeat those tests by choosing how to behave. Their success shows the weakness of the test even though the lion’s magical knowledge happens to be correct.

Make two lists: evidence about this individual and assumptions about girls or men. Then give the second bride a reply to the king’s dismissal. The reunion closes one broken promise while creating another disappointment the story barely follows.

Talk about it

• Why did the prince promise to marry someone else?
• How did the kind servant help the huntsmen?
• The lion told the truth but was not believed. Why do you think the king stopped listening to him?

Related stories

• The Twelve Dancing Princesses — another Grimm tale of twelve princesses and a secret
• The Goose Girl — a Grimm princess who must prove who she really is
• The Six Swans — a loyal Grimm heroine who keeps faith in silence