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 "Märchen und Gedichte aus der Stadt Tripolis". Andrew Lang included it in "The Grey Fairy Book".

It is Aarne-Thompson type 451.

ynopsis

A couple had seven sons. One day, the sons set out hunting and told their aunt that if their mother had a daughter, to wave a white handkerchief, and they would return at once; but if a son, a sickle, and they would keep on. It was a daughter, but the aunt wished to be rid of the sons, so she waved a sickle. One day, the daughter, Udea, was taunted with her brothers' roaming the world; she questioned her mother and set out to find them. Her mother gave her a camel, some food, a cowrie shell about the camel's neck as a charm, and a negro and his wife to take care of her. On the second day, the negro tried to make her let his wife ride the camel in Udea's place; on the third day, he succeeded.

One day, they passed a caravan, where they were told of the castle where the brothers lived. The negro let Udea ride but smeared her with pitch, so that her brothers would not recognize her. However, she was able to persuade them.

The brothers left her in the castle with strict instructions never to go out, and to eat nothing that the cat did not eat, too. They returned, and found her well. They told her of pigeons, and she asked why they did not have her feed the pigeons, because the food they had laid out had to be old after seven days. They agreed. When they left, she found a bean and ate it. The cat demanded half. Udea said she could not, because she had already eaten it, and offered other beans. The cat refused, and put out the fire. Udea set out to find a fire, to have it eventually from a "man-eater" (cannibal). He demanded a strip of her blood in return for a coal, and she paid it. She bled all the way home; a raven followed her, putting dirt over the blood. The raven startled her at the door, and she cursed it, hoping it would be startled as she was. It told her it had done her a favor, and flew away. The man-eater followed her and broke through the doors, intending to attack Udea. She sent a letter to her brothers by the pigeons, and they trapped the man-eater in a burning pit.

One of the man-eater's fingernails stabbed Udea, at which she fell into a swoon. Her brothers put her on a bier and the bier on a camel, and set it off to their mother, with orders not to stop unless someone said, "string." Three men chased after it, but only when one said that his sandal string was broken did it stop. They pulled off her ring, which freed the fingernail and woke her. The camel brought her back to her brothers.

They set out to see their father and mother again.

ee also

*The Twelve Wild Ducks
*The Six Swans
*The Seven Ravens
*The Goose Girl
*The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward
*Vasilissa the Beautiful
*Snow White
* Bella Venezia
* Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree
*The Twelve Brothers

External links

* [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sixswans/stories/udea.html "Udea and her Seven Brothers"]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Seven Ravens — is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. [Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Grimm s Fairy Tales , [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sixswans/stories/sevenravens.html SurLaLune Fairy Tale site, The Seven Ravens] ] It is tale number 25, and …   Wikipedia

  • The Twelve Brothers — ( de. Die zwölf Brüder) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 9. [Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Grimm s Fairy Tales , [http://www.pitt.edu/ dash/grimm009.html The Twelve Brothers] ] Andrew Lang included it in The Red… …   Wikipedia

  • Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree — is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his Celtic Fairy Tales . [Joseph Jacobs, Celtic Fairy Tales , [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/celtic/goldtree.html Gold Tree and Silver Tree] ] It is Aarne Thompson type… …   Wikipedia

  • The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward — or The Lord of Lorn and the Flas Steward or The Lord of Lorn is Child ballad number 271. [Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads [http://www.sacred texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch271.htm The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward ] ] A… …   Wikipedia

  • Snow White — This article is about the traditional fairy tale. For the Disney character, see Snow White (Disney). For other uses, see Snow White (disambiguation). Snow White Snow White in her coffin, Theodor Hosemann, 1852 Folk tale …   Wikipedia

  • List of fairy tales — This is a list of fairy tales, the dates of their earliest known printed version, the author and, if known, the collection of tales in which it was published. It should be noted, however, that not all stories listed below would be categorized as… …   Wikipedia

  • The Six Swans — is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. [Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Grimm s Fairy Tales , [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/49sixswans.html The Six Swans] ] It is tale number 49, and Aarne Thompson type 451, the… …   Wikipedia

  • Andrew Lang's Fairy Books — Rumpelstiltskin from The Blue Fairy Book, by Henry J. Ford Andrew Lang s Fairy Books also known as Andrew Lang s Coloured Fairy Books or Andrew Lang s Fairy Books of Many Colors are a series of twelve collections of fairy tales, published between …   Wikipedia

  • The Twelve Wild Ducks — is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr .It is Aarne Thompson type 451, the brothers who were turned into birds.Plot summaryA queen who had twelve sons and no daughter said she would… …   Wikipedia

  • The Goose Girl — is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Since the second edition published in 1819, The Goose Girl has been recorded as Tale no. 89. [Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Household tales , [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/goosegirl/index.ht… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”