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. Scottish novelist Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book.
It is Aarne-Thompson type 451.
Synopsis
A man and wife 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 boys, so she waved a sickle. The daughter, Udea, grew up not knowing about her brothers. One day, an older child taunted her for driving her brothers away, who were forever 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, a negro, Barka, and his wife to take care of her. On the second day, Barka told Udea to get off the camel so that his wife could ride in her place. The mother was close by and told Barka to leave Udea alone. On the third day, Barka again told Udea to let his wife ride the camel in her place, but the mother was now too far away to hear and command Barka. Udea called out for her mother to no avail and Barka threw the girl to the ground. The wife climbed onto the camel and Udea walked on the ground, her bare feet cut up because of the stones on her path.
One day, they passed a caravan, where they were told of the castle where the brothers lived. Barka let Udea ride the camel to the castle, but smeared her with pitch, so that her brothers would not recognize her. However, they accepted her without question. Her tears of joy left white marks on her face. One alarmed brother took a cloth and rubbed the mark until the pitch was gone. The brother asked her who had painted her skin black, to which she would not answer, in fear of Barka's anger. She finally relented, describing the treatment she received during her travels. The seven brothers were outraged and beheaded both Barka and his wife.
The brothers went hunting for seven days, instructing Udea to lock herself in the castle with only the cat who grew up in the house. She would follow the cat's advice in all matters and eat nothing that the cat did not eat. They returned, and found her well. The brothers then told her of the castle elves and pigeons, who could be called to fetch the brothers in case Udea was in any danger. The pigeons had seven days' worth of food and water left by the brothers during each hunting trip; Udea asked why they did not have her feed the pigeons daily, because the food they had laid out was old after seven days. They agreed and told her any kindness towards the pigeons would be considered a kindness towards themselves.
On the brothers' third hunting trip, Udea was cleaning the castle and, forgetting her instructions for a moment, found a bean and ate it. The cat demanded half. Udea said she could not, because she had already eaten it, and offered one hundred other beans. The cat only wanted the bean that Udea had eaten. To punish the girl, the cat put out the fire in the kitchen. With no way of cooking, Udea climbed up the castle, saw a fire in the distance and left to find its source. She asked for a lump of burning coal from the elderly man tending the fire, but he was in fact a "man-eater" (cannibal) and demanded a strip of blood from her ear to her thumb in return. She bled all the way home, and did not notice the raven that had followed her back until she came upon the castle door. Startled, she cursed the raven, hoping to startle it as well. It asked why she would wish harm to one that had done her a favor. It flew off, along with the dirt it had used to cover her trail of blood. The man-eater followed this path to the castle and broke six doors in six nights, intending to attack and eat Udea. On the last day, with only one door in place, she sent a letter to her brothers with the help of the castle pigeons. The brothers immediately came home and trapped the man-eater in a burning pit.
As the man-eater burned, only one of his fingernails was left behind. It was blown towards and stabbed Udea under her own fingernail. She collapsed, lifeless. Her brothers put her on a bier and the bier on a camel, and set it off to their mother. They ordered the camel to avoid capture and stop only when someone said, "string." During the journey, three men chased after the camel, but only when one said that his sandal string was broken did it stop. The man took Udea's hand and attempted to pull off her ring. This motion freed the man-eater's fingernail from her hand, and she woke up full of life. The camel returned her to her joyful brothers, and all the siblings set out to see their parents once again.
On the fourth day of their reunion, the eldest brother told their parents of their aunt's treachery and the adventures they encountered.
See 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