The Seven Ravens Story: Summary, Origins and the Original 1812 Version

Published · By Alehundred Studios

The Seven Ravens story is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale in which a father's angry wish turns his seven sons into ravens, and their younger sister walks to the end of the world, past the sun, the moon and the stars, to break the spell inside a glass mountain. It is tale number 25 in the Grimms' Children's and Household Tales, it began life in 1812 as a much shorter tale about three ravens, and its images, from the glass mountain to the ring dropped in a cup, still echo through books, art and video games. Below you will find a full summary, who wrote it and where it came from, how the first version was different, where to read the full text, and what the tale means.

What happens in The Seven Ravens?

In The Seven Ravens, a girl rescues her seven brothers after their father's curse turns them into birds. Here is the plot, step by step, following the translation of the Grimms' final 1857 text by folklorist D. L. Ashliman at the University of Pittsburgh:

  1. The wish for a daughter. A man has seven sons and longs for a daughter. When a girl is finally born she is "sickly and small," so the father sends the boys to the well to fetch water for an emergency baptism.
  2. The lost jug. All seven run to the well, each wanting to be first, and the jug falls in. Afraid to go home, they stand there not knowing what to do.
  3. The curse. The father grows impatient and, fearing the baby will die unbaptized, cries out: "I wish that those boys would all turn into ravens." At once he hears a whirring sound and sees "seven coal-black ravens flying up and away."
  4. The secret. The parents hide the story from their daughter. Years later she overhears people saying that she was "to blame for her seven brothers' misfortune." Her parents tell her the truth and insist that "her birth had been only the innocent cause."
  5. The journey. She sets out secretly with a ring from her parents, a loaf of bread, a little jug of water and a little chair. She reaches the sun, which is too hot, and the moon, which is cold and wicked and says, "I smell, smell human flesh."
  6. The stars. The stars are kind to her. The morning star gives her a chicken bone and warns: "Without that chicken bone you cannot open the glass mountain, and your brothers are inside the glass mountain."
  7. The finger. At the glass mountain she finds the bone is gone. With no key, she takes a knife, cuts off one of her little fingers, puts it in the door, and the door opens.
  8. The dwarf and the cups. A dwarf tells her that "The lord ravens are not at home" and lets her wait. He sets out the ravens' dinner on seven little plates and seven little cups. She eats a bite from each plate, sips from each cup, and drops her parents' ring into the last cup.
  9. The ring. The ravens fly home and complain one by one: "Who has been eating from my plate? Who has been drinking from my cup? It was a human mouth." The seventh finds the ring, recognizes it as their parents' ring, and says, "God grant that our sister might be here."
  10. The ending. She steps out from behind the door, "the ravens were restored to their human forms again," and the brothers and sister hug, kiss and go home happily.

That ending is famously quiet. There is no wedding, no punishment and no villain to defeat. The only "enemy" in the tale is a curse spoken in a moment of anger.

Who wrote The Seven Ravens, and where does it come from?

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected and edited The Seven Ravens; they did not invent it from nothing. Ashliman's notes on the University of Pittsburgh page name the Grimms' source as "The Hassenpflug family, and others," and list the tale as Aarne-Thompson type 451, "The Brothers Who Were Turned into Birds." His comment on that type is short and telling: "Tales of this type are found throughout Europe."

The Grimms' own collection holds two more tales of the same type, The Twelve Brothers (no. 9) and The Six Swans (no. 49). Ashliman's collection of type 451 tales adds relatives from across Europe, including "The Seven Doves" from Italy by Giambattista Basile, "The Twelve Wild Ducks" from Norway and a link to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans" from Denmark. The pattern is always similar: brothers are turned into birds, and a sister gives up something precious to bring them back.

The tale also sits inside the bigger story of the Grimms' book. The Brothers Grimm museum in Kassel, GRIMMWELT, explains that the brothers started collecting fairy tales in Kassel in 1806 and that, six years later, the first edition "was published just before Christmas." The Library of Congress marked the 200th anniversary of that first volume on December 20, 2012.

How was the 1812 version, The Three Ravens, different?

The 1812 version was called "Die drei Raben" (The Three Ravens), had three brothers instead of seven, and blamed the curse on the mother, not the father. Ashliman notes that the tale was "retitled and substantially rewritten for the second edition (1819)" and that "Only small stylistic changes were introduced in succeeding editions."

You can read the 1812 German text, page by page from the first edition, at the digital library Zeno.org/Erster+Band/25.+Die+drei+Raben). It was already number 25, and the differences jump out:

So the heart of the tale (the long walk, the sacrifice, the ring in the cup) stayed the same, while the opening was rebuilt. The 1819 version moved the blame from a mother's anger at bad behavior to a father's panic over a sick newborn, which makes the curse feel more tragic and the sister's guilt more complicated. That fits what scholars say about the Grimms in general. Writing in The New York Review of Books, Marina Warner explains that after the first edition "Wilhelm tinkered and tampered with the texts."

Where can you read The Seven Ravens book or full text?

You can read The Seven Ravens online in several reliable versions, because it is part of the Grimms' collection rather than a standalone book. The best options:

Many illustrated picture-book editions of The Seven Ravens exist too, but if you want the real tale, start with one of the translations above and compare the ending with any retelling you find.

What does The Seven Ravens mean?

The Seven Ravens is about words spoken in anger and the love it takes to undo them. The father's curse is instant and permanent ("The parents could not take back the curse," in Ashliman's translation), while the repair takes a whole journey. The sister is told she is to blame, learns she was only the "innocent cause," and decides to act anyway.

Three images carry the meaning:

We go deeper into the lessons and into what ravens symbolize in fairy tales and myth in The Seven Ravens Moral Lesson.

Where does Coins Catcher: Co-op Lands fit?

Coins Catcher: Co-op Lands is an online co-op 3D platformer by solo developer Alehundred whose story is inspired by The Seven Ravens and twisted on purpose. Everything above follows the Grimms' text; this section is the game's own version.

In the game, a shadowy curse traps a princess, and her seven brothers, her guardians, are turned into seven giant beasts instead of ravens, one per historical era: a wolf in Italy, a carnivorous plant in the Wild West, a hippogriff in the Caribbean, a dragon in Kyoto, a bear in York, a sabertooth in Hatra, and a giant spider in Alexandria as the final boss. You and up to seven friends are 10 cm (about 4 inches) tall and travel through magic portals into giant dioramas of those eras. Defeat the beast, climb its tower, claim the Magic Gem; seven gems break the spell and release the princess.

It plays together online across PC on Steam, mobile and VR, with voice chat for everyone, and it is in Early Access on Steam. Where the sister in the tale walks alone, here a whole group of friends shares the journey.

FAQ

What is the summary of The Seven Ravens?

A father's angry wish turns his seven sons into ravens. Their sister later learns the truth, walks to the end of the world, gets help from the stars, cuts off her own finger to open the glass mountain, and drops her parents' ring into the ravens' cup. The brothers recognize the ring and become human again.

Is The Seven Ravens a book?

It is a short fairy tale, number 25 in the Grimms' Children's and Household Tales, not a standalone book. Many illustrated editions retell it, and you can read faithful translations online at the University of Pittsburgh and Project Gutenberg.

Is The Seven Ravens a real Grimm fairy tale?

Yes. It appeared in the first edition of 1812 as "Die drei Raben" (The Three Ravens) and became "Die sieben Raben" (The Seven Ravens) in the second edition of 1819, which is the version most people read today.

How many brothers are in The Seven Ravens?

Seven in the final version, three in the 1812 original. The change came with the 1819 rewrite, along with a new opening in which the father, not the mother, speaks the curse.

How does The Seven Ravens end?

The seventh raven finds the ring in his cup and wishes his sister were there. She steps out from behind the door, the ravens turn back into her brothers, and they all go home happily.

Sources

  1. Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. The Seven Ravens. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2002.
  2. Ashliman DL, ed. The Brothers Who Were Turned into Birds: Folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther Type 451. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2013.
  3. Grimm J, Grimm W. Die drei Raben/Erster+Band/25.+Die+drei+Raben). Kinder- und Hausmärchen, vol. 1, Berlin, 1812, pp. 110-112. Zeno.org digital library.
  4. Grimm J, Grimm W; Hunt M, trans. Household Tales. Project Gutenberg, eBook #5314.
  5. GRIMMWELT Kassel. The "Children's and Household Tales". GRIMMWELT Kassel.
  6. Armenti P. A Grimm Beginning. The Catbird Seat, Library of Congress, 2012.
  7. Warner M. Rescuing Wonderful Shivery Tales. The New York Review of Books, 2015.
  8. Zipes J. The Forgotten Tales of the Brothers Grimm. The Public Domain Review, 2012.