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Context Literature / BrotherAndSister

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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BrotherAndSister_Gruelle_4043.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:300: [- Illustration by John B. Gruelle (1914) -] ]]
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4"[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/11brothersister.html Brother and Sister]]", also known as "The Enchanted Stag", is a German {{fairy tale}} best known as told by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm.
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6After their mother has died, two young siblings, a boy and a girl, are mistreated by their WickedStepmother, so much that they decide to run away from home. But the stepmother, who is also a [[WickedWitch witch]], enchants the streams of the forest where the children are wandering, so that drinking from them would turn them into animals. The girl sees through the trap and talks her brother out of drinking from two streams that would have turned him into a tiger and a wolf, but when they come upon a stream that turns people into deer, he is so thirsty that he doesn't care anymore, and turns into a roe fawn.
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8Later, the two find a deserted cottage in the woods and decide to live there, fending for themselves in the wilderness. Years have passed when a king and his court come to the forest for hunting, and the brother makes a game of making the hunters chase him, then hides in the cottage in the evening. But the second time he tries this, he is wounded, and thus leads the hunters to the cottage.
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10On seeing the sister, the king falls in love with her and asks her to marry him. She agrees to come to his castle, but only if the deer, her brother, can come too. Thus, she is made queen, and the brother lives in the royal gardens. After a while, the sister has a child with the king. But by now, the evil stepmother has learned that the siblings are still alive, and, driven by hate and envy, plots to destroy their happiness ...
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12This is one of the tales retold by ''Webcomic/{{Erstwhile}}''. Compare "Literature/TheThreeLittleMenInTheWood" and the Russian fairy tale "Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka".
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14!! "Brother and Sister" contains examples of the following tropes:
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16* AfterActionPatchup: After the second hunt.
17* {{Animorphism}}: The brother is turned into a deer.
18* BackFromTheDead: After being suffocated in a bathhouse by the sorceress stepmother, the sister returns as a ghost to look after her baby. But when the king [[ResurrectedRomance recognizes the spirit as his true wife]], she is miraculously restored to life by God.
19* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The sister is described as the most beautiful woman her husband had ever seen (and since he's a king, that's saying something), and is portrayed as kind and loving. The stepsister, on the other hand, is utterly repugnant in both appearance and personality.
20* BigBad: The heroes' WickedStepmother, who has made it her mission to ruin her kids' lives.
21* BrotherSisterTeam: Well, sort of ...
22* BurnTheWitch: How the stepmother meets her end.
23* ChangelingTale: The stepmother-witch kills the sister and (apparently hiding the body) replaces her with her own ugly daughter, which she magically made look like the sister.
24* DeadlyBath: The stepmother and stepsister kill the sister by lighting a fire under her bath.
25* DisappearedDad: The father of the siblings has not a single appearance in the whole tale. All we know about him is that he must exist.
26* DoubleInLawMarriage: In some versions, the king has a sister who the brother marries after becoming human again.
27* EvilCripple: The one-eyed stepsister.
28* FoodChains: The brother's transformation is caused by drinking enchanted water.
29* ForcedTransformation: The cursed stream turns the brother into a deer.
30* GrayRainOfDepression: "Heaven and our hearts are weeping together."
31* LoveAtFirstSight: "Will you marry me?" are literally the first words the king speaks to the sister, having met her about half a second before. And the sister doesn't take long to decide that yes, she is willing to marry a total stranger.
32* TheMarvelousDeer: A JustifiedTrope: The Brother, transformed into a roebuck wearing a golden collar, makes a game of making the king and his hunters chase him, then hides in the siblings' hidden cottage for the night. Eventually, the pursuit of the mysterious roebuck leads the king to the hovel, where he meets a beautiful woman (the Sister) whom he falls instantly in love with.
33* NamelessNarrative: Everyone is referred to by their [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep relationship to each other]]: the brother, the sister, the king, the stepmother, and the stepmother's daughter.
34** Averted in ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'', where [[NamedByTheAdaptation the Brother is called Rudolph and the Sister is called Rose]].
35** In ''Webcomic/{{Erstwhile}}'' they're John and Jane.
36* NoOntologicalInertia: When the stepmother-witch is executed, the curse of transformation on the brother is finally broken, and he turns back into a man.
37* RagsToRoyalty: The poor siblings end up as the wife and brother-in-law of a king.
38* RedRightHand: The witch can make her daughter look like the sister with her magic, but she cannot hide her missing eye.
39* RuleOfThree: It's from the third spring they encounter that the brother drinks from, and thus is turned into a deer. It's also during the third day the king and his court are out hunting that the king encounters the sister. The ghost of the Queen also counts down to her permanent disappearance on her three final nights.
40* TalkingAnimal: After his transformation, the brother is a talking deer.
41* TreatedWorseThanThePet: At the beginning of the story, the brother laments to his sister that ever since their mother died, they get beaten every day by their stepmother, and even the dog gets a nice treat every now and then while they get nothing but hard bread crusts.
42* TrapIsTheOnlyOption: The brother is so thirsty that he finally drinks from an enchanted well even though he ''knows'' it is cursed.
43* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It is never explained what the Hell the witch did to the Sister's body after killing her. Some adaptions hand wave it by having her magically turn the Sister into a ghost rather than actually killing her.
44** Creator/PhilipPullman's ''Grimm Tales'' version has the stepmother hide the body by sealing the room with magic and hiding it behind a tapestry.
45** ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' solves this with {{Bowdlerization}}: The Sister is kidnapped and not killed, but she's greatly weakened whenever her spirit projects itself in the castle to breastfeed the baby prince and she ''will'' soon die from such an effort. Fortunately, her husband the King finds her before she exerts herself to death.
46* WickedStepmother: Literature/{{Cinderella}}'s stepmother is an amateur compared to this one.
47* WickedWitch: The stepmother is also a proficient sorceress.
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