In the Brothers Grimm tale “The Twelve Brothers,” the princess seeks to rescue twelve brothers.
The story begins with a king who has twelve sons and plans to kill them if his next child is a daughter, because he wants the kingdom to pass to one male heir. The queen warns the boys, and they flee into the forest before their sister is born. The daughter later learns about her brothers and searches for them.
The brothers have been transformed into ravens, and the sister discovers that she must remain silent for seven years while sewing shirts for them. Her silence and persistence eventually restore them to human form. The number twelve is central to the tale’s identity and is not the same as the seven transformed brothers in “The Seven Ravens.”
The tale was included by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in their collection, where family loyalty, enchantment, and sacrifice are recurring themes.