Fairy-Tale Files, published once weekly, feature three variations of a fairy tale chosen by one of Fairy Tale Review’s editors.
In the classic Grimm tale, a sister tries repeatedly to save her brother from transforming into various other animals—a tiger, a wolf—after he drinks from various water springs in the forest. Despite her pleas, he continues to drink and is eventually turned irreversibly into a deer. They decide to stay in the forest so she can care for her deer-brother—she puts a gold chain around his neck to remember him by.
In a YouTube video that made the rounds around the Internet wheel of popularity a while back, 5-year-old Sadie (clad in a princess dress with a fairy tale character on the front) mourns over the fact that her baby brother will, in fact, age. Or worse, lose his cuteness. One can only imagine what he has devolved into in the years since.
The winner of our first annual award for prose, given in late 2014 and published in The Mauve Issue, is also named “Brother and Sister,” and without giving too much of the story away, it also features a sister who looks after the well-being of her brother, who has a history of changing in forms, albeit via a very different source. It’s a jewel of a story, and we highly recommend you look into picking up a copy of The Mauve Issue (buy an ebook!) to take a look.
This edition of Fairy-Tale Files is brought to you by Fairy Tale Review Managing Editor Joel Hans.
