Everything about The Youngest Son totally explained
The
youngest son is a
stock character in
fairy tales, where he features as the
hero. He is usually the
third son, but sometimes there are
more brothers, and sometimes he's only one; usually, they've no sisters.
In a family of many daughters, the
youngest daughter may be an equivalent figure.
Traits
Prior to his adventures, he's often despised as weak and foolish by his brothers or father, or both — sometimes with reason, some youngest sons actually being foolish, and others being lazy and prone to sitting about the ashes doing nothing. Sometimes, as in
Esben and the Witch, they scorn him as small and weak.
Even when not scorned as small and weak, the youngest son is seldom distinguished by great strength, agility, speed, or other physical powers. He may be particularly clever, as in
Hop o' My Thumb, or fearless, as in
The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, but more commonly his traits include refusal to abandon the
quest, as in
Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf or
The Brown Bear of the Green Glen, and courtesy to strangers, especially those who appear weak, as in
The Water of Life or
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship.
Plots
He generally succeeds in tasks after his older brothers have failed, as in
The Red Ettin, or all three are set tasks and he's only the one to succeed, as in
Puddocky. He may happen on the
donor that gives him his success, as Puddocky has pity on him, but usually he's tested in some manner that distinguishes him from his brothers: in
The Red Ettin he's offered the choice of half a loaf with his mother's
blessing and the whole with her
curse, and takes the blessing where his brothers took the curse, and in
The Golden Bird he takes a talking fox's advice to avoid an inn where his brothers decided to abandon their quest.
This magical helper is often long faithful to him; he may fail many time after the initial test, often by not respecting the helper's advice. Indeed, in
The Golden Bird, the fox declares that the hero doesn't deserve his help after his disobedience, but still aids him.
This success may make his brothers an additional
obstacle, as in
The Golden Bird, where they overpower him and steal what he's won on his quest. In some tales, such as
The Grateful Beasts, they conclude he may be a rival in advance, and they attempt to stop him before the quest; in others, such as
Thirteenth or
Boots and the Troll, he must set to tasks because they've spitefully claimed that he said he could.
This rivalry isn't a necessary component of the character. He may also be the only one of the brothers to set about the work, as in
Dapplegrim. In some tales, such as the Norwegian version of
The Master Thief, the brothers are mentioned and vanish from the tale entirely when they set out to seek their fortune.
Youngest daughters
Heroines in fairy tales are more often marked out as stepdaughters, but sometimes they appear as the youngest daughter. In
Molly Whuppie, it's the youngest who outwits the ogre. The White Bear in
East of the Sun and West of the Moon marries the youngest daughter; in the
Black Bull of Norroway, the heroine's older sisters set out to seek their fortunes before her. She may be the only one willing to fulfill a promise that their father made, as in
Beauty and the Beast.
Sibling rivalry may also spring up in these stories, but usually over the youngest daughter's marriage. They may incite their sister to break the taboo her husband has laid on her, as in
Cupid and Psyche, or make it appear that she's killed her own children to make her husband hate her, as in
The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird.
Youngest daughters may also appear as not the heroine of the tale, but the bride of the hero; when there's more than one princess, the bride is almost always the youngest, as in
King Kojata,
The Hairy Man,
The Magician's Horse, or
Shortshanks. A
ballad may feature three sisters solely so that the youngest of them can be preferred to her sisters.
Sibling pairs
A pair of siblings, whether a girl and a boy as in
Hansel and Gretel or two girls as in
Snow-White and Rose-Red or
Kate Crackernuts, or two boys as in
The Gold-Children, often features them as co-protagonists than as rivals. This is, in fact, the more common pattern when the children are of the opposite sex, or when they're boys (usually twin boys).
The story of the "kind and unkind girls" often features a pair as rivals. They are more often stepsiblings than siblings, but as siblings, the younger is generally the favored, as in
Diamonds and Toads or some variants of
The Red Ettin.
Brothers with a sister
In tales where the brothers had a sister, she's usually the heroine of the tale, as in
The Seven Ravens,
The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird (in the second generation),
The Fair Fiorita,
The Death of Koschei the Deathless, or
The Twelve Wild Ducks. Even in these tales, the youngest son may be set out: in
The Seven Ravens, he's the first to guess that their sister has found them; in
The Twelve Wild Ducks, he argues against his oldest brother, who wants to kill their sister as the cause of their misery.
Sibling rivalry in fairy tales is, in general, a trait of same-sex siblings.
Modern variants
The ubiquity of this theme has made it an obvious target for
revisionist fairytale fantasy.
Andrew Lang has his
Prince Prigio jeer at the notion that he should go first on the quest, when he's the oldest son; only after his two younger brothers have not returned can he be compelled to go. Likewise, in
Diana Wynne Jones's
Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie, being the oldest daughter, is resigned to having the worst chances to make her fortune, but is precipitated into the plot by evil magic.
Fairy tales
Tales that feature youngest sons:
Tales that feature youngest daughters:
The Tale of Tsar Saltan
Water and Salt
How the Devil Married Three Sisters
The Brown Bear of Norway
Fitcher's Bird
The Hut in the Forest
The Goose-Girl at the Well
The Battle of the Birds
Finette Cendron
Molly WhuppieFurther Information
Get more info on 'Youngest Son'.
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