Section 1
Once upon a time, there was a king and queen who lived in perfect harmony and were blessed with twelve children, but all of them were boys. Then the King came up with a condition that troubled his wife. He said, "My dear, if the thirteenth child you give birth to is a girl, I'm afraid our twelve boys must meet their end. This is to ensure our daughter inherits a vast fortune and solely inherits the kingdom." The King also ordered the construction of twelve coffins, each filled with shavings and a small pillow for the deceased. He had them placed in a secured room, and gave the Queen the key, instructing her to keep silent about it to anyone.
The Queen, however, spent her days in mourning, until her youngest son, Benjamin, who was always by her side and named after a biblical figure, asked her, "My dear mother, why are you so sad?"
"My beloved child," she replied, "I cannot tell you." But Benjamin persisted until she finally relented and showed him the locked room with the twelve coffins filled with shavings. "My dearest Benjamin," she explained, "your father had these coffins made for you and your eleven brothers. If I give birth to a little girl, you will all be killed and buried in them." As the mother wept, her son comforted her and said, "Do not cry, dear mother. We will save ourselves and leave this place." But she replied, "Go into the forest with your eleven brothers and have one of you always sit on the tallest tree, keeping watch towards the tower in the castle. If I give birth to a little son, I will raise a white flag and then you may return, but if I bear a daughter, I will raise a red flag, and then you must flee as quickly as you can, and may the good Lord protect you. And every night, I will pray for you, asking God to keep you warm by a fire in winter and to keep you from fainting in the heat of summer." After she had blessed her sons, they left for the forest. Each took turns sitting atop the tallest oak tree, keeping watch towards the tower. On the eleventh day, it was Benjamin's turn, and he saw a flag being raised. However, it was not the white flag as they had hoped, but the blood-red one, signaling their imminent demise. Upon hearing the news, the brothers were filled with anger and exclaimed, "Should we all die for the sake of a girl? We swear to avenge ourselves! Wherever we find a girl, her blood shall flow as red as the flag!"
They went deeper into the forest and found a small bewitched hut in the darkest part of it. It was empty, so they decided to make it their home. "We will live here," they said. "Benjamin, since you are the youngest and weakest, you shall stay home and take care of the house while the rest of us go out to gather food." They went into the forest and hunted hares, wild deer, birds, and pigeons for food. They brought their catch back to Benjamin, who had to dress and prepare it for them to eat. They lived together in the small hut for ten years, and the time passed by quickly.
The little daughter of the Queen, who had been born after her sons had fled, had grown up to be a kind-hearted and beautiful girl with a golden star on her forehead. One day, during a large washing, she noticed twelve small men's shirts among the laundry and asked her mother, "Whose are these twelve shirts? They are much too small for father." The Queen replied with a heavy heart, "My dear child, those shirts belong to your twelve brothers." The girl asked, "Where are my twelve brothers? I have never heard of them before." The Queen replied, "God knows where they are, they are wandering around the world." The Queen took the maiden to the chamber and showed her the twelve coffins with shavings and pillows. "These coffins," she said, "were meant for your brothers, but they left secretly before you were born." She told her the whole story of what happened. Then the maiden said, "Dear mother, do not weep. I will go and search for my brothers."
