The youngest son is a

stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a type of character in a narrative (e.g. a novel, play, television show, or film) whom audiences recognize across many narratives or as part of a storytelling tradition or convention. Th ...

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

s, where he features as the

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

. He is usually the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

son, but sometimes there are more

brothers A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingl ...

, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters. In a family of many daughters, the youngest daughter may be an equivalent figure.

Traits

Prior to his adventures, he is 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. But some times the youngest son is the one that does the most work. 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 A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. It serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of every nat ...

, 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 to tasks and he is the only one to succeed, as in ''

Puddocky "Das Märchen von der Padde" ("The Tale of the Toad") is a German folktale collected by Johann Gustav Gottlieb Büsching in ''Volks-Sagen, Märchen und Legenden'' (1812). It has been translated into English under the titles of "Puddocky" or "Che ...

''. He may happen on the donor that gives him his success, as Puddocky has pity on him, but usually he is tested in some manner that distinguishes him from his brothers: in ''The Red Ettin'' he is offered the choice of half a loaf with his mother's

blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with doctrines of grace, grace, Sacred, holiness, spiritual Redemption (theology), redemption, or Will of God, divine will. Etymology and Germani ...

and the whole with her

curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

, 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 times after the initial test, often by not respecting the helper's advice. Indeed, in ''The Golden Bird'', the fox declares that the hero does not deserve his help after his disobedience, but still aids him. This success may make his brothers an additional

obstacle An obstacle (also called a barrier, impediment, or stumbling block) is an object, thing, action or situation that causes an obstruction. A obstacle blocks or hinders our way forward. Different types of obstacles include physical, economic, bi ...

, as in ''The Golden Bird'', where they overpower him and steal what he has 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 In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The thirteenth is most commonly major or minor . A thirteenth chord is th ...

'' or ''

Boots and the Troll A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the human leg, leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel (shoe ...

'', he must set to tasks because they have spitefully claimed that he said he could. This rivalry is not 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 only 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 is 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 "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

'' or ''

Bearskin A bearskin is a tall fur cap derived from mitre#Military uniform, mitre caps worn by grenadier units in the 17th and 18th centuries. Initially worn by only grenadiers, bearskins were later used by several other military units in the 19th centur ...

''. In '' The Little Mermaid'', it is the youngest daughter of King Triton who falls in love with the prince after she saves him from drowning. In '' Diamonds and Toads'', the younger-&-least favoured daughter of a widow marries a king's son (after having passed a 'Test of Character' administered by a fairy in disguise). 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 has killed her own children to make her husband hate her, as in ''

The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird is a Sicily, Sicilian fairy tale collected by Giuseppe Pitrè, and translated by Thomas Frederick Crane for his ''Italian Popular Tales''. Joseph Jacobs included a reconstruction of t ...

''. Youngest daughters may also appear as not the heroine of the tale, but the bride of the hero; when there is 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 A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

may feature three sisters solely so that the youngest of them can be preferred. The choice of a younger and prettier sister may also cause intrafamily friction in a ballad. '' The Twelve Dancing Princesses'' is a subversion; in most versions the hero chooses to wed the eldest princess while the youngest of the twelve daughters was the only one to realize she and her sisters were being followed during their nightly ventures.

Sibling pairs

A pair of siblings, whether a girl and a boy as in ''

Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; ) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). Hansel and Gretel are siblings who are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch ...

'' 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 rather than as rivals. This is, in fact, the more common pattern when the children are of the opposite sex, or when they are boys (usually twin boys).Maria Tatar, ''Off with Their Heads!'' p. 68 The story of the "kind and unkind girls" often features a pair as rivals.Maria Tatar, p 341, ''The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales'', 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 is usually the heroine of the tale, as in '' The Seven Ravens'', ''

'' (in the second generation), '' The Fair Fiorita'', '' The Death of Koschei the Deathless'', '' The Twelve Wild Ducks'' or '' The Blue Bird''. Even in these tales, the youngest son may be set out: in ''The Seven Ravens'', he is 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 Fairytale fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy. It is distinguished from other subgenres of fantasy by the works' heavy use of motifs, and often plots, from fairy tales or folklore. History Literary fairy tales were not unknown in the Roman era ...

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...

has his Prince Prigio jeer at the notion that he should go first on the quest, when he is 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: *

Baš Čelik ''Baš Čelik'' (, ), meaning "head of steel", from Turkish language, Turkish ''baş'' for "head" and ''çelik'' for "steel", is a Serbian language, Serbian fairy tale, collected by Vuk Karadžić. It is similar to the Brothers Grimm's "The Cryst ...

* The Crystal Ball * Don Joseph Pear * The Frog Princess * The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body * The Grateful Beasts *

Ibong Adarna ''Ibong Adarna'', also known as ''The Adarna Bird'', is an early 19th century Filipino Epic poetry, epic poem that centers around a magical bird of the same name. During the History of the Philippines (1565–1898), Spanish era, the longer form ...

* Laughing Eye and Weeping Eye * Lord Peter * The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples * The Princess on the Glass Hill * The Queen Bee * The Water of Life * The Singing Bone *

* Prince Ivan and the Grey Wolf Tales that feature youngest daughters: * The Battle of the Birds *

* The Brown Bear of Norway * Finette Cendron * Fitcher's Bird * The Goose-Girl at the Well * How the Devil Married Three Sisters * The Hut in the Forest * The Little Mermaid * Molly Whuppie * The Tale of Tsar Saltan * The Twelve Dancing Princesses * Water and Salt

References

{{Stock characters Fairy tale stock characters Heroes Fiction about siblings