The Twins with Golden Stars

Overview

Laptitza marries the future emperor after promising twin sons with golden hair and radiant stars upon their foreheads. His stepmother arranges a war to remove him during the birth, substitutes puppies for the children and buries the twins beneath his windows. The deceived father punishes their mother by burying her to the breast in earth and marries the stepmother’s daughter. The twins continue through a sequence of material and animal forms rather than remaining permanently dead beneath the palace.

Two aspens spring from their burial place and grow at extraordinary speed. Felled and made into the royal couple’s beds, they speak as brothers: the father’s bed welcomes his weight, while the other laments its wicked occupant. The second empress burns both beds, but two sparks rise from the fire and fall into the river as identical golden-scaled fish. When fishermen catch them, they ask to be placed in leaf-dew under the sun. Once the dew dries, the fishermen find human boys with their original golden hair and stars. The narrative does not identify a different spirit inhabiting each successive form.

Three days of rapid growth give them twelve years of age, twenty-four in strength and thirty-six in wisdom. Wearing caps to conceal their brightness, they force entry at court and sing their own history. Cushions fall from beneath the second empress as their testimony advances. Removing their caps reveals a brilliance that makes the gathered people close their eyes. Laptitza resumes her place beside her husband; the second empress becomes a servant, and the instigating stepmother receives the tale’s violent punishment. The boys’ recognition restores the family, without a separate narrated coronation of either twin.

Origins & earliest records

Roumanian Fairy Tales, collected by Mite Kremnitz, adapted and arranged by J. M. Percival (New York: Henry Holt, 1885), The Twins With the Golden Star, pp. 30–41.

Records & interpretation

Complete selected English narrative. The preface assigns tale 3 to Slavice in Convorbiri Literare; subsequent Romanian and intermediate-language editions have not been collated.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Roumanian Fairy Tales: The Twins With the Golden Star, pp. 30–41

   Mite Kremnitz, collector; J. M. Percival, adapter and arranger · 1885

   Preface assigns tale 3 to Slavice in Convorbiri Literare. Complete selected English witness and family-restoration ending read.

Family, evolution & connections

Laptitza’s twin sons — the golden-star tale

Complete English adaptation, pp. 30–41; parentage and successive forms.

Explicit birth to Laptitza and the emperor; repeated identification as twin brothers. The boys are unnamed. Their forms preserve identity rather than representing biological descent. The emperor’s stepmother and second wife belong to a separate stepfamily; no offspring of the second marriage are stated. Romanian originals have not been collated.

The emperor’s stepmother and her daughter — golden-star tale

Complete English adaptation, pp. 30–41; stepfamily statements on pp. 32–35.

Explicit daughter from the stepmother’s first marriage and subsequent second royal marriage. This is the father’s stepfamily, not the twins’ biological maternal lineage. No father of the emperor or children of his second marriage are newly inferred. The stepmother’s brother is stated but has no supplied parentage.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary historical English adaptationKremnitz/Percival 1885: The Twins With the Golden StarResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.