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Overview
A widowed king has twelve sons and one daughter. His second queen, a sorceress seeking the inheritance for her own child, transforms the sons into eagles and their sister into a dove while their father is at war. The brothers fly away faster than their sister can follow. They remain the original human princes under enchantment, rather than a flock born as supernatural birds.
An old man restores the sister’s human form and sends her west with a bottle for her tears and an inexhaustible loaf. At the boundary of the next world, Death explains that the eagle brothers repeatedly try to pass his iron door because they hate their present existence. He refuses them entry until their allotted time and sends them back. When they discover their sister below the precipices, they caress her hands with their beaks. She sprinkles them with her collected tears and restores all twelve to human form.
The restoration removes their means of flying out of the abyss. A separately summoned great bird carries all thirteen siblings upwards, sustained first by the loaf and finally by their sister’s flesh. After it heals her wounds, they return east and meet their victorious father. Their return ends in the destruction of the basilisk who was their stepmother, not in the brothers remaining birds or entering the world of the dead.
Origins & earliest records
Polish Fairy Tales, translated from A. J. Gliński by Maude Ashurst Biggs (1920), The Eagles, pp. 29–36.
Records & interpretation
The selected English tale supplies the transformation, actions and ending. Biggs’s preface explicitly acknowledges considerable shortening of her source.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Polish Fairy Tales: The Eagles, pp. 29–36
Complete selected English narrative and translator’s preface. No individually named oral contributor provided; original Polish text not collated.
Family, evolution & connections
The twelve princes and their sister — Biggs’s telling
Complete The Eagles, pp. 29–36.
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- Unnamed king and deceased first queen
- One daughter, temporarily a dove
Opening first-couple family count and explicit stepchildren distinction. Both first-marriage parents and all children unnamed. The second queen is stepmother, not the deceased biological mother. Her own son is separate, without stated paternal identity. Eagle and dove forms preserve identities; no natural bird genealogy is implied.
The unnamed king and his deceased first wife
The opening gives the first royal couple twelve sons and one daughter. Their mother is dead before the second queen arrives; the father survives and reunites with all thirteen children.
Their unnamed sister, temporarily a dove
The princess remains the twelve brothers’ sister through her dove form and their eagle forms. Their return to human appearance restores these same siblings, rather than creating new offspring.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary historical shortened literary translationGliński/Biggs 1920: The EaglesResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.