they are saved. She emerges, and they return home. Analysis This tale, like The Twelve Brothers, The Six Swans, and Brother and Sister, features a woman rescuing her brothers. In the era and region in which it was collected, many men were drafted by kings for soldiers, to be sent as mercenaries. As a consequence, many men made their daughters their heirs; however, they also exerted more control over them and their marriages. The stories have been interpreted as a wish by women for the return of their brothers, freeing them from this control. However, the issues of when the stories were collected are unclear, and stories of this type have been found in many other cultures, where this issue can not have inspired them. Some folklorists connect this tale to the more general practice of ultimogeniture, in which the youngest child would inherit. Commentary In the original oral version, there were three, not seven ravens; one study of German folk tales found that of 31 variants collected after the publication of Grimms' Fairy Tales, only two followed the Grimms in having seven ravens. A Polish variant exists with the name The Seven Raven Brothers, collected from the Płock region. Two Slovakian versions exist: one named O sklenenom zámku ("About the glass keyhole"), archived in the Slovak collection named Codexy Revúcke ("Codices of Revúca"), and published version Traja zhavranení bratia ("Three Raven Brothers"). A Puerto Rican variant exists with the title of "The Seven Crows." In music The Liechtenstein composer Josef Rheinberger based an opera on the tale, which was premiered in 1867. Ludwig Englander wrote a romantic fairy tale in four acts called The Seven Ravens, combining drama, pantomime, opera and ballet. The libretto was by C. Lehnhardt and based on the original German play by Emil Pohl. It was translated by G.P. Lathorp and ran at Niblo's Gardens, New York, from 8 November 1884 for a total of 96 performances. A competing spectacle by the Kiralfy Brothers, Sieba and the Seven Ravens, was presented at the Star Theatre. The German pagan folk band Faun released in 2019 a song called Sieben Raben (from the album Märchen & Mythen), inspired by this fairy tale. Modern interpretations Black Feather by K. Tempest Bradford (published in the Interfictions anthology, 2007) references commonalities between The Six Swans, The Seven Ravens, and The Twelve Brothers while building a new narrative for the sister