"Twelve Brothers Flying with Blackbirds" (German: Die zwölf Brüder) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Tales. Andrew Lang included her in The Red Book of Fairies.

 

She is an Aarne-Thompson type 451 ("The Maiden Seeking Her Brothers"), which is often found in all European cultures. Other variations of the Aarne-Thompson type include The Six Swans, The Twelve Wild Ducks, Udea and Her Seven Brothers, The Wild Swans, and The Seven Crows.

 

The Brothers Grimm published the tale in the first edition of Kinder-und Hausmärchen in 1812 and largely rewrote it in the second edition (1819). Their sources were Julia R. Ramus (1792-1862) and Charlotte R. Ramus (1793-1858).

 

The reverse side of the coin features the silhouette of the fairy tale character - the sister - and the symbolic figures of her twelve Blackbird brothers descending and turning into humans. The symbolic tattoo - tree of life - on the sister's back - these are important moments of her life: birds, winds, clouds, mountain, children, bonfire, crown, rendered in Lithuanian folk writings, which strengthens the mystical plot of the fairy tale. The composition is surrounded by the inscription "Twelve brothers flying with blackbirds".

 

On the obverse side of the coin, there is a knitted pattern in which the main motif of the tale is woven, the inscription "Lithuania", the symbolic silhouette of Vytis. The composition, as if an allusion to a cozy evening when fairy tales were followed, is surrounded by stars and the moon, the denomination of the coin is €1.50, the logo of the coin manufacturer UAB "Lietuvos monetų kalykla" and the year 2024.