An evil shape-shifting witch (or "fairy," depending on the translation) lived alone in a dark castle in the woods.

She froze to stone any man who would dare come near where she stood, and turned innocent maidens into birds and caged them.

During the 19th century there was barely any other variant of the story published besides the one collected by the brothers Grimm, with the exception of a Swedish version listed by Johannes Bolte and Jiri Polivka.

A Flemish version from Willebroek titled Janneken, Mieken and the witch Peetje Loo (Janneken en Mieken en de tooverheks Peetje Loo) was collected by Victor de Meyere.

[5] In a Dutch version from Driebergen titled The Golden Ball (De gouden bal), collected by Gerrit Jacob Boekenoogen, the protagonist and their beloved one are also siblings, with the differences that the brother is the one turned into a bird, and the siblings are also the children of a king.

Outside Europe Marie Campbell collected a version from the Appalachian Mountains titled The Flower of Dew, that follows the plot from the Grimm's tale pretty closely.