“The Wild Swans.” Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Harry Leigh Justice Ward, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, 1872, pp. 1-12.

Tale Summary

There was once a king who had eleven sons, and a daughter named Elisa. The boys were very well educated princes, and their sister had what she wanted to entertain her, no matter the cost. Their father married a wicked queen, who had no liking for the children at all, and made it well-known. She sent Elisa to live with some peasants in the country, and filled the king's head with evil thoughts that turned him against his sons. She told them to fly, forcing them to the world to look after themselves, but because she could not say it quite right, they became eleven beautiful, swans that flew off away from the palace. Early in the morning, they passed where Elisa slept in the peasants cottage, but flew further away, as no one could hear, or see them. Elisa grew up with the peasants, with only a leaf for a toy, but became very beautiful. When she was 15, she returned home, but the queen was jealous of her beauty. She gathered three toads, and ordered them to settle in her head, her brow, and her heart to make her ugly, and have wicked thoughts that would end in pain and sorrow. Elisa was too innocent for this magic to work, and the toads turned into three red poppies. The wicked queen then rubbed her skin with a stinking ointment and matted her hair to make her unrecognizable. The king no longer recognized her, and Elisa left the palace, weeping, wandering into the forest, thinking of her brothers. After a few days, she met an old woman with a basket of berries, who told her that the previous day she had seen eleven swans with gold crowns swimming in a nearby brook. As the sun was setting that night, Elisa saw eleven swans there, and hid behind a bush to wash them. When the sun sank, suddenly the skin of the swan skins fell off and revealed eleven beautiful princes. She ran to them happily, and they had a glad reunion. The eldest brother explained that they fly as swans during the day, but become men again at night, and must take care that they have ground below their feet during this transformation or else they would plummet from the sky. He told her that they lived in another land beyond the sea, and could only visit thanks to a large rock in the midway point, and could only make this journey on the two longest days of the year. At sundown the next day, the brothers said that they must fly away in the morning, and could not return for another year. They offered to take Elisa with them, and she agreed, and they spent the night weaving a net for her to lay in. They spent the entire next day flying over the ocean, but were slowed by carrying their sister with her, and only barely made it to the midway point in time. The next day they flew over land, and Elisa saw a beautiful kingdom on a mountain, which the swans told her belonged to Fata Morgana and no man dared to enter. They made it at last to their land, and Elisa wondered how she could start her brothers free. She had a dream that she was in the forbidden castle and the fairy came to meet her, and looked strangely like the old woman in the forest. She told Elisa that her brothers could be released, if only she made eleven long sleeve tunics for her brothers out of stinging nettles. As well as being grueling and painful work, she would not be allowed to speak until her work was complete, as it would kill her brothers. The next day, Elisa set to work, and the brothers knew that she must be doing it for their sake. She had made a good amount of yarn from the nettles, when a nearby king found her and brought her home with them to be his queen, thinking her to be the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen. The Archbishop was convinced that the girl was a witch, but the king did not hit him and married the girl anyway. She wept and wept until the king showed her that they had brought the nettle yarn with them and it was housed in a special room. Every night the new queen worked hard on knitting the eleven tunics, but just when she began the seventh, she found she had no yarn left. She knew that nettles grew in the church yard, and in the moonlight she ventured there. She saw a pack of witches feasting on corpses, but she was able to pass them and gather her nettles in peace because of her prayers. The Archbishop saw this, and thought that it proved that the girl was a witch, and he relayed all that he saw to the king. He was distraught, and noticed how throughout the night she came and went, and disappeared into her little room. In the meantime, Elisa finished every tunic, but one, and had run out of nettles. Once again, she went to the church yard, and the king and Archbishop followed, and watched from a distance, and was convinced that she was one of the witches. She was judged, and condemned to burn at the stake. Elisa had one more night to work on the tunics in the prison, where small mice on the floor helped her. The next day Elisa was being led to her death, and all the way she continued to work on the last tunic. The people who had gathered to watch thought it was witches’ work, and tried to tear away from her, but just in time, the eleven swans descended and protected her. She was seized by the headsman, and quickly she threw the tunics necks over the swans, and immediately they turned into princes. The youngest still had a swan swing instead of a second arm, for she had no time to finish the sleeve. She cried that she was innocent, and sank into her brother's arms. The eldest brother explained what had happened, and as he spoke, red roses teamed all about, with one dazzling white flower that the king placed on Elisa’s heart. She awoke in peace, and a wedding procession went back to the palace.