A king was
once hunting in a great wood, and he hunted the game so eagerly that none of
his courtiers could follow him. When evening came on he stood still and looked
round him, and he saw that he had quite lost himself. He sought a way out, but
could find none. Then he saw an old woman with a shaking head coming towards
him; but she was a witch.
"Good
woman,"' he said to her, "can you not show me the way out of the
wood?"
"Oh,
certainly, Sir King," she replied, "I can quite well do that, but on
one condition, which if you do not fulfil you will never get out of the wood,
and will die of hunger."
"What
is the condition?"' asked the King.
"I
have a daughter," said the old woman, "who is so beautiful that she
has not her equal in the world, and is well fitted to be your wife; if you will
make her lady-queen I will show you the way out of the wood."
The
King in his anguish of mind consented, and the old woman led him to her little
house where her daughter was sitting by the fire. She received the King as if
she were expecting him, and he saw that she was certainly very beautiful; but
she did not please him, and he could not look at her without a secret feeling
of horror. As soon as he had lifted the maiden on to his horse the old woman
showed him the way, and the King reached his palace, where the wedding was
celebrated.
The
King had already been married once, and had by his first wife seven children,
six boys and one girl, whom he loved more than anything in the world. And now,
because he was afraid that their stepmother might not treat them well and might
do them harm, he put them in a lonely castle that stood in the middle of a
wood. It lay so hidden, and the way to it was so hard to find, that he himself
could not have found it out had not a wise-woman given him a reel of thread
which possessed a marvellous property: when he threw it before him it unwound
itself and showed him the way. But the King went so often to his dear children
that the Queen was offended at his absence. She grew curious, and wanted to
know what he had to do quite alone in the wood. She gave his servants a great
deal of money, and they betrayed the secret to her, and also told her of the
reel which alone could point out the way. She had no rest now till she had
found out where the King guarded the reel, and then she made some little white
shirts, and, as she had learnt from her witch-mother, sewed an enchantment in
each of them.
And
when the King had ridden off she took the little shirts and went into the wood,
and the reel showed her the way. The children, who saw someone coming in the
distance, thought it was their dear father coming to them, and sprang to meet
him very joyfully. Then she threw over each one a little shirt, which when it
had touched their bodies changed them into swans, and they flew away over the
forest. The Queen went home quite satisfied, and thought she had got rid of her
step-children; but the girl had not run to meet her with her brothers, and she
knew nothing of her.
The
next day the King came to visit his children, but he found no one but the girl.
"Where
are your brothers?"' asked the King.
"Alas!
dear father," she answered, "they have gone away and left me all
alone." And she told him that looking out of her little window she had
seen her brothers flying over the wood in the shape of swans, and she showed
him the feathers which they had let fall in the yard, and which she had
collected. The King mourned, but he did not think that the Queen had done the
wicked deed, and as he was afraid the maiden would also be taken from him, he
wanted to take her with him. But she was afraid of the stepmother, and begged
the King to let her stay just one night more in the castle in the wood. The
poor maiden thought, "My home is no longer here; I will go and seek my
brothers." And when night came she fled away into the forest. She ran all
through the night and the next day, till she could go no farther for weariness.
Then she saw a little hut, went in, and found a room with six little beds. She
was afraid to lie down on one, so she crept under one of them, lay on the hard
floor, and was going to spend the night there. But when the sun had set she
heard a noise, and saw six swans flying in at the window. They stood on the
floor and blew at one another, and blew all their feathers off, and their
swan-skin came off like a shirt. Then the maiden recognised her brothers, and
overjoyed she crept out from under the bed. Her brothers were not less
delighted than she to see their little sister again, but their joy did not last
long.
"You
cannot stay here," they said to her. "This is a den of robbers; if
they were to come here and find you they would kill you."
"Could
you not protect me?" asked the little sister.
"No,"
they answered, "for we can only lay aside our swan skins for a quarter of
an hour every evening. For this time we regain our human forms, but then we are
changed into swans again."
Then
the little sister cried and said, "Can you not be freed?"
"Oh,
no," they said, "the conditions are too hard. You must not speak or
laugh for six years, and must make in that time six shirts for us out of
star-flowers. If a single word comes out of your mouth, all your labour is
vain." And when the brothers had said this the quarter of an hour came to
an end, and they flew away out of the window as swans.
But
the maiden had determined to free her brothers even if it should cost her her
life. She left the hut, went into the forest, climbed a tree, and spent the
night there. The next morning she went out, collected star-flowers, and began
to sew. She could speak to no one, and she had no wish to laugh, so she sat
there, looking only at her work.
When
she had lived there some time, it happened that the King of the country was
hunting in the forest, and his hunters came to the tree on which the maiden
sat. They called to her and said "Who are you?"
But
she gave no answer.
"Come
down to us," they said, "we will do you no harm."
But
she shook her head silently. As they pressed her further with questions, she
threw them the golden chain from her neck. But they did not leave off, and she
threw them her girdle, and when this was no use, her garters, and then her
dress. The huntsmen would not leave her alone, but climbed the tree, lifted the
maiden down, and led her to the King. The King asked, "Who are you? What
are you doing up that tree?"
But
she answered nothing.
He
asked her in all the languages he knew, but she remained as dumb as a fish. Because
she was so beautiful, however, the King's heart was touched, and he was seized
with a great love for her. He wrapped her up in his cloak, placed her before
him on his horse. and brought her to his castle. There he had her dressed in
rich clothes, and her beauty shone out as bright as day, but not a word could
be drawn from her. He set her at table by his side, and her modest ways and
behaviour pleased him so much that he said, "I will marry this maiden and
none other in the world," and after some days he married her. But the King
had a wicked mother who was displeased with the marriage, and said wicked
things of the young Queen. "Who knows who this girl is?" she said;
"she cannot speak, and is not worthy of a king."
After
a year, when the Queen had her first child, the old mother took it away from
her. Then she went to the King and said that the Queen had killed it. The King
would not believe it, and would not allow any harm to be done her. But she sat
quietly sewing at the shirts and troubling herself about nothing. The next time
she had a child the wicked mother did the same thing, but the King could not
make up his mind to believe her. He said, "She is too sweet and good to do
such a thing as that. If she were not dumb and could defend herself, her
innocence would be proved." But when the third child was taken away, and
the Queen was again accused, and could not utter a word in her own defence, the
King was obliged to give her over to the law, which decreed that she must be
burnt to death. When the day came on which the sentence was to be executed, it
was the last day of the six years in which she must not speak or laugh, and now
she had freed her dear brothers from the power of the enchantment. The six
shirts were done; there was only the left sleeve wanting to the last.
When
she was led to the stake, she laid the shirts on her arm, and as she stood on
the pile and the fire was about to be lighted, she looked around her and saw
six swans flying through the air. Then she knew that her release was at hand
and her heart danced for joy. The swans fluttered round her, and hovered low so
that she could throw the shirts over them. When they had touched them the
swan-skins fell off, and her brothers stood before her living, well and beautiful.
Only the youngest had a swan's wing instead of his left arm. They embraced and
kissed each other, and the Queen went to the King, who was standing by in great
astonishment, and began to speak to him, saying, "Dearest husband, now I
can speak and tell you openly that I am innocent and have been falsely
accused."
She
told him of the old woman's deceit, and how she had taken the three children
away and hidden them. Then they were fetched, to the great joy of the King, and
the wicked mother came to no good end.
But
the King and the Queen with their six brothers lived many years in happiness
and peace.
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