The Wild Swans
A sister who wove shirts of nettles in silence to free her eleven enchanted brothers
Page 1
Far away, where the swallows fly in winter, there lived a king who had eleven sons and one daughter, named Elisa. The eleven young princes and their little sister were as happy as the day was long, living in a fine castle and learning their lessons and playing in the great gardens together. Elisa was the gentlest and best-loved of them all, and her eleven brothers adored her. But their good mother had died, and the king, in time, married a new queen — a proud, cold woman who was secretly a sorceress, and who could not bear to see the king's twelve children so happy and so dearly loved. From the very first day, she began to plot a way to be rid of them all.
Page 2
The wicked queen soon worked her sorcery. With a cold word and a wave of her hand, she cast a spell upon the eleven young princes, and before their father could be told, they were changed — not into something monstrous, but into eleven great and beautiful wild swans, who swept up from the castle with a rush of white wings and flew away over the forest and the sea. The queen then sent little Elisa far away to be raised by poor folk in the countryside, and told the grieving king that his children had all gone away. And so the castle fell silent, and the twelve happy children were scattered to the winds — but the queen had not reckoned on the love of a faithful sister.
Page 3
The years passed, and Elisa grew into a gentle and lovely young woman. When at last she was old enough, her one wish was to find her lost brothers, and so she left the poor cottage where she had been raised and set out to search the wide world for them. She walked through deep forests and over wide fields, asking everyone she met if they had seen eleven princes or eleven wild swans, sleeping under the open sky and living on berries and spring water. Though the way was long and lonely, she never once lost heart, for her love for her brothers burned as warmly as ever, and something told her that, somewhere out in the great world, she would find them again at last.
Page 4
At last Elisa's long search brought her to the edge of the sea, and there, as the sun was setting, she saw eleven great white swans with golden marks upon their heads come flying in from over the water and settle on the shore. And the very moment the last rim of the sun sank beneath the waves, the eleven swans became eleven handsome young princes — her own brothers! For the wicked queen's spell held them as swans by day, and gave them back their own shape only at night. The joy of that reunion upon the darkening beach was greater than any of them could say, and the eleven brothers gathered their long-lost sister into their arms, weeping and laughing, together again at last after so many years apart.
Page 5
Elisa longed above all to break the cruel spell and give her brothers back their own shape for good. That night, a gentle fairy came to her in a dream and told her how it could be done — but the way was very hard. Elisa must gather stinging nettles with her own bare hands, crush them, and from the thread spin and knit eleven shirts, one for each brother; and when she threw the finished shirts over the eleven swans, the spell would be broken. But there was one terrible condition: from the moment she began until the very last shirt was done, she must not speak a single word, not even to explain herself — for the first word she uttered would drive a dagger through her brothers' hearts. Brave Elisa, loving her brothers more than her own comfort, began that very night to gather the stinging nettles.
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Day after day, in silence, Elisa gathered nettles and knitted, her fingers blistered but her spirit unbroken. One day, as she sat knitting among the trees, a young king of that land came riding through the forest on a hunt and found her there — a lovely, gentle young woman who would not, or could not, speak a single word. The king was so struck by her beauty and her sweet, sorrowful face that he fell in love with her at once, and gently took her back with him to his palace to be his queen. Elisa went with him, for she was kind and alone in the world; but all the while she kept her dreadful secret and her silence, and carried her bundle of nettle-shirts with her, knitting on in secret, for the sake of her eleven brothers.
Page 7
Elisa lived as the young king's silent queen, loved by him but gazed upon with suspicion by others — for she kept so strangely silent, and crept out at night to gather more nettles from lonely places. Whispers began to spread through the court that the beautiful silent queen must be a witch. Her old enemy's influence was at work too, stirring the rumours. Though Elisa longed to explain herself — to cry out that she was no witch, only a loving sister trying to save her brothers — she dared not speak a single word, for she had but one shirt left to finish, and one word would doom them all. So she bore the cruel whispers and hard looks in silence, knitting faster than ever, racing to finish before it was too late.
Page 8
At last the whispers won, and the gentle queen was condemned as a witch and led out at dawn to be judged before the people — all for a crime she had never committed, and could not speak a word to deny. Yet even in the cart that carried her out, Elisa kept knitting, her fingers flying, for ten shirts were finished and only the sleeve of the eleventh remained. Just as it seemed all hope was lost, there came a great rushing of wings across the dawn sky: her eleven brothers, as wild swans, had found her at last and came sweeping down around her. In that final moment Elisa flung the eleven nettle-shirts up over the circling swans — and the long, hard, silent labour of love was done.
Page 9
As the eleven nettle-shirts fell over the swans, the wicked spell shattered like glass: where eleven white swans had been, there now stood eleven handsome young princes — Elisa's own brothers, free at last and in their own true shapes. The youngest's shirt had been just one sleeve short of finished, and so he kept a single swan's wing in place of one arm, as a gentle mark of all that had happened; but he was free, and so were all the rest. And now, with the last shirt thrown and the spell broken, Elisa could speak at last. She cried out the whole truth before the astonished crowd — that she was no witch, but only a loving sister — and the young king, overjoyed and ashamed of ever having doubted her, ran to gather her into his arms.
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And so, after so much sorrow and such a long, silent labour of love, everything was set right at last. The wicked queen's power was broken and undone, and she troubled the kingdom no more. Elisa and the young king, who loved her truly and had learned never again to doubt a good and gentle heart, were wed in the greatest celebration the land had known, with Elisa's eleven brothers — princes once more, home and free — standing proudly at her side. The whole kingdom rejoiced in the gentle queen whose silent courage had saved them all. And from that day Elisa and her brothers were never parted again, and they all lived together in happiness and peace for the rest of their long lives.
About this story
- Audience: kids (ages 6–12)
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