Brothers Grimm. "The Six Swans." Grimm’s Fairy Tales, illustrated by Walter Crane and E. H. Wehnert, Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co., 1896.

Tale Summary

There was once a King who met an old woman while lost in the woods. She was a witch and promised to show him the way out as long as he took her daughter for his bride. He had seven children from a previous marriage, six boys and one girl whom he adored more than anything. They were sent to a castle in the woods for he feared their new stepmother would treat them poorly, and the queen soon began to wonder where her husband so frequently went. She bribed some servants and set out for the castle, and brought with her some silk shirts with enchanted charms. The boys thought it was their father returning and ran out to meet him, and the witch threw the shirts on each of them, turning them into swans. The next day, the king went to visit his children but found only his daughter. The king wished to take her with him to protect her, but because she was scared of his wife, she was allowed to spend one more night in the castle. That night, she resolved to find her brothers and went far into the woods until she was too weary to go on, and entered a hut she found. At sunset, six swans flew to the window and took off their swan-skins to reveal her brothers, who warned her she was staying in a robber’s hut, and that they could only be boys for fifteen minutes every day. They told her that in order to set them free, she would not be allowed to speak or laugh for six years, and in that time make six shirts out of aster flowers. She worked on this for a while, until some huntsmen of that country came by her tree and she was called to. She did not speak, and instead offered pieces of what she was wearing in the hopes of contenting them, but she was instead taken in front of the king. She did not answer him either, but she was so beautiful that he began to fall in love with her and they were soon married. However, he had a wicked mother who thought ill of the maiden, and when she bore her first child to the queen, the woman stole the baby away and smeared blood on the maiden’s mouth. The king did not believe his mother’s entreaty that his wife ate the child, and after their next child was born, the same trick was played. He still did not believe this was possible, but after the third baby disappeared, he condemned his wife to death by fire. On the day she was sentenced, it was the very last day of the six years, and she had finished all but one shirt, which needed its left sleeve. She cried out when the kindling started, for she saw six swans flying. She threw the shirts over them and they turned back into boys (although the one who wore the shirt with the sleeve missing had a wing instead of one of his arms). She told the king all that had happened, and the wicked woman was burned in her stead. The maiden and the king lived happily together with the six brothers for many years.