 |
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 to
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.
|
 |