The Six Swans

1991FelicitasKuhnSixSwans — 1991 illustration for "The Six Swans" by Felicitas Kuhn.

"The Six Swans" (German: "Die sechs Schwäne") is a German fairy tale. It is included in Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales), the 1812 anthology of folktales compiled by the Brothers Grimm, and The Yellow Fairy Book, the 1894 anthology of children's stories compiled by the Scottish folklorist Andrew Lang. Similar stories exist in the folklore of North Africa, Greece, Russia and other European countries. Hans Christian Andersen drew on similar Scandinavian folktales to write "The Wild Swans", which was first published in 1838. Two other stories that are variants of the same folktale, "The Twelve Brothers" and "The Seven Ravens" are also included in Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the Brothers Grimm.

The plot of "The Six Swans" is set in motion when a king agrees to marry the daughter of a witch. Since he does not really trust his new queen, the king does not let her know about the seven children, six sons and a daughter, that he has from a previous marriage. When the queen finds out about the king's children, she uses witchcraft to change the six princes into swans. The princess escapes the queen's magic and retains her human form. She finds out that there is a way to make her brothers become human again but it requires her not to talk or laugh for six years.

"The Six Swans" has been adapted for film and television and has inspired modern authors to create new works of literature.

Plot[]

While he is hunting, a king gets lost. He asks an old woman for directions. The woman turns out to be a witch. She agrees to tell the king how to get home on the condition that he marries her daughter. The king reluctantly agrees. Although he finds the witch's daughter beautiful, the king does not entirely trust his new queen.

The king has six sons and a daughter from a previous marriage. Since the king distrusts his new wife, he keeps the children's existence a secret from her. They are sent to live in a castle far away in the middle of a forest. The king, however, often goes to visit them. As a result of his frequent absences, the queen finds out about the seven children and where they live.

Using the magic that she learned from her mother, the queen makes some enchanted shirts. She goes to where the king's children live. When the king's sons see someone approaching in the distance, they assume it is their father. They run out towards the queen. She throws the shirts on them. They are immediately transformed into swans and fly away. The king's daughter did not run out with her brothers towards the queen and, as a result, remains in human form.

No longer feeling safe in the castle and wanting to find her brothers, the princess leaves. She walks through the forest. She eventually comes to a hut in which there are six beds. The princess is too nervous to sleep in any of the beds but she crawls underneath one and falls asleep. She is awakened by the sound of the six swans flying into the hut. Her brothers then take on their human form again. They tell their sister that the hut in which they are standing is really the hideaway of some thieves. They add that they cannot protect their sister from the thieves because they can only take on human form for fifteen minutes each day. The princess asks if there is anything she can do to help her brothers. They tell her that there is a magic spell she can perform to make them human again permanently. She must not speak or laugh for six years. During that time, she must make shirts for each of her brothers from a plant called starwort. After saying this, the princes become swans again and fly away. The princess decides to take on the difficult task of casting the spell to save her brothers.

One day, another king goes hunting in the forest where the princess is living. The king asks the princess who she is. The spell that she is casting to save her brothers means that she cannot answer. The king is overcome with love for the princess and takes her back to his castle. He continues to try to talk to her. She, however, remains completely mute. Nevertheless, the king decides to marry her and makes her his queen. They have three children.

The king's wicked mother distrusts the young queen who never speaks. Each time that the young queen has a child, the old queen tries to make it appear as if the young queen has killed and eaten the baby. The old queen takes the child away and smears blood on the young queen's lips. The first two times that this happens, the king simply refuses to believe that his wife has done anything wrong. The third time, however, the young queen is put on trial for cannibalism. As a result of the spell she is casting, the young queen is unable to say anything in her own defense. She is condemned to be put to death by being burned at the stake.

In prison, the young queen continues to make the starwort shirts for her brothers. By the time that the day of her execution comes, she has almost finished making them. One shirt, however, still has one sleeve missing. When the young queen is led out to the stake, she carries the six shirts with her. The six swans fly towards her. She puts the shirts on them. They take on human form again, although the youngest prince, who has one sleeve missing, keeps one wing instead of an arm.

Once she has completed the magic spell, the young queen is able to talk again. She tells the king everything. Her three children are brought out from the place where the old queen had hidden them. The king's wicked mother is executed by being burned at the same stake the queen was almost burned at. The king, the young queen and her six brothers live together in happiness.

Adaptations[]

Works of modern literature inspired by "The Six Swans" include the 1962 novel The Seventh Swan by the British author Nicholas Stuart Gray, the 1984 novel Swan's Wing by the British author Ursula Synge, the 1990 novel The Wild Swans by the American author Peg Kerr, the short story "The Springfield Swans" by the American authors Caroline Stevermer and Ryan Edmonds that is included in the 1995 anthology Snow White, Blood Red, the short story "Swan Song" by the American mystery author John Lutz that is included in the 1998 anthology Once Upon a Crime, the 1999 historical fantasy novel Daughter of the Forest by the New Zealand-born author Juliet Marillier the short story "My Swan Sister" by the American writer Katherine Vaz that is included in the 2003 anthology My Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold, the poems "Ever After" by the American poet Debora Greger and "The Sister of the Swans" by the American poet Janet McAdams that are both included in the 2003 anthology The Poets' Grimm, the 2005 novel Birdwing by the American writer Rafe Martin, the 2008 novel The Swan Kingdom by the British writer Zoe Marriott, the 2012 novel Princess of the Wild Swans by the American writer Diane Zahler and the 2014 novel Moonlight by the American writer Ann Hunter.

"The Six Swans" was adapted as the 1917 American silent film The Seven Swans starring Marguerite Clarke as the princess.

Toei Animation of Japan produced an animated film adaptation of the story in 1977. The film is known in Japanese as Sekai Meisaku Dōwa: Hakuchō no Ōji (世界名作童話白鳥の王子). It has been released in English as The Wild Swans and The Prince of the Swans. It was directed by Nobotuaka Nishizawa, with Eiko Masuyama as the Princess (here named Elisa); it also has elements of both this and Hans Christian Andersen's own take on the story, The Wild Swans.

"The Three Ravens", the sixth episode of the first season of the British-American children's television series Jim Henson's The StoryTeller, is based on "The Six Swans" and other similar folktales. The episode was first shown on the ITV network in the United Kingdom on June 19, 1988.

"The Six Swans" was adapted as the ninth episode of the second season of the anime series Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics (Japanese: グリム名作劇場; Gurimu Meisaku Gekijō). The episode originally aired on TV Asahi in Japan on December 11, 1988. The biggest change is how the story adapts out the mother-in-law and, in exchange, makes the wicked stepmother the main villain. Additionally, the Princess (here named Elise) and her husband have only one child, who is kidnapped and tossed into the woods by the stepmother during a visit to his parent's kingdom but is saved by his still-enchanted uncles and brought back to his parents when they come to save Elise. The cast includes: Mitsuko Horie as Princess Elise, Toshiko Fujita as the Stepmother, Unsho Ishizuka as the Old King, Hideyuki Hori as the Young King, and Kouichi Yamadera, Megumi Hayashibara and Hiroshi Takemura as some of the Princes.

The tenth episode of the second season of the German animated TV series Simsala Grimm is an adaptation of "The Six Swans". The episode was first broadcast on the channel Kindercanal in Germany on July 18, 2000.

A 90-minute live-action German TV movie adaptation of "The Six Swans" was first shown on the channel ZDF in Germany on December 26, 2012.

External links[]

Versions of "The Six Swans" in German and English on Wikisource.
Public domain audiobook of "The Six Swans" in German on YouTube.