In a great forest, once there was a lonely king hunting.
His sorrowful heart pressed him forward in the chase of his prey and his men could not keep up with him.
He had lost the love of his life, the wife who had given him seven children: six sons and a daughter he loved more than anything on earth.
In fact, the only reason why he had not taken his life was the love of his children.
Now, evening approaching, he realized he was lost in the midst of a forest and as hard as he tried, he could not find his way back to the castle.
As he sat pondering, he saw an old woman approaching. She had a bobbing head and a huge wart on her nose. Her narrow eyes glinted with mischief. The King felt repulsion, yet he asked:
“Dear woman, can you help me out of this forest?”
“Of course, I can, his majesty,” she replied, “but on one condition.”
“What condition is it?” he asked
“That you marry my daughter and make her your queen, lest you die of hunger here in the woods.”
The king was bewildered, yet he consented, for he did not want to leave his children alone in the world and starve to death.
So, he followed the old woman into her hut, and there he saw her daughter sitting by the fire.
She was beautiful indeed, yet her eyes were as deep and dark as a hollow cave and as cold as frozen ice. He felt he could not love her.
He lifted her onto his horse and off he went, following the path the old witch had shown him.
The day after the king married the stranger, yet feeling that she was not a good woman, and fearing for his children, he decided to hide them into a mansion in a wood.
In the following days and weeks, he often went to visit them secretly, leaving the new queen alone. She got curious about his goings and asked his servants, who gave away his secret for money.
They told her that a wise woman had given the king a ball of magic yarn and that whenever he threw it in front of himself, it would lead him safely to his children’s mansion into the wood.
Once the king was out hunting, trying to appease his lonely heart, she searched the whole castle and was not satisfied until she had found the magic yarn.
She wove a few white silken shirts with a cursing spell and off she went into the wood following the magic yarn.
As she approached, the children heard the footsteps and the twigs breaking on the ground and thought it was their father; so they went out joyously to meet him.
But their stepmother threw her cursed shirts on each of them and the six sons of the king instantly turned into wild swans and flew away.
The queen was quite satisfied with her job and got back to the castle, thinking she had got rid of all of her stepchildren. The girl, however, who had seen everything from a window, did not come out and gathered all the feathers her brothers had left behind in the courtyard.
When her father went to visit her the day after, she told him what had happened. He mourned, but did not believe the queen had been able to do such a deed. He wanted to bring his daughter back with him, for fear of losing her too. The girl begged him to let her stay one night longer and he consented.
As soon a she was alone, the girl said to herself “I cannot stay here; I will leave and rescue my brothers, no matter what.” And off she went, straight into the woods. She walked a night and a day, till she was too tired to go further.
She saw a hunter’s hut and went in: there were six beds. She crept under one of them and fell asleep. At twilight, the rush of wings woke her up and she recognised her swan-brothers flying through the window.
They turned into their human shapes and they rejoiced, cried and embraced in seeing one another.
The girl asked: “My dear brothers, how can I rescue you?”
“The conditions are too difficult. Leave these robbers’ den before they come back and kill you. We can only be human for a quarter of an hour at twilight”
The girl insisted on knowing what she could do to redeem them.”
“You must weave six shirts out of nettles for six years, and never utter a word, lest your work is lost forever and with it our hopes.”
Then, the six princes turned back into swans and flew away.
In the early morning, the princess was more determined than ever: she would save her brothers, even at the cost of her own life.
She gathered nettles with dew and climbed onto a sturdy oak, where she started weaving the nettles into a shirt. She had no inclination to laugh or speak, and her eyes bent on the tasks, her pale face focussed on what mattered most to her.
Time went quickly, till a hunting party came along. A king’s men saw her and wanted to know who she was and whence she came, but she never answered. She threw off her golden chain, her belt, and rich cloak, hoping this would satisfy them, but to no avail.
One of the men climbed the tree and brought her in front of his king, who was touched by her beauty, and modesty, despite not receiving any answer to his questions.
He decided on the spot that she would be his bride, so he brought her back to his castle and had her clothed in rich garments. The day after they married, but the king’s mother was dissatisfied, for she deemed the girl not fit to be a king’s wife.
A year passed and the queen cared for nothing else than weaving her nettle shirts. However, she gave birth to her first son. While she was asleep, her evil mother-in-law, stole the child from her and smeared her lips with blood. Then she accused the young queen of being a cannibal before the king. The king did not believe a single word and protected his queen.
This happened with the second-born and again the king defended his queen, who never cared to defend herself from the charges.
But when it happened with the third son, the king could not defend the queen any longer, for all of the court and his counsellors had decided she should be burnt at the stake as a witch.
So, on the day the young queen was being led to the stake, the sky had a strange colour. Gusts of wind blew and all around the air was grey and unfathomable.
She put the nettle shirts on her arm and as she approached the stake, she looked overhead and she saw her swan brothers swooping down. As they bent their necks, she threw the shirts over each one of them and they instantly turned into young and vigorous young men. The six years had elapsed. Only the youngest brother had a swan wing instead of an arm, as his sister had not been able to finish the left sleeve of his shirt.
They freed their sister, to the bewilderment of all the people waiting to see her burnt as a witch, and they embraced her.
Then she spoke up for the first time and told the king:
“My dear husband now I can speak and tell you how I was unjustly accused by my mother-in-law who hid our children away and accused me of murdering them.”
The king was greatly moved and decided there and then that his mother should be burnt at the stake as a witch instead.
Then, the king and the queen embraced, and their children were brought up to them.
They and the queen’s brothers all lived in harmony and peace for many many years. And the little princes would always ask their favourite uncle to tell them the story of how he got a swan’s wing instead of an arm.
