The Wild Swans

The Wild Swans

There once lived a king who had eleven sons and one daughter. He married a wicked queen who turned the princes into eleven wild swans.

The king asked the queen if she knew where the princes were. She shook her head.

At sunset, the swans flew to their sister, Eliza. Their feathers fell off, and the eleven princes stood before her. At dawn, they said, they would become swans again.

That night, Eliza dreamed that a fairy came to her. The fairy said to take nettles and make them into eleven shirts. The shirts would break the spell.

She also told Eliza not to speak before the task was done. If she did, her brothers would die.