created 2025-04-13, & modified, =this.modified
rel: German spell ward of stealer Transmutation and Transformation
The “swan maiden” (German: Schwanjungfrau) in the stricter sense, is a tale of the ATU 400, “The Swan Maiden” or “The Man on a Quest for His Lost Wife” (where the man makes a pact or enters into marriage with a supernatural female being, which later departs). The wife shapeshifts from human to bird form with the use of feathered cloak (or a turns into beast with animal skin). Sometimes the discussion is constrained to cases where the wife is specifically a swan or goose, or at least a bird of some kind.
German märchen
The Three Swans - a widowed hunter, guided by an old man in the woods, secures the magical garment of the swan-maiden and marries her. 15 years pass and his second wife finds her swan-coat and flies away. The hunter trails after her and reaches a castle where his wife and her sisters live. The swan-maiden tells him he must pass through trials in the castles for three nights, to break the curse cast on the women.
ATU
I see ATU mentioned here. This is Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, which is a catalog of folktale types used in folklore studies.
For example
510A Cinderella. (Cenerentola, Cendrillon, Aschenputtel.) A young woman is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters [S31, L55] and has to live in the ashes as a servant. When the sisters and the stepmother go to a ball (church), they give Cinderella an impossible task (e.g. sorting peas from ashes), which she accomplishes with the help of birds [B450]. She obtains beautiful clothing from a supernatural being [D1050.1, N815] or a tree that grows on the grave of her deceased mother [D815.1, D842.1, E323.2] and goes unknown to the ball. A prince falls in love with her [N711.6, N711.4], but she has to leave the ball early [C761.3]. The same thing happens on the next evening, but on the third evening, she loses one of her shoes [R221, F823.2].
The prince will marry only the woman whom the shoe fits [H36.1]. The stepsisters cut pieces off their feet in order to make them fit into the shoe [K1911.3.3.1], but a bird calls attention to this deceit. Cinderella, who had first been hidden from the prince, tries on the shoe and it fits her. The prince marries her. Combinations: This type is usually combined with episodes of one or more other types, esp. 327A, 403, 480, 510B, and also 408, 409, 431, 450, 511, 511A, 707, and 923.
Celestial Bride
A second format of the supernatural wife motif pertains to tales where the maiden isn’t a shapeshifting animal, but instead a creature or inhabitant of Heaven, a Celestial Realm, or hails from the place where the gods live. Western works translate this to fairies or nymphs.
The Six Swans
Thought
I’m not sure if this is part of the reference in Anathema! Medieval Scribes and the History of Book Curses by Marc Drogin and the discussion of the vow of silence.
A King is lost in the woods after being so focused on the hunt that he loses his company. He sees an old woman and asks for help. She agrees but on the condition, which if he fails he will never get out of the woods and die of hunger.
The old woman has the most beautiful daughter, and he must make her his queen. He consents and she is led to a cottage where the daughter sits by the fire. He sees she is beautiful, but she doesn’t fully please him, as he cannot look upon her without shuddering.
He takes her back and has children her her, whom he loves.
Fearful that his new wife might harm his children from his first marriage, hid them in a secret forest castle, using a magical cotton ball to find the way. However, the Queen discovered the secret, and through deception, cursed the six sons with enchanted shirts, turning them into swans. Only the daughter escaped the Queen’s scheme, and when the King returned to find only her, he brought her home. Terrified of the stepmother, the girl fled into the forest to find and help her brothers.
She eventually found them, learning they could only return to human form for fifteen minutes each evening. To break the curse, she had to sew six shirts from star-flowers in complete silence for six years. While working in solitude, a King discovered her and, though she never spoke, was so taken by her grace that he married her. His wicked stepmother falsely accused the silent Queen of killing their children, and after three such accusations, she was sentenced to death.
On the day of her execution, the six years were completed and the shirts were finished, all except one missing a sleeve. As the fire was about to be lit, the swan-brothers flew in, and she threw the shirts over them, breaking the curse. Her youngest brother retained a swan’s wing due to the incomplete shirt. Finally able to speak, she revealed the truth, saving herself and her children, while the evil stepmother was punished. The reunited family lived peacefully ever after.
“Oh, no,” replied they; “the conditions are too difficult. For six long years you must neither speak nor laugh, and during that time you must sew together for us six little shirts of star-flowers, and should there fall a single word from your lips, then all your labor will be in vain.” Just as the brothers finished speaking, the quarter of an hour elapsed, and they all flew out of the window again like Swans.