Six Swans

Once upon a time, a king was hunting in the great forest, he struggled to chase a beast, but his followers were not able to follow him. It was getting late, and the king stopped to look around and realized that he was lost. He tried to get out of the forest, but could not find the way. At that moment, the king saw an old woman, a witch, nodding uncontrollably, walking toward him. "Good day," said the king to her, "will you show me the way out of the forest?" "Ah, yes, Your Majesty," replied the witch, "of course I can tell you, but on one condition. If you do not agree, you will never get out of the forest, and you will die of hunger in the forest."

"And what is that condition?" The king asked.

"I have a daughter who is very beautiful," the old witch replied, "and she is more than beautiful enough to be your wife. If you will take her as your queen, I will show you the way out of the forest." The king was so worried that he agreed to the witch's terms. The old witch led the king to her hut, where her daughter was sitting by the fire. The daughter received the king with a look as if she had expected him to come. The king thought she was really beautiful, but he didn't like her and was frightened at the sight of her. When the king put the girl on the horse, the old witch told the king about the road. After the king returned to the palace, he and the girl held a wedding.

The king had been married once before, and his first wife had given him seven children: six boys and one girl, whom the king loved very much. After the wedding, the king, fearing that his stepmother would mistreat the children, and would be harmed by her, sent them into the forest of . newly old castle to live in. The castle is located deep in the forest, and the road ad is extremely difficult to find if not a witch gave the king a wonderful ball of thread, even he be able to find. As long as the king threw the ball of thread on the ground, the ball of thread would open itself and lead the way for the king. The king often visited his beloved children, and the queen found that the king was often absent and curious, always trying to understand what the king was doing alone in the forest. She used a lot of money to bribe the king's entourage, these people leaked to her the secret, but also to guide the way of the baf string also told her. From then on, the queen was distracted until she knew where the king had collected the threads, and then she settled down. Then, the queen sewed several small shirts with white silk, and having learned witchcraft from her mother, she sewed a charm inside each shirt. One day, when the king went hunting on horseback, the queen took these little shirts into the forest and used a ball of thread to guide her in front. When the children saw someone coming from afar, they thought it was their dear father coming to visit them, and they all ran to meet him with joy. Just then, the stepmother threw a small shirt at each of them. As soon as the little shirt touched their bodies, in the blink of an eye they, turned into swans and flew up into the sky, disappearing into the distance. The queen returned to the palace, happy and thought she had sent these stepchildren. Who knew that the girl did not run out to meet her brothers as soon as possible, and the queen knew nothing about it. The? ext day, the king went to visit the children and found his daughter alone in the castle. "Where are your brothers?" The king asked. "Alas, never mind, dear father," the daughter replied, "they have all gone, and I am left alone!" Then she told her father that she had seen through the small window of her room that her brothers had become swans and had flown away over the forest. She also showed her father the feathers that they had fallen in the yard and that she had picked them up. The king was grief-stricken, but how did not think that this hurtful thing was the queen's work. Fear? ng that his daughter had also been taken from him, he wanted to take her back, but she was afraid of her stepmother and begged the king to allow her to stay another night in the old castle in the forest.

The poor girl thought to herself, "I can't stay here one more day, I have to go in search of my brothers." At nightfall, she ran out of the castle and headed straight for the forest. She walked the whole night, the next day, and a full day until exhausted, can no longer walk a step, and then stopped. Just then, she saw a two-color hunter's hut, so she went inside and found six cribs in the house, but she did not dare to lie on the bed, so she crawled under a bed, lying on the hard ground, ready to spend the night there. When the sun was about to set, she suddenly heard a rustling sound and saw six swans flying in through the window. The swans flew down to the ground, blowing on each other, blowing off all the feathers on their bodies, and then their swan skins came off their bodies like taking off their shirts. At this point, the girl looked at them again and found that it was her brothers. She was overjoyed and hurriedly crawled out from under the bed. Her brothers were also unusually happy to see their little sister. However, their joy was short-lived. "You can't stay here," they said to her. "This is a robber-infested place, and if they come back and find you, you'll be dead." "Can't you protect me?" My little sister asked. "No," they replied, "we only have a quarter of an hour every night to take off our swan skins and return to human form, and then we have to become swans again." The little sister burst into tears and said, "Can't you be saved?" "Alas, still not," they replied, "those conditions are too harsh! It will take six years, and you must neither speak nor laugh, and in those six years, you m, just sew six little shirts for us out of water horsetail. If a word escapes from your mouth, all your efforts will be ruined." As soon as the brothers spoke, the quarter of an hour was up, and they became swans again and flew away from the window.

The girl, determined in to give everything, even if it is their own life, leaves the brothers. At nightfall, she left the hut and went deep into the dense forest and c, climbed into a tree for the night. The next morning, she went around collecting water and horse teeth and started sewing shirts. She couldn't talk to anyone, and she didn't have the heart to laugh, so she just sat there, just kg her head down and working on the task at hand. She was in the forest for a long time, until one day the local king came to the forest to hunt, and the hunters came to the tree on which the girl was sitting. When they found her, they greeted her loudly and asked her, "Who are you?" But she did not answer. "Come on down," they said to her, "we won't hurt you." She just shook her head at that. They kept asking questions, so she threw her gold necklace at them, thinking that they would be satisfied. But these guys still wouldn't give up, so she threw them the belt again, but still to no avail. Then she threw them the garter belt and all the dispensable things on her body one by one, finally wearing only her underwear. But so, these hunters still refused to leave, and climbed up the tree to carry the girl down and led her to the king. The king asked her: "Who are you? What are you doing in the tree?" But she did not answer. The king then asked her in every language he could speak, but she remained silent. The king's heart was touched by the girl's extraordinary beauty, and he fell in love with her. The king put his cloak on her, carried her to his horse, sat her in front of him, and took her back to the palace. Immediately, the king ordered them to drethem ss her in colorful costumes, so that she would become more and more radiant and beautiful, but she just did not say a word. At mealtime, the king asked her to sit beside him. She was so well-mannered and polite that the king liked her very much and murmured, "She is the queen of my heart, and I will not marry her." A few days later, the king and the girl made a hundred years of goodwill.

Who knew that the king's mother, who was spiteful and malicious, was very unhappy with the marriage and often spoke ill of the young queen's bid. "Who? knows," she said, "where this stinky girl who can't talk came from? She doesn't deserve to be a queen at all!" A year passed, and the queen's first child was born. The old woman took the baby away while the queen was asleep and put some blood on the queen's mouth. Then she went to the king to falsely accuse the queen, saying she was a man-eating demon. The king refused to believe it, and would not allow anyone to hurt the queen. But the queen, ignoring everything, just sitting at the moment sewing shirts. The second time, the queen gave birth to a beautiful boy, and the evil mother-in-law repeated the same trick. If she could speak and justify herself, her innocence would be clear." However, after the old woman stole the third child, she accused the queen, who did not say a word in her own dee, and the king was at his wits' end, so he sent her to the court, which sentenced her to death by fire.

The day of execution was the last day of the six years that she could not speak or laugh, and she had been able to save her dear brothers from the magic. Six shirts had been sewn, only the last one was missing a sleeve on the left side. She put those shirts on her arms as she was marched to the stake. She was pushed up to the stake and the wood was about to be lit. The queen looked around at the last moment, and at that moment, there were six swans in the air flying toward her. She knew in her heart that she was about to be saved, and her heart leaped with excitement. The swans swept through the air and landed near her, she threw her shirt towards them ...... swan just touched the shirt, and the stand and skin on her body immediately fell off. Her brothers returned to human form, all alive and handsome, they stood in front of her, but her little brother was missing a left arm, and still had a swan wing on his shoulder. The siblings embraced and kissed each other. Then the queen went up to the deeply moved king and opened her mouth to speak: "My dear husband, now I can speak and show you that I am innocent of the false accusation." Then she told the king about the hurtful deeds of the old woman ...... who had stolen her three children and hid them. A while later, the children were delivered to the king, who was overwhelmed and excited. The spiteful and wicked old woman received the punishment she deserved and was tied to the stake and burned to ashes. From then on, the king and the queen lived happily and peacefully with her six brothers for many years.