The Wild Swans

Copyright © 2014 by Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Golden Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. Golden Books, A Golden Book, A Little Golden Book, the G colophon, and the distinctive gold spine are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013938982
eBook ISBN 978-0-553-50948-9
Hardcover ISBN 978-0-375-86430-8

v3.1

Title Page

Copyright

First Page

Once there lived a king who had eleven sons and a young daughter named Elisa. The family was very happy together until their mother, the queen, died.

The king married again, but his new queen was not kind or loving to his children.

It was not long before the queen sent Elisa away to live with an old couple in the forest.

“Fly out into the world and get your own living,” the wicked queen said to Elisa’s brothers. She cast an evil spell, which turned the princes into swans. With a strange cry, they flew out of the palace windows and far away.

The years passed, and Elisa missed her brothers. One day, as she wandered alone in the forest, she met an old woman. “Have you ever seen eleven princes riding through this wood?” she asked.

“No,” replied the old woman, “but I have seen eleven swans floating on the river.”

Elisa ran to the river and waited. When the sun began to set, eleven swans flew down and settled on the riverbank.

As soon as the sun disappeared, the swans’ feathers fell off, and eleven handsome princes stood there. Elisa knew that they were her brothers, and ran to them with a happy cry. How glad they were to be together once more!

But sadly, the next morning the princes were turned into swans again, for only at night could they be human. And they told Elisa that the time of year had come, with its long summer days, when they must fly back to their home beyond the sea.

“We cannot leave you here,” they said. So that night they wove a net of willow bark and reeds, and carried Elisa in it over the sea. By sundown the second day, they landed on the shores of a beautiful country.

There the princes found Elisa a dry cave to sleep in. She dreamed of the old woman who had told her of the eleven swans. In her dream, Elisa asked her, “How can I help release my brothers from the evil spell?”

The old woman said, “Take courage, Elisa. You must pick stinging nettles and break them up with your feet. Weave the nettles into eleven coats. When you put the coats on your brothers, they will be freed from the evil spell. But the hardest part is this: you must work without speaking, for if you speak before the coats are finished, your brothers will not live to become human again.”

Elisa woke immediately to find a nettle in her hand. She ran out to the fields to gather more nettles, which stung her delicate fingers. But she would not stop until she had gathered enough to make the coats.

Elisa worked by the light of the moon all that night, stamping the nettles with her feet and then weaving the thread.

The next day, after her brothers had turned back into swans and flown off, Elisa made two coats. All would have been well, but a party of huntsmen found her. One of the huntsmen was the king of that country. He was enchanted by Elisa’s beauty, and asked her many questions about herself. But Elisa would not speak.

“You cannot stay here alone in the forest,” the king told Elisa. “Come with me. I will bring you to my castle, where you will be safe.”

Elisa wept as she rode through the mountains on the king’s horse, far away from her brothers.

Each day, ladies-in-waiting dressed Elisa in beautiful gowns and wove pearls in her hair. But Elisa could only think of her poor brothers, waiting for her to help them.

The eleven swans swam sadly on the river near the castle.