# The Six Swans _Brothers Grimm_ · 6 min read · ages 6-10 A witch’s daughter turns the King’s six sons into swans, and their sister may not speak or laugh for six years while she sews them shirts of starwort. On the last day, at the fire, she throws the shirts over the swans, her brothers stand before her, and she tells her husband at last that she is innocent. --- Once upon a time a King rode so fast after a wild animal in a great forest that his men fell behind, and by evening he was lost. Then an old woman came towards him, her head nodding and nodding. She was a witch. “Good woman,” said the King, “can you show me the way out of the forest?” “I can,” she said, “but only if you marry my daughter and make her your Queen. Refuse, and you will never leave this forest. You will die of hunger here.” The frightened King agreed. The daughter was beautiful, yet he could not look at her without a secret shudder. Still, they were married. Now the King had seven children from his first wife, six boys and a girl, whom he loved more than anything. Afraid their stepmother might harm them, he hid them in a lonely castle deep in a forest. Only a magic ball of yarn from a wise woman could find the way: when he threw it down, it unrolled and led him there. He visited them so often that the Queen grew curious. She bribed his servants, and they told her the secret and where the ball of yarn was kept. Then she made little shirts of white silk, and because she had learned witchcraft from her mother, she sewed a spell into each one. One day, while the King was out hunting, she followed the ball of yarn to the castle. The boys thought their father was coming and ran out joyfully to meet him. She threw a shirt over each of them, and at once they turned into swans and flew away over the trees. The Queen went home pleased. But the little girl had not run out with her brothers, and the Queen never knew she existed. The next day the King found only his daughter, who showed him the feathers her brothers had dropped. He grieved, but never suspected the Queen. He wanted to take his daughter home, but she feared her stepmother, so she begged to stay one more night in the forest castle. “I will go and look for my brothers,” she thought. That night she ran into the forest and walked until she could walk no more. At last she found a hut with six little beds and crept under one to sleep. At sunset six swans flew in at the window. They blew on one another, and their swan skins slipped off like shirts. The girl knew her brothers at once and crawled out, and they were overjoyed. But their joy was short. “You can’t stay here,” they said. “This is a robbers’ hut. They will kill you if they find you, and we can’t protect you. We are human for only a quarter of an hour each evening, and then we are swans again.” The girl cried. “Is there no way to set you free?” “It is very hard,” they said. “For six years you may not speak and you may not laugh, and in that time you must sew us six little shirts from starwort. If a single word leaves your lips, all your work is lost.” Then the quarter of an hour was over, and they flew away as swans. The girl made up her mind to free them, even if it cost her her life. She climbed a tree deep in the forest, and in the morning she gathered starwort and began to sew. She spoke to no one, never laughed, and looked at nothing but her work. A long time passed. Then the King of that country came hunting, and his huntsmen found her in the tree. “Who are you?” they called. “Come down. We won’t hurt you.” She only shook her head. When they kept asking, she threw down her golden necklace, then her belt, then her garters, and one by one everything she could spare. Still they climbed up, brought her down and took her to the King. The King asked her in every language he knew, but she said nothing. She was so beautiful that he fell deeply in love and carried her home, where she was dressed in fine clothes and shone like the morning. At dinner she was so gentle and gracious that he said, “She is the one I want to marry, and no one else in the world.” A few days later they were married. But the King’s wicked mother hated the marriage. “Who knows where this girl comes from,” she said, “when she can’t even speak? She isn’t fit for a king.” A year later the young Queen had a baby. While she slept, the old woman took the child away, smeared blood on the Queen’s mouth, and told the King that his wife had eaten her own baby. The King would not believe it. The Queen sat sewing the shirts and cared about nothing else. When she had a second baby, a little boy, the old woman did the same, and again the King would not believe her. “She is too good and kind for that,” he said. “If only she could speak and defend herself, everyone would see she is innocent.” But when a third baby was stolen and the Queen still said not one word in her own defence, the King could protect her no longer. She was sentenced to burn. The day set for her death was the last day of the six years. The shirts were ready, all but the left sleeve of the sixth. She carried them to the fire, and just as it was about to be lit, six swans came flying towards her. Her heart leapt. The swans swooped down, and she threw the shirts over them. At once their swan skins fell away, and her brothers stood before her, strong and handsome. Only the youngest had a swan’s wing where his left arm should have been. They hugged one another, and then, at last, the Queen spoke to the King. “Dearest husband,” she said, “now I may tell you that I am innocent. I was falsely accused.” She told him how his mother had hidden their three children away, and to his great joy they were brought back. As punishment, the wicked old woman was tied to the stake and burned in the fire meant for the Queen. And the King and Queen lived in happiness and peace for many years, with her six brothers beside them. --- - Read online: https://talerie.com/en/tales/the-six-swans - Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q875786 - Tale type: ATU 451 (per Wikidata) - Source: Household Tales by Brothers Grimm, trans. Margaret Hunt (Project Gutenberg #5314) (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5314) - Public-domain basis: Talerie contemporary retelling (CC0 2026), based on: Household Tales by Brothers Grimm, trans. Margaret Hunt (Project Gutenberg #5314) — translation: author died 1859/1863 (+70 passed); translator Margaret Hunt died 1912 (+70 passed) - License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)