the brothers Grimm original stories

the six swans

Once upon a time, a certain king was hunting in a great forest,

and he chased a wild beast so eagerly that none of his attendants

could follow him. When evening drew near he stopped and looked

around him, and then he saw that he had lost his way. He

sought a way out, but could find none. Then he perceived an aged

woman with a head which nodded perpetually, who came towards

him, but she was a witch. Good woman, said he to her, can

you not show me the way through the forest. Oh, yes, lord

king, she answered, that I certainly can, but on one condition,

and if you do not fulfil that, you will never get out of the

forest, and will die of hunger in it.

What kind of condition is it, asked the king.

I have a daughter, said the old woman, who is as beautiful

as anyone in the world, and well deserves to be your consort,

and if you will make her your queen, I will show you the way out

of the forest. In the anguish of his heart the king consented,

and the old woman led him to her little hut, where her daughter

was sitting by the fire. She received the king as if she had been

expecting him, and he saw that she was very beautiful, but still

she did not please him, and he could not look at her without

secret horror. After he had taken the maiden up on his horse,

the old woman showed him

the way, and the king reached his royal palace again, where the

wedding was celebrated.

The king had already been married once, and had by his first

wife, seven children, six boys and a girl, whom he loved

better than anything else in the world. As he now feared that

the stepmother might not treat them well, and even do them some

injury, he took them to a lonely castle which stood in the

midst of a forest. It lay so concealed, and the way was so

difficult to find that he himself would not have found it,

if a wise woman had not given him a ball of yarn with wonderful

properties. When he threw it down before him, it unrolled

itself and showed him his path.

The king, however, went so

frequently away to his dear children that the queen observed

his absence, she was curious and wanted to know what he did

when he was quite alone in the forest. She gave a great deal

of money to his servants, and they betrayed the secret to her,

and told her likewise of the ball which alone could point out

the way. And now she knew no rest until she had learnt where

the king kept the ball of yarn, and then she made little shirts

of white silk, and as she had learnt the art of witchcraft from