G.H. Andersen. Fairy tale "Wild swans"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In early childhood, mothers and grandmothers begin to acquaint their children and grandchildren with the work of Hans Christian Andersen. According to the tales of this outstanding Danish writer, feature films and animated films are being made, performances are staged. After all, his tales are very magical and very kind, although a little sad. And one of those wonderful stories that Andersen wrote is "Wild Swans." It tells

about a small but very courageous princess named Eliza, who was ready to do anything to save her many brothers from the spell of the evil stepmother-witch.

This wonderful tale begins with the fact that one king, after the death of his wife, remarried. This king had twelve children: eleven sons and one daughter, little Eliza. All of them were still children, but the new wife of the crowned father immediately took a dislike to her stepsons and stepdaughter and decided to get rid of them. Since she was a witch, it cost nothing for her to turn her brothers into swans. Eliza was sent tobrought up in a peasant family, and until she reached the age of fifteen no one remembered her. But now she returned to her native palace again. The stepmother, seeing what a beautiful girl Eliza had become, hated her even more and turned her into an ugly woman that her father did not recognize.

She was hurt by this, and one night she secretly left the palace and went into the forest, hoping to find her brothers. She did not yet know that their stepmother had turned them into birds and that now they are wild swans. She also did not know that she looked just awful. One day she came across a wonderful pond, in which she saw her reflection. Having bathed in the water, the girl regained her former appearance and became more beautiful than all the princesses in the world.

But thoughts of her brothers never left her for a second. And one day she met an old woman who told her that just recently she saw how wild swans in golden crowns flew to the river, and there were exactly eleven of them. Eliza went to this river and found feathers on the shore, and after sunset she saw the birds themselves. As soon as the sun completely went below the horizon, the swans turned into young boys, whom Eliza recognized as her brothers. She hurried over to them. They told her everything that the evil stepmother had done to them. Now they are wild swans by day and humans by night. The girl was determined to save her brothers from

curse, but did not know how to do it. One night, she had a strange dream in which she saw a good fairy who looked like the old woman she met not so long ago. In a dream, the fairy toldto the princess that the only way to get rid of the spell is with shirts woven from nettles. This nettle grows in cemeteries, and you need to collect it with your bare hands. Until the last shirt is completed, not a single word or even a sound can be uttered, otherwise the brothers will immediately die.

Waking up, the girl immediately set to work. Even the young king, who fell in love with her at first sight, could not talk to her. But he did not interfere with her strange occupation. Eliza, who also fell in love with the king, wanted to tell him everything, but she remembered the fairy's warning: while she was silent, her brothers, albeit wild swans, were alive. She was not even afraid that she was declared a witch. She continued to weave nettles, even when she was being taken to her execution. Almost all the shirts were already ready. It remained to weave one sleeve at the last, but she did not have time - she was tied to a pole and already

were going to burn. But suddenly wild swans flew in and surrounded my sister. She threw shirts on them, and they immediately turned into beautiful princes. Only one of them had a wing instead of an arm. And when she spoke, everyone understood that she was innocent, and even the king himself asked her forgiveness. And how could it be otherwise? After all, she was his bride, and he loved her, no matter what. This is how the fairy tale "Wild Swans" ended happily.