The Wild Swans & Princess Elisa from Interstellar Ark in description of the corolla of a vast ring
כ"ב אב התשס"ח
Lughnasadh 23
I am pleased to report the plot (from Wikipedia) of a fairy tale my friend Herbalpagan brought to my attention today called The Wild Swans, about twelve siblings - the holy (whole) witch, wise prophetess Princess Elisa (who foils the dastardly plan of an Evil Witch), and her eleven princely brothers (who foil the dastardly plan of an Evil Archbishop):
In a faraway kingdom, there lives a King with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry. He marries a wicked Queen who is actually a witch. Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into swans and forces them to fly away. They carry their fifteen year old sister Elisa to safety in a foreign land where she is out of harms way of her stepmother. There, Elisa labors mutely day and night knitting magic shirts from nettles to help her brothers regain their human shapes, as this is the only way to break the spell their stepmother forced them under. The king of another faraway land happens to come across the mute Elisa and falls in love with her. He grants her a room in the castle where she continues her knitting and eventually crowns her as his Queen and wife. One night Elisa runs out of nettles and is forced to collect more in a graveyard. She is spotted by the evil Archbishop who is looking for an excuse to accuse her of witchcraft. He convinces the King that Elisa is a witch and sentences her to death by burning at the stake. At the place of execution, the swans descend and rescue Elisa. The magic shirts are donned and the brothers return to their human forms. Elisa regains her voice and explains the reason for her mysterious work to the king. Elisa's courage prevails and she is forever reunited with her brothers.
Related information on my mystical Hebrew name (also part of my Craft name) -
Liorah Chanah Elishaba Tsabrah bat Ahuvyah v'Adar
Fire In The Sky
Related entries -
Protective Power Of Unity In Plurality
The Three-Fold Cord At Dawn
The Inverted Seal
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2 comments:
It's by Hans Christian Anderson. I had a book of 50 Fairy Tales growing up and this was one of the stories in it. (I still have the well worn book)
It's a fairy tale I learned as an adult, but even still as an adult, it contains magic. :)
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