Legends of Wild Swans

LEGENDS OF WILD SWANShis girl wears a crown and a chain of gold. When
The Wild Swans at CooleAngus calls out to that particular swan, she leaves
W.B.Yeatsthe group, turns him into a swan and they fly
The trees are in their autumn beauty,away together, tied with a golden chair. It is clear
The woodland paths are dry,here that the swan maiden has her own power
Under the October twilight the waterto change at will, and is bound by any male
Mirrors a clear sky;sorcerer; what is more - she has the power to
Upon the brimming water among the stoneschange her lover as well into a swan, which
Are nine-and-fifty swans.makes her a veritable Swan goddess. This is a
...hint at the initial function of the swan in European
But now they drift on the still water,mythology.
Mysterious, beautiful;***
Among what rushes will they build,It seems that, in the Hindu-European tradition,
By what lake's edge or poolthere a number of Swan goddesses. Some of
Delight men's eyes when I awake some daythese goddesses were connected with death, and
To find they have flown away? (s. link).others with some qualities of the Underworld
One of the best known swan stories is Hans(where dead people go), like wisdom and
Christian Andersen's tale of The Wild Swans (s.prophecy. Robert Graves has defined the swan
link below). In it, a widower king had eleven sonsas a bird of Death, and the three Greek figures
and one daughter, Eliza. He marries a wickedof Graeae, or Gray Ones, clearly demonstrate
sorceress who resents the children, and turns thethis idea: they were described as "fair-faced and
boys into swans who fly away. The Princess goesswan-like". They had gray hair from birth and
out to look for them, and on the way she criesshared one eye and one tooth which, according to
so much she creates a lake of tears. On the bankGraves, they used for prophecy. Their genealogy
of this lake she finds her Swan brothers, and agoes back to the early descendants of the Earth
fairy appearing in her dream tells Eliza the secretand Sea, and their separate names were Enyo
of their release: if she gathers enough nettles to("horror"), Deino ("Dread"), and Pemphredo
make eleven shirts, when they wear the shirts("Alarm").
they will be released from the magic. The girlA Celtic Swan goddess was Brigit, to whom this
collects the nettles, and sits in a cave in a forestbird was sacred; she was in charge of the
to do her sewing. (It is clear that the cave in theUnderworld qualities of Wisdom and Crafts. In
forest, as well as the young men turned intoHindu mythology, the swan was sacred to
swans, transport the girl and her brother to aSaraswati, goddess Wisdom and Learning, who
place outside the realistic, civilized world into thesat on a throne made of two swans.
realm of Nature and myth). Eliza is found by aOther deities are connected with the swan
young king who had been hunting; he falls in lovethrough its shining white beauty. Such figures are
with her beauty and takes her to his palace as hisGreek Aphrodite and Roman Venus, to whom the
wife - nettles and all. During her stay in the palace,swan was sacred. But another symbol of beauty,
many jealous people tell the king wicked storiesmuch more complicated to these Love
about her, calling her a witch, and in the end he isgoddesses, takes this connection much further.
forced to burn her on the stake. While ElizaThat was Helen, who was the daughter of Leda
continues, even in prison, to sew her brothers'and the Swan - or, in another interpretation, Leda
shirts, they come to visit her in the shape ofas a Swan; after all, she was the one who laid the
swans. At last, when she is taken out to beSwan egg, which the two pairs of twins sprung
burned, they fly over her; she throws the finishedout: Helen and Clytemnestra; Castor and
shirts at them, and they return to their forms ofPolydeuces (known as Pollux) - the Dioscuri
eleven princess, except the youngest whose shirt("twins") who "embodied the two halves of the
is not finished and he retains one wing instead ofyear".
an arm - thus retaining some remnant of theThe multiplicity of the swan's image - Death,
world of Nature within civilization.Wisdom, Motherhood, Beauty and Love -is well
Similar stories appear in Grimm with somerepresented in the figure of Helen, and is
variations, although in one story the girl has onlyconnected with another trait of that bird. The
six brothers instead of eleven. In all these cases,swan is a migratory bird, as is well expressed in
the swans are male; the situation is reverse,both Yates' poem and in Lemke's painting. It is
however, in Chaikovski's beautiful music to theactually seen not only in autumn and the dying of
ballet Swan Lake (s. link below). That story tells ofthe year - hence its connection with Death, but
a wicked sorcerer, who turned Princess Odettealso in springtime, connecting him with idea of
into a white swan; all day she flies in the companyrevival. It is, then, a symbol of the Great Nature
of her girl swans, and only at night she lands onGoddess who was in charge of the yearly dying
the bank of a lake and returns to her form as aand resurrection.
woman. (The lake, by the way, was formed fromAccording to a site called Goddesses and
the mother's tears shed over her daughter's fate;Priestesses Connected with Hera (s. link below),
we have here a double figure of mother/daughterHelen's name means "bright one, light, Sun, fair;" it
of a Water goddess). The story says that only ifrefers to her as a Harvest goddess, when the
a young virgin man swears eternal faith to herSun is at its peak (in the Mediterranean area).
love and marries her, she will be released fromAnother title of Helen's is Dendritus - "she of the
the magic; but if the prince betrays his oath, shetrees", referring to her as a Fertility goddess in
will dies. Prince Siegfried of the story indeed falls incharge of fruit trees; her tree festival was
love with the Swan princess, but the sorcerercelebrated annually in the isle of Platanistas, where
entices him to betray her by making him show hisshe was worshipped until late 19th cent.. By
love to the dark, artificial figure of Odile he himselfanother title, Rhigidenes, meaning "rigidity", Helen
had created. Odile, actually, beside her oppositewas in charge of death in various forms, including
color, is the splitting image of Odette (here is athe orgasmic death of the penis. This combination
double image of white/black, light/darkness, orof characteristics suggests she may have begun
good/evil). After the betrayal is discovered,as a Pillar Goddess like Asherah or Aphrodite,
Odette prepares to die; but then the Princeworshipped with ecstatic dance and sexual rites.
comes and tries to save her. His love releases herThis idea is the basis of the theory of the swan
from the magic, but they drown together in thebeing a symbol of the dying year in autumn, that
lake.comes after Midsummer, the peak of the sun and
Details shared by the two stories are turningharvest time, to be resurrected again in spring.
humans into swans by sorcery; the hunting kingThe Dioscuri, swan born, were kings of the two
prince; and the lake of tears created by a female.halves of the year, annually dying and resurrected.
The main differences between the two are theTheir mother, then, either Leda or in her
genders of the bewitcher and the humans turningembodiment as Helen, was actually the Great
into swans. It may be noted that both Eliza andMother Goddess, in charge of Life and Death,
Siegfried are names taken from Germanicsymbolized by the swan, appearing regularly in
mythology; the lake created by a female's tearsSpring and Autumn. Graves connects this myth in
makes her a Water goddess. It may be assumed,his book The Greek Myths with the idea that "at
then, that both fairy tales are based on muchmidsummer, they (the swans) flew north to
earlier European mythology connected with swans.unknown breeding grounds, supposedly taking the
In order to understand their basic meaning, then,dead king's soul with them."
it may be interesting to turn to such ancientThe swan appears also as Laima, a Lithuanian
myths.Mother Goddess (who is also represented as a
It seems that many similar stories are common allGoddess of Fate, determining the life and death
over the continent, wherever swans appear. Suchcourse of human beings), who was in charge of
tales are known from Sweden, Germany,"blessing, unity, destiny, love, luck and magic",
Romania and others, (similar to such where theaccording to the site by her name. Her symbol is
swans are replaced by seal, bears or othersaid to be a wreath, and her totem is the swan.
animals), that in some cases shed their outer skinAs a Mother, it may be noted that the Hindu god
and take human shape; it is significant that inBrahma hatched from a swan's egg. The swan
some of these stories, like in Andersen's andwas also sacred to the Christian Mary, Mother of
Chaikobski's, these people are bewitched, but inJesus. Male individuals could become swans only
others they do it of their own free will. In anby her grace, either when she grants them her
Online site called Swan Maiden (s. link below), alove as a maiden, or when she takes their souls
hunter encounters a swan or a group of swans,away in death. Such Death goddesses were the
fly onto the bank of a lake; they shed theirValkyries, who flew in the shape of swans when
feather cloaks, turn into human maidens and golooking in the battlefield for warriors who died
swimming. The hunter snatches one of the cloaksbravely, to take their souls as a reward to the
and hides it, thus trapping her owner to come andParadise of Valhalla.
be his wife. They live together until she finds herHowever, Death goddesses of ancient myths
cloak again and flies away. The stories end inturned into wicked witches in fairy tales. Thus, it
various ways, from tragedy to happy ever after.was the same goddess in Andersen's tale who, as
It is highly significant that all these stories involvethe Sorceress Queen turned the boys into swans,
females as swans, not males. But an old Irishand as the Maiden turned them back into humans;
stories tells it in a different way (s. link below).the young fairy in the story is another
Angus son of the Dagda falls in love with aappearance of the Princess herself. Such an
swan-girl who appeared in his dream. Afterward,equation of Old Witch = Young Maiden appears in
he meets a group of 150 swans, flying in pairs,Chaucer's poem The Knight's Tale.
which are tied together with a chain of silver; but