Hans Christian Andersen is a world famous children's storyteller. He was born into a poor shoemaker family. As a child, his father told the boy that he was allegedly a relative of Prince Frits. This was the occasion of the child's fantasies about his acquaintance with the offspring of the royal family. Even when Hans grew up, he did not stop dreaming and inventing various implausible stories. All this was reflected in wonderful tales that glorified him throughout the world. We know many of them since childhood. One of his best works was written in 1838 by Andersen. "Wild Swans", a brief summary of which is given in this article, is a fairy tale about the value of kindred feelings, about selfless love in all its manifestations. Even the possibility of his own death does not scare the main character. She has only one desire - to save her brothers. Recall how it was ...
Summary. "Wild Swans". Introduction
Once upon a time there was a king. And he had eleven beautiful sons and one daughter, whose name was Elsa. They lived well and together until a stepmother appeared in their family. She was an evil sorceress. Appearing in the castle, the stepmother immediately established her order there. She sent Elsa to be raised in a remote village, and turned her brothers into white swans. They flew away unknown. Their sister, who lived in the wilderness, became more and more beautiful every day. And now she has already turned into a real beauty, whose beauty is not in this world. When Elsa returned to her father in the castle, the stepmother, seeing her, became even more angry. She decided to make her stepdaughter ugly. For this, the sorceress sent three nasty toads to her. But, as soon as they touched the innocent girl, they turned into red poppies and sailed along the river away from her. Then the stepmother smeared Elsa with mud so that even her own father could not recognize her and drove her out of the castle.
Summary. "Wild Swans". Development of events
After that, the girl had to spend the night in the forest. There she has a dream in which she sees herself and her brothers as a child. In the morning, waking up, Elsa washed herself in a forest pond, after which she again became a beauty. And the girl went to look for her brothers. On the way, she met an old woman with a basket full of berries. She treated them to Elsa and told that she would soon go to the river, where eleven beautiful swans in golden crowns fly in. In the morning, the beauty went to the river and stayed to wait for her brothers. In the evening, swans flew in and turned into great fellows. At dawn, the brothers flew away again, promising to take their sister with them. The next day, they carried her away in a willow basket to a cave overgrown with greenery. Elsa remained there to live. One night, she had a strange dream: an old woman who showed the way to her brothers told her the secret of their salvation. She said that swans will turn into youths if you put on shirts connected from nettles, which grows in a cemetery or near this cave. Only in this case the girl should be silent, otherwise the spell will not work. The next day, Elsa set to work. She picked up the nettles by the cave and began to knit the first shirt. But before she could finish the second shirt, the local king who hunted in these places found her. He was fascinated by the beauty of Elsa, took her to his castle and married her.
Summary. "Wild Swans". Denouement
Only one circumstance upset the king - his young wife was always silent, showing what she needed, only in signs. The archbishop who served with him said that his beauty was a witch. At night, he himself saw her walking to the cemetery and tearing nettles there. Why does an ordinary girl need this? The king wanted to see for himself. The next night, he caught his wife behind this case. Soon, the people became aware that the young queen was a witch. People demanded that Elsa be burned at the stake. The girl herself could not explain to them why she was tearing nettles, as this would destroy all her efforts. Even when the girl was taken to execution, she sat and knitted. She left to finish the last shirt. Swans circled around her. At that moment, when the executioner grabbed her hand, she managed to throw knitted shirts on her brothers, and they turned into young men. Only she did not have time to finish the sleeve on the last shirt. The younger brother remained with the wing instead of his arm. Having done this, Elsa fainted. And the brothers told the king their whole story. At this moment, the logs for the fire turned into a bush of red roses. Only one flower in the middle was dazzling white. The king tore it off, put it on the girl’s chest, and she woke up. The evil spell of the sorceress was broken. In the heart of Elsa settled joy and peace. This concludes the tale of a brave girl and her eleven brothers (here is a summary of it). Wild Swans is a work of selflessness and love. It teaches us the belief that good will always triumph over evil, no matter what happens. Children love this tale. Based on her motives, cartoons and art tapes were created.
The tale "Wild Swans", a brief summary of which is given here, is perhaps one of the best works of Hans Christian Andersen.