Elise
But then the queen fell ill and died.
The king did not morn for long and married another woman. The stepmother turned out to be an evil witch. She wanted to get rid of the king's children, so she tried to enchant them into monsters.
But the love of their deceased mother protected them, so instead of turning into monsters, the brothers turned into swans and fly away. Elisa fled the castle to find loved brothers.
She met them by the sea when they landed to spend the night. She fell asleep, too and had a dream.
Her mother appeared, telling her that brothers were enchanted and the only way to disenchant them was to weave shirts from nettles for each.
And she had to do it alone, with own hands, and until the task was done, Elisa could not utter a word.
If she started the work and didn't finish it, her brothers would die.
In the morning sister committed to completing the task, collected the nettles, and began to weave. Her hands were quickly bruised. She was in pain, but continued.
Time passed, while Elisa was looking for nettles in the forest, a foreign prince, who was hunting there, saw her. He immediately fell in love and took her to his castle. Prince wanted to marry her straight away.
But the people didn't like this, and they started looking for faults in her, until they finally decided that the silent girl was a witch. They followed her at night when she went to the cemetery for nettles and told the prince. They convinced him to burn Elisa.
She had one last shirt left to weave as they took her to the place of execution.
People stood on the side of the street, cursing, and spitting at her.
Above Elisa’s head, eleven swans circled and cried.
Even standing on the pyre, she continued to weave the last shirt, intended for the youngest brother.
No, Eliza did not burn. She managed it. Only the last shirt was missing one sleeve, so the youngest brother had a swan's wing in place of one arm forever.
She forgave the prince and father. And the people who cursing, spitting and called her a witch.
by H.C. Anderen
