The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-08-27
SOME OF TN. ROMANTIC STORIES OF TIA
GRACEFUL BIRD.


SOME OF THE ROMANTIC STORIES OF THAT
GRACEFUL BIRD.
In the northern legends swans play
most romantic part. Two separate cur
rents may be distinguished In the swan
MYTHS Of Teutonic and Scandinavian coun-
tries. To one current belong the v'rIous
stories Of swan maidens to the other those
concerning the knight OF The swan. Here.
again, both traditions OF beast worship and
images OF nature poetry may play part {;
though II Is not clear that the swan maid
ems OF the north had any other origin than
the obvious one which would lie In process
OF imaginative reasoning like this: Swans
are beings all softness, grace, anu purity;
so are some rare maidens therefore, some
rare maidens are in reality swans. Az
any rate there was no question that sucn
supernatural beings existed. Tbey were
both fairer and wiser than mortal women.
They could change from one shape 10 Tue
other at will. To assume The human snspe
they dofYed their robes OF down or swan
sbirts,v but retained invariably gold or
silver chain about their necks. She whose
swansbirt was carried of by mortal no
longer, while he kept 1t safe, become Dird
again or resume It's freedom. On the 0tner
hand. she from whose neck in her human
shape the chain was taken Immediately De-
came a swan again, and could not recover
her humanity until she got back her chain'
Sometimes a hunter approaching ior.
est pool would descry damsei OF
more than mortal beauty BATHING IN lis
waters, would notice the chain about her
neck and the robe Of down hanging from q
tree, would seize the robe and bear tne uaui,
sci home TO live with him in happiness uhtil
one day he should forget the key when Kept
her magic garment from her, ana return 10
find her flown forever. Or SwanDrloes
would consort OF their own accord WIN
warriors who had surprised them at dawn
as they sat spinning in human shape oeslue
the margin OF mountain tarn; untli AMER
seven years their hearts would change ana
they would fly away. leaving their husbands
to sally after them over the SHOWS In VAN.
Another Icelandic story tells how Helgi ana
Olaf fought on the ice OF frozen lake, anu
how Kara, the mistress OF Helgi, hovered
over the heads. OF the comtatants IN the
likeness of great swan, and by her magic
blunted weapons OF them that fought against
Helgi, until by chance he struck OIL leg OF
the swan with his sword, and Immediately
the fortunes Of the battle changed.
The other great swan myth OF the North
is that OF the injured damsel, to whose ald,
in her extremity, there comes sailing a
knight i'm a boat drawn by an enchanted
swan, and who, after the knight has rescued
and made her his bride, destroys her happi-
ness by insisting that he shall tell her who
he is and whence he comes. We are all IA
miliar with this tale as 1t is told by Wolfram
Won Eschenback. and has in our own day
hu
Brabant, and Lohengrin, the son OF Perez
val. The same story is combined with the
myth OF the swan maidens in the we'll
known romance OF Helias and Clarissa OF
BoulloD. This Helias is an enchanted
knight, whose mother Beatrice has borne
him to Oriant, King OF Llllefort, along with
six other swan children. Among these
Helias alone escapes the wiles by which
their wicked grandmother Matabrun divests
the other six OF their chains and their hui
manity together. At last he Is able to re-
deem all his brothers except one; and that
one, in the guise OF a swan drawing shall
op, by and by guide him along the Rhine
to the Court OF Ohio, where he champions
the Duchess Clarissa, wins her hand, and
repeats with her the story Of Lohengr1n
with Eliza. These are but one or two out
OF the many stories OF swan mhidens,
knights OF the swan, and swan children
which filed the imagination OF Northern
Europe in the early middle age. Others
add TO the element OF magic and romance
an element OF monkish legend; like that
Irish story Of the children OF Liz, who were
transformed by their stepmother into swans.
and in that form compelled TO abide until
the spell was broken at the sound OF the
first bell ringing in those countries Tor
Christian mass.