The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-09-01
Swan Legends.

romantic part. Two separate currents
may be distinguished in the swan myths
of Teutonic and Scandinavian countries.
To one current belong the various
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 a part; though it is not
clear that the swan maidens Of the north
had any other origin than the obvious
one which would lie in a process OF
imaginative reasoning like this: Swans
are beings all s~oftness, grace and purity;
so are some rare maidens; therefore,
some rare maidens are in reality swans.
At any rate, there was no question that
such supernatural beings existed. They
were both fairer and wiser than mortal
women. They could change from one
shape to the other at will. To assume
the human shape they DOTTED their
robes of down or "swanshirts," but re-
tanned invariably o gold or silver chain
about their necks. She whose swan
shirt was carried off by a mortal could
no longer, while he kept it safe, become
a bird again or resume her freedom.
On the other hand, she from whose neck
in her human shape the chain was taken
Immediately became q swan again, and
could not recover her humanity until
she got back her chain. Sometimes a
hunter approaching q forest pool would
descry a damsel Of more than mortal
beauty bathing in its waters, would no.
tice the chain about her neck and the
robe of down hanging from a tree,
would seize the robe and bear the dam
sci home, to live with him in happiness
until one day he should forget the key
which kept her magic garment from
her, and return to find her flown for
ever. Or swan brides would consort Of
their WI accord with warriors who
had surprised them at dawn as they sat
spinning in human shape beside the
margin of a mountain tarn; until after
seven years their hearts would change,
and they would fly away, leaving their
husbands to sally after them over the
SHOWS in vain. Another Icelandic story
tells how Helgi and Olaf fought on the
ice of q frozen lake, and how Kara, the
mistress of Helgi, lowered over the
heads Of the combatants in the likeness
of a great swan, and by her magic
blunted the weapons of them that fought
against Helgi, until by mischance he
struck off a 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 aid in her extremity there comes
sailing q knight in a boat drawn by an
| enchanted swan, and who, after the
knight has rescued and made her his
bride, destroys her happiness by insist
ing that be shall tell who he is and
whence he comes. We are all familiar
with this tale as it is told by Wolfram
Won Eschenback. and has in our own
day been recast by Wagner, concerning
Elsa of Brabant, and Lohengrin, the son
of Percival. The same story is COM
bined with the myth of the swan
maidens in the well-known romance
of Helias and Clarissa Of Boullion.
This Helias is IN enchanted
knight, whose mother Beatrice has
borne him to Oriant, king of Lillefort,
along with six OTHER swan children.
Among these Helias alone escapes the
| wiles by which their wicked grand
mother Matabrun divests the other SIX
of their chains and their humanity to-
gether. At last he is able to redeem all
his brothers except one; and that one,
in the guise of a swan drawing. a shall
lop, by-and-bye guides 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 Lonengrin and Elsa. These are but
one or two out of the many stories O.
swan maidens, knights of the swan, ant
swan children, which filled the imagi
nation of Northern Europe in the early
middle age. Others add to the elemen
of magic and romance an element o
monkish legend; like that Irish story o
the children of Lir, who were trans
formed by their stepmother into swans
and in that form compelled TO abid
until the spell was broken at the soun'
of the first bell ringing in those ~countrie
for Christian macS