Ballad of Silence and Wings

Interlude: Ravens and Swans

Because the tales I've based the novelette on are not very well known, I thought of providing some background to satisfy some curiosities. As with all fairy tales, there exists more than one version of each, and there are even some where these two are combined.

What I'll give here is just an overlook of the versions, from where I've borrowed most of the elements on my story. You can always check out the Web for the complete versions.

Seven Ravens

A girl embarks on a search for her lost seven brothers, all of whom had been accidentally cursed into becoming ravens. In her quest, she brings along a few basic items, which includes a ring, a remembrance from her parents.

She reaches the ends of the world, and encounters the sun, which eats little children. She goes to the moon, but the moon says, "I smell human flesh," and the girl becomes too frightened. She goes to the stars for help, and they give her good counsel. The stars all sit upon their own stools, and tell her her brothers are at the glass mountain. They give her a chicken-bone, which will serve as a key to the mountain, but the girl loses it along the way. Disheartened, she cuts her own finger to replace the lost key, and successfully gains entrance into the glass mountain. There she finds her raven brothers. The curse is broken, and the tale ends happily with all of them finally reunited.

Six Swans

A wicked witch of a stepmother turns six brothers into swans. To dispel the curse, the princess must stitch a shirt out of star-flowers for each brother, all in six years time, in silence and without laughter. A king, enamored by the princess's beauty, marries her, and the princess has to endure the cruelty of the old queen, her husband's mother, in silence.

Each time the princess gives birth, the child goes missing. Unbeknownst to them all, it was the old queen who would take them - she would wait until the Princess is fast asleep, steal the child, then stain the princess's lips with blood. The old queen would then accuse the princess of eating her own children.

The king refuses to believe this. He is convinced by the golden cross on the princess's brow that his wife is pure and innocent. By the third instance, however, he is left with no choice but to sentence his own wife to death. Having to hold her tongue, the princess still cannot defend herself.

The six years of her silent ordeal ends while she is led to her execution. Her swan brothers find her sons, who have been taken care of by a lioness ever since their disappearance. The brothers recognized them for the same golden cross on each of their foreheads. And then the brothers, carrying the princess's children, fly to her. The princess then succeeds in breaking her brothers' curse, having finished stitching all of her brothers' shirts. All save one, for she was not able to complete her sixth brother's shirt in time, so that it missed a sleeve. As a result, one of his arms remains as a swan wing, while the other brothers return to their full human forms.

Free of her task, the princess finally breaks her silence and defends herself, and the old queen is brought to justice. Needless to say, they all lived happily ever after.

So that's it! If you were paying enough attention, you might have spotted the references I've used. More than anything, it is the Princess's spirit I've always admired, and I do hope my retelling brings justice to her remarkable character.

Next up is Refrain I: The Time Marquis ^^