The Seventh Swan

“The Seventh Swan” Mixed media collage on paper, by Lizzie Ault

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“The swans came down suddenly with the winter dusk - huge and white, all seven of them, dropping down from the sky as if crystallised from snow.”

A hunter shoots at a group of seven, forbidden swans, injuring one. He takes it home to finish it off, but ends up taking pity on it. To his astonishment it turns into a girl. He tries to tame her but she will not submit to his will. In the night the other six swans return. The girl grows feathers and wings and attacks the man. When he runs all seven swans chase him and kill him. The seven swans are never seen again. 

I just fell in love with this story. It’s dark and violent and magical. It speaks to me of the true nature and history of the fens, somehow. I’m fascinated by the idea of swans being forbidden for reasons to do with ancient magic and superstition. These days we know that swans are forbidden as they are owned by the queen but when I first read this tale I thought perhaps the sanctity of swans could be more ancient, shrouded in myth and superstition. However, then I started reading about the author, Ruth Tongue. She is shrouded in mystery herself, but many folklorists believe that she did not faithfully record the tales told to her by the people she met, she rather embellished them, perhaps even made them up completely! There’s nothing wrong with that per se, however she claimed that she had heard them from the horse’s mouth so that leaves a lot of confusion for those interested in folk tales because, as with something like the idea of swans being forbidden, who knows whether that is true if we can’t guarantee that the source is reliable. If you’d like to learn more about Ruth Tongue then this article was very interesting.

If you want to read the full story I found it in a national trust collection of English fairy tales by Rosalind Kerven.