Summary of “Wild Swans” for a reader’s diary
Author's name : Hans Christian Andersen
Title : "Wild Swans"
Number of pages : 32. Andersen H. K. “Wild Swans.” Publishing house "Ripol Classic", 2011
Genre : Fairy tale
Year of writing : 1838.
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Kuchmina Nadezhda Vladimirovna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 27 years.
The main idea of H.H. Andersen's fairy tale “Wild Swans”
We remember the works of the great storyteller Andersen from early childhood. The plots and characters of his fairy tales make you think about simple human truths, about good and evil, sincerity and cruelty, about actions that can sometimes change the fate of people. Why people? It seems to me because by presenting his heroes to us, the author shows examples that can happen in human life. This is probably why it is so important, after reading fairy tales or other works, to grasp the main idea, and sometimes draw some useful conclusions for yourself.
So, in the fairy tale “Wild Swans” the main character is the girl Eliza, who is smart and wise beyond her years. Finding herself in a difficult situation, she finds a way out of it thanks to her hard work, diligence, sincerity, kindness and honesty. Eliza's evil stepmother turned her brothers into swans, and the small, defenseless children were torn from each other. But sincere love and family ties did not allow the sister and brothers to separate. Their affection gave the children strength to fight the spell of the evil stepmother.
To save the swan brothers, Eliza had to knit a nettle garment for each of the brothers and remain mute until she finished all 11 chain mail shirts. The girl did this work through pain and suffering. And even when the prince invited her to his house, Eliza continued to knit clothes for her brothers. The strange behavior of the girl alerted the residents - why is the girl knitting something from nettles, without saying a word? Isn't she a witch? And the prince himself began to doubt. Eliza was sentenced to execution, but even in the central square she continued to do her work in the hope of being able to do everything in time and save her brothers. And they understood everything without words, they were sure that their loving sister would save them. At the most crucial moment, they appeared on the square, and Eliza was able to throw nettle clothes over the brothers’ shoulders.
Witchcraft was defeated, and the brothers turned into handsome princes. They met Eliza again. What is the main idea of this fairy tale? Only strong and amazingly strong love can work miracles. Thanks to this feeling, Eliza was able to meet her brothers again and save them. The kind, sincere feelings of children turned out to be stronger than evil spells.
Also, do not forget that someone else’s opinion may not always be correct and authoritative. After all, without finding out all the circumstances, the girl was sent to execution; she could have died, although she fought with all her might for her truth and her family happiness. Therefore, you should not always rely on the opinions of outside observers and judge a person only by his behavior. After all, we are people who know how to talk, and in any situation we can find a common language.
Main characters
Eliza is a beautiful princess, a kind girl.
Eliza's brothers are eleven siblings turned into white swans by their evil stepmother.
The Queen is the stepmother of Eliza and her brothers, an angry and envious woman.
Fairy Morgana is a kind and powerful sorceress.
The king of an unknown country is a young ruler in love with Eliza.
The Archbishop is an angry, suspicious priest.
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Summary of “Wild Swans”
The main characters of the fairy tale “Wild Swans”
The famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen tells us about human meanness and hatred and about love and sacrifice opposing them.
The main characters of the fairy tale “Wild Swans”:
- Eliza is a princess, a beautiful, innocent, pious girl. Despite her outward tenderness and timidity, she has an iron core in herself: she showed remarkable courage, hard work and perseverance to save her brothers from evil spells. At the same time, her sacrifice is surprising: she was not afraid of execution just to finish the job she started, and to weave eleven shirts from nettles, and even in complete silence, without consolation - not everyone is capable of a task. Also noteworthy is her sincere faith in God and hope for His help.
- Eleven brothers-princes - bewitched by evil spells, during the day they turned into white swans and only at night took on human form. They anxiously cared for their sister Eliza, tried to intercede for her before the king, but the onset of day prevented them. They were freed from the hour with the help of nettle shirts woven by their sister. Only the youngest has a swan wing left.
- The Queen Stepmother is an evil witch. First she sent Eliza away from the palace to the village, and later she changed her appearance and sent her into exile. From the very beginning she slandered her brothers in front of their father and turned her into swans. Her further fate is unknown.
Minor characters of the tale:
- The king (Eliza's father) - perhaps he can be called a negative hero. Andersen doesn’t say a single bad word about him, but the way he treated his own children to please his new wife is upsetting. However, it is possible that the queen completely confused him or even bewitched him.
- Fairy Fata Morgana - helped Eliza. First she appeared in the form of an old woman and showed where to look for the brothers. Then she appeared in a dream and taught them how to return them to their permanent human appearance.
- The king (Eliza's husband) met her while hunting and took her away against the will of the girl herself, although guided by good intentions. He fell in love with her and married, despite the muteness and uncertainty of the origin of his chosen one. Surrounded with love and splendor. Subsequently, he misinterpreted the queen’s visits to the cemetery and decided that she was a witch.
- The Archbishop , from the very beginning, not blinded by love, considered the king’s decision to marry a strange and dumb stranger to be wrong. He suspected that Eliza was a witch and tracked her down.
The fairy tale "Wild Swans" has a happy ending. And although the negative heroes were not punished, everything ended well for the positive ones.
Plot
After the death of his beloved wife, the king, who had eleven handsome sons and a daughter named Eliza, married a second time to a beautiful but very evil woman. She turned the brothers into beautiful white swans, and gave the girl to be raised by the villagers.
When Eliza was fifteen years old, the fame of her beauty reached the ears of her evil stepmother. She smeared the girl’s face with dirt so much that even her own father did not recognize her and kicked her out of the kingdom. Wandering through the forest, Eliza met her brothers, who were birds during the day, and at sunset they again took on human form.
The brothers were very happy with their sister and offered to go with them to a warm country. Having safely crossed the raging sea, the brothers brought Eliza to the cave where they lived. At night, the girl dreamed of the good fairy Morgana, who suggested how to free the brothers from the spell: they need to weave eleven shirts from nettles and throw them on the swans. But while working, you cannot say a word, otherwise the brothers will die immediately.
Without sparing herself, Eliza set about the difficult work. One day, while hunting, the king of that country noticed her. He fell so in love with a beautiful girl that he immediately married her. However, the archbishop, noticing the strong influence the young queen had on the ruler, accused her of witchcraft. Eliza could not reveal the truth to the king, because she had not yet finished all the shirts.
The king, believing the archbishop's slander, ordered Eliza to be burned at the stake. But on the day of the execution, swans flew to the square. Eliza threw nettle shirts on them, and they immediately turned into princes.
Read the summary of Andersen Wild Swans
There were twelve children in the royal family - eleven sons and one sister. Their life was easy and rosy until their stepmother appeared, who sent Elsa to live in distant lands, and enchanted her brothers into swans, who had the ability to take on human form only after sunset. With every day spent in the village, the beautiful Elsa became more and more beautiful, but sadness for her brothers overshadowed her.
Returning to her father's castle, she tried to find out something about the fate of the brothers, but all such attempts were suppressed by her evil stepmother. One morning she tried to disfigure the girl with the help of a secret spell, but her plans were unsuccessful - the three toads that were used for this jumped away as soon as they touched the innocent beauty. Seeing this, the stepmother went berserk and stained her stepdaughter in swamp mud to such an extent that not a single person wanted to talk to her, and her own father, not recognizing her, ordered the disfigured woman to be expelled.
Elsa spends the next night in the forest, where she dreams of old times, when they were all happy and not separated by her stepmother's curse. In the morning, barely waking up, exhausted from thirst and all dirty, she finds a clean pond, in which she quenches her thirst and washes herself, again transforming into a beauty.
While looking for a way out of the forest, the girl comes across a kind old woman who gives her a handful of berries and shows her the way out of the forest. Then the girl begins to ask her questions about the eleven beautiful swans that should be found in these places. Having heard about them, the old woman immediately remembers the birds with golden crowns, which she recently saw in a nearby body of water, which Elsa talks about. Having learned this, the girl throws all her strength into getting to the reservoir described by the old woman as quickly as possible. At sunset, she discovers a large river and swans splashing in it, who begin to turn into her brothers. In the morning they all leave the pond, and Elsa is carried in a willow basket. Throughout the flight, the girl admires the expanses of her native land and sees cloudy castles.
Having settled down for the night in a dark cave, she sees a new dream, in which the old woman of the forest tells how to save the brothers: to do this, you need to pick nettles and knit a shirt from it for each of the eleven brothers, and you cannot break the silence with your voice, but otherwise the brothers will die.
The brothers returning to the cave in the morning find their sister knitting and notice that she is silent, not interrupting her knitting with a word or a song. They take this for another spell from the stepmother, but when they see that the sister is diligently knitting and moving on to the next shirt, they understand what’s going on. After some time, she is noticed by the king, who is hunting in these parts. He takes the girl to his kingdom and makes her his wife. Seeing her activities, he gives her a separate room and brings her nettles, from which he knits new shirts.
One day, when the nettles have run out, she gets out of the castle and wanders to the cemetery, where she finds nettles and, having picked them, heads back to the castle. The king's advisor, who saw this, mistakes the girl for a sorceress and reports everything to his ruler, who, having convinced himself of everything, wants to wait. When the girl once again heads to the cemetery, she is seen by the inhabitants of the kingdom, who, as it seemed to them, bind the witch and condemn her to be burned at the stake. The king agrees, but leaves her the opportunity to finish her work.
Left alone in captivity, Elsa does not stop weaving shirts. Having learned about this, the brothers come and try to explain everything to the king, but do not have time and turn into swans again.
In the morning, while the girl is being taken to be torn to pieces, a maddened and ferocious crowd attacks from all sides, trying to snatch her products from the “witch.” When the executioner, having grabbed her, drags her to the fire, eleven swans suddenly appear and protect her from the fire, and the girl, having completed work on the last shirt, throws them over the brothers, breaking the spell. After this, she faints, and people surround the young men, who tell the king what is happening. Hearing the explanations, the king jumps up and runs up to the unconscious woman. The fire in front of them goes out and turns into a bush of scarlet roses surrounding a single white rose. Having picked it, the king puts the flower on the girl’s chest, and Elsa wakes up, finding happiness and peace.
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Review
Eliza had to endure many trials, but her heart did not harden. To save her beloved brothers, she was ready to sacrifice her life, and only thanks to her dedication they regained their human form.
Drawing-illustration for the fairy tale Wild Swans.
Plot - summary
- The evil stepmother hates the king's children, she turns his sons into swans, and wants to turn Eliza into a stupid and ugly girl.
- But Eliza's faith and purity saved her, and the princess went to look for her brothers.
- She found swans on the seashore, and her brothers took her to the island of the fairy Morgana.
- The fairy told Eliza how to disenchant her brothers, and Eliza began to sew shirts from nettles.
- The king decided to marry Eliza, but the archbishop accused the girl of witchcraft, and they wanted to burn her
- Eliza managed to disenchant the brothers, and they became people again, and she was acquitted.
A summary of the work can be read here, and there you will also find another version of the summary for the reader’s diary
