Once upon a time, a king got lost in the forest while hunting and couldn’t find his way out.
Just then, he met an old woman and hurriedly asked her for directions.
However, he didn’t know that the old woman was a witch who had cast a spell to make him lost.
The old woman said, “I can certainly show you the way, but you must agree to one condition.”
The king quickly replied, “What do you want? Whether it’s gold, silver, or jewels, I can give them to you.”
The old woman sneered and said, “I don’t want any of that. What I want is for you to marry my daughter and make her the queen! You won’t regret it; she’s as beautiful as a fairy, and you’ll fall in love with her at first sight.”
Seeing the king hesitate, the old woman added, “If you don’t agree, you’ll never find your way out of the forest and will starve to death here!”
The king had no choice but to agree.
So, the old woman led the king home to meet her daughter.
As soon as the old woman’s daughter saw the king, she immediately ran up to greet him.
The king looked at her, and indeed, she was very beautiful.
However, the king didn’t fall in love with her at first sight. For some reason, she made him feel uneasy.
Nevertheless, to keep his promise, the king brought the girl back to the palace and married her, making her the queen, as she had wished.
The king already had six sons and daughters with his first wife, and he cherished them dearly.
He worried that the new queen might be unkind to his children, so he hid them in a castle deep in the forest.
The castle was so well hidden that even the king himself couldn’t find it, except by using a magical ball of thread given to him by a wise woman.
Whenever he threw the ball on the ground, it would unwind and lead him to the castle.
The king often visited his children, which aroused the queen’s suspicion.
She bribed the king’s servant with a large sum of money and finally learned the secret.
The queen was furious and sought advice from her mother.
After consulting with her, she made seven silk shirts and sewed a curse into them.
One day, when the king was away, the queen found the magical ball of thread, took the seven silk shirts, and went into the forest.
Following the thread’s guidance, she arrived at the castle.
The children, seeing someone approaching, thought it was their father and happily ran out to greet the visitor.
The queen sneered and threw the silk shirts at the children.
As soon as the shirts landed on them, the children turned into swans and flew away.
The queen sighed in relief, feeling satisfied, and returned to the palace.
However, she didn’t realize that the youngest daughter hadn’t come out and thus wasn’t turned into a swan.
The next day, the king went to the castle and found only his youngest daughter there.
He anxiously asked where her brothers had gone.
The little princess cried, “They turned into swans and flew away.”
The king was heartbroken but didn’t suspect that it was the queen’s doing.
He asked his daughter to return to the palace with him, but the princess, fearful of her stepmother, insisted on staying.
After the king left, the poor girl thought, “I must go find my brothers.”
So, she left the castle and ventured into the forest.
She walked for a long time until she was so tired that she could barely lift her feet, but there was no sign of her brothers.
At that moment, she spotted a house.
When she entered, she found six small beds.
Although exhausted, she didn’t dare to sleep in any of the beds, so she crawled under one and lay down.
Soon after, she heard a noise and saw six swans fly in through the window.
They landed on the ground and began blowing on each other until their feathers fell off, revealing six silk shirts underneath.
The swans turned into six princes.
The princess immediately recognized her six brothers and, filled with joy, crawled out from under the bed, calling out to them.
The six brothers were also overjoyed to see her but quickly said, “You must leave at once. This is actually a robbers’ den, and if they return, they will kill you!”
“Can’t you protect me?” she asked. “You always protected me in the past, no matter what.”
“We are swans now, not humans. We no longer have the strength to protect you. Every day, we can only turn back into humans for fifteen minutes, then we turn into swans again.”
The princess cried, “Is there any way to turn you back into humans?”
“It’s very difficult,” they said. “To break the spell, you must not speak or laugh for six years, and during that time, you must sew six shirts made of starflowers for us. If you laugh or speak during those six years, all the effort will be in vain.”
As their fifteen minutes were nearly up, they urged the princess to leave quickly, and then they turned back into swans and flew out of the window.
The princess thought to herself, “I must make sure my brothers return to human form, even if it costs my life. This challenge is nothing compared to that.”
So, she left the house and ventured deeper into the forest, searching for starflowers.
She picked many flowers and climbed a tree to start sewing the starflower shirts for her brothers.
Day after day, night after night, the princess either gathered starflowers or sat in the tree sewing.
She neither spoke nor laughed, and fortunately, no one in the forest spoke to her.
But one day, a young king was hunting in the forest, and the hunters following him discovered the princess.
They found it strange that she was sitting in a tree sewing, so they asked her many questions.
To get rid of them, the princess threw down her gold and silver jewelry, hoping they would leave her alone.
The hunters reported this strange encounter to the king.
The king came to the tree and immediately fell in love with the beautiful princess.
He took her back to his palace and decided to marry her.
The king had a wicked stepmother who strongly opposed the marriage.
“This woman is of unknown origin, does not speak, and does not smile. She is unfit to be a queen!”
However, the king was deeply in love with the princess and went ahead with a grand wedding.
A year later, the queen gave birth to a child.
The stepmother had the child stolen and then accused the queen of killing the baby.
The queen, while silently crying, continued to sew the starflower shirts for her brothers.
Fortunately, the king did not believe the accusations.
He said, “The queen has a kind heart and would never harm her own child. If she could speak, she would explain everything.”
When the queen had a second child, the stepmother used the same trick: she had the child stolen and then claimed the queen had killed it.
Again, the king did not believe the accusation.
However, when the third child was stolen, the pressure from the stepmother and the courtiers forced the king to hand the queen over for trial, and she was ultimately sentenced to be burned at the stake.
On the day of her execution, six years had passed. The queen thought, “Today is the day my brothers can turn back into humans. As long as they wear the starflower shirts, they will be restored to human form.”
As she was being taken to the execution site, the queen hid the six starflower shirts on her person.
As the fire was lit, she anxiously looked up at the sky, hoping her brothers would arrive in time. If they did, she thought, she would die without regret.
At that moment, a long cry was heard, and she saw six swans flying towards her.
The queen threw the starflower shirts with all her might.
As the shirts landed on the swans, they shed their feathers and transformed back into six princes.
However, one prince still had swan wings because the queen had not yet finished sewing the sleeves of the last shirt.
The six brothers rescued their sister and went together to the king.
Seeing the queen speak, the king was astonished.
The queen explained to him that she had remained silent and not smiled to save her brothers, and she revealed the stepmother’s deceit, including the theft of the three children and the false accusations against her.
In the end, the stepmother was sentenced to be burned at the stake.
The queen, her brothers, and the king lived happily ever after.
👉 Very Short Story
A king got lost in a forest and, in order to find his way out, he had to agree to marry a witch’s daughter and make her his queen.
The new queen was beautiful, but for some reason, the king felt fearful whenever he saw her. He was even more afraid that she might harm his seven children from his first marriage. To protect them, he sent his six sons and one daughter to a hidden castle deep within the forest.
However, the queen soon discovered this secret. She went into the forest and threw seven enchanted shirts over the king’s children.
As soon as the shirts touched them, the children transformed into swans and flew away.
The youngest princess, who hadn’t been covered by a shirt, watched her brothers turn into swans and fly off. Determined to find them, she set off on a journey.
After a long search, the princess finally found her brothers. She asked them how she could break the curse and turn them back into humans.
Her brothers told her that only clothing made from starflowers could free them, and for six years she would need to remain silent and not laugh or speak.
Resolving to save her brothers, the princess ventured into the forest, gathered many starflowers, climbed into a tree, and began sewing starflower garments.
One day, a king passed by and was captivated by the princess’s beauty at first sight.
He brought her back to his palace and married her, making her the new queen.
However, the king’s stepmother, who was also a witch, disapproved of the new queen.
When the queen gave birth to her first child, the stepmother stole the baby and accused the queen of murdering it.
Fortunately, the king didn’t believe his kind-hearted queen would do such a thing.
But after the second and third children also vanished, the king, pressured by his stepmother and the court ministers, had no choice but to agree to put the queen on trial, and eventually, she was sentenced to be burned at the stake.
Upon hearing this, the queen began sewing the starflower clothes day and night with even greater urgency. She managed to finish just before her execution and hid the clothes beneath her garments as she was led to the stake.
Desperately, she looked to the sky and prayed, hoping her brothers would arrive and put on the starflower clothes before her death.
As the flames were about to reach her, six swans descended from the sky.
Using the last of her strength, she threw the starflower clothes over them.
The moment the clothes touched the swans, they transformed back into princes.
They rescued their sister and went with her to face the king.
The queen explained the reason for her six years of silence and revealed that the stepmother had stolen her children and falsely accused her of the crime.
In the end, the stepmother was sentenced to be burned at the stake.
The queen, the king, and her brothers lived together in happiness and peace.
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