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Carrie
Registered User
(7/5/00 12:28:35 pm)
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In search of swans...
Hello all. I'm trying to write a poem about a tale I have tucked in my head and now that I've actually sat down to research and write -- I'm finding out that I'm remembering different things than are in the story. I thought it was Grimm's Six Swans but I remember coffins and that the shirts the heroine had to weave were of nettles. The swan story says the shirts were made of asters. I found another tale which has many of the elements found in the swan story titled The Twelve Brothers, in which the brothers are transformed into ravens. This story has the coffins in it that I remembered but not the nettle shirts. I distinctly recall the heroine having to harvest the stinging nettles and then sewing them into shirts. This fits more with my piece because not only is she sacrificing her voice for six years but she is sewing the shirts with bloody hands. I really want to use the blood imagery, for several reasons. Does anyone know of a similar story in which the nettles come into play? Or am I imagining things? Help -- Midori, Terri, Karen, anyone?
Cheers.
Carrie
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Midori
Unregistered User
(7/5/00 12:55:01 pm)
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blur
Carrie,
Oy..I'm doing the same thing you are blurring them altogether. I remember the nettles too--especially the bloody hands. I know Terri has a drawing of the sister with her hands wrapt (at least I remember an illustration that I attribute to Terri--) but hopefully she will remember more clearly than me. I'll do a little hunting over the next few days and see what I can come up with...
Midori
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DarkWolfEyes
Unregistered User
(7/7/00 3:53:11 am)
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I've heard the tail . .
Carrie, I recall a story in which brothers turned to ravens, nettle shirts made, but sadly not coffins or the name of the tale. I am referring to an early memory from childhood, so I may be wrong. I just thought that you may like to know that someone has at least read a variation similar to yours.
Keep looking.
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Rebecca
Unregistered User
(7/7/00 9:50:05 am)
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Hans Christian Anderson
Hi,
I found this story, called "The Wild Swans" which has
the nettles in it. It doesn't have coffins, but it does have the
girl going to a churchyard to gather the nettles, and there's a
bunch of ghouls sitting around on the tombstones! hca.gilead.org.il/wild_swa.html
If it's any help, this kind of tale is Type 451 (brothers who are turned into birds) under the Aarne-Thompson classification system. If you can get to a library and take a look, you might find other versions listed under that (If I was going to campus, I would look for you, but lucky me! I don't have classes this quarter!)
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Carrie
Registered User
(7/7/00 11:03:42 am)
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thanks
Thank you all. I greatly appreciate the help.
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