Adapted From:
Source: Ernst Meier – Deutsche Volksmärchen aus Schwaben
Once upon a time there was a hunter. He was very despondent because his wife had died. He often wandered about in the forest entirely alone, thinking about whether or not he would ever find a second wife whom he could love as much as he had the first one.
One day he wandered ever deeper into the woods, with his gun at his side and not knowing where he wanted to go. At last he came to a straw hut. Stepping inside, he found there an old man with a crucifix lying before him. He greeted the man, who received him in a friendly manner and asked him what had led him to this forest hut.
The hunter told him of his sorrows: that he had lost his wife, that he now lived by himself, and that he did not know if he would ever be happy again.
The old man said to him, “There is help. Three swans will come here soon. Look at them carefully! After they have flown to the pond, you must secretly go there without letting them see you. Take one of their dresses and immediately return here with it.”
As soon as the old man had spoken, three snow-white swans flew toward the hut. After the hunter saw them, they flew further to a nearby pond.
The hunter crept up and secretly took a dress that one of the swans had taken off and laid on the bank. Then he returned with it to the old man’s hut.
When the swans wanted to get dressed again, one of them had only a shift. As a beautiful maiden she came to the hunter, who had her dress, and moved into his house, and became his dear wife.
Before the hunter left the old man, the latter said to him, “You must carefully hide the swan-dress from your wife so that she cannot find it again.”
The hunter did this, and he lived with his second wife for fifteen years. She bore him several children, and the married couple were very happy together.
Then it happened that one morning the man left, saying to his wife, “I shall be back at noon to eat.”
After he had left, the woman watched him until he disappeared into the woods. Then she went to the attic, which the man had not locked this time, opened the chest containing the swan-dress, put it on, and as a swan flew far, far away.
When the man came home to eat, his wife had disappeared. Not even the children could say where she was, for they had not seen her.
Then the hunter returned to the old man in the woods and told him of his misfortune: that once again he had lost his wife, and that he did not know where she had gone.
The old man said, “You did not put the dress away carefully. She found it and has flown away with it.”
“Oh,” said the hunter sadly, “is it not possible for me to find her again?”
“It is possible,” said the old man, “but now it is dangerous, and it could cost you your life.”
The hunter wanted to do everything for his wife, and so the old man said to him, “First you must attempt to get into the castle where your wife now lives. That will best happen as follows: She has donkeys that carry flour from a miller every day. Go to the miller and ask him to hide you in a flour sack. The rest you will learn from your wife.”
With that the hunter found his way to the miller and talked him into hiding him in a sack. A donkey carried him a great distance to a splendid castle.
After arriving there he immediately found his wife, and no one could have been happier than was she, and she thanked her husband from the bottom of her heart for coming to redeem her.
But then she said to him, “Before we can be happy and live together, you must fight with three dragons who are here. They will come to you on three days and in different forms. They will torment and plague you for one hour each day, and if you withstand this without uttering a sound then they cannot further harm you, and I will be free. But if you speak a single word, they will kill you.”
Then the hunter promised that he would surely redeem her.
On the first day three great snakes came and wrapped themselves around the hunter’s feet until he could not move, and they tormented him for an entire hour. Because he endured this in silence they went away without harming him.
The next day the dragons appeared as turtles and shot balls of fire at the hunter, until he could no longer withstand it, but he withstood it nonetheless, and he uttered not a sound, so after one hour they left him.
On the third day they came again as gigantic snakes and took the hunter whole into their jaws. He was deathly afraid and thought that he would have to cry out, and that he would no longer be able to withstand it, but out of love for his wife, he withstood it nonetheless.
When the three hours had passed, there suddenly stood before him — instead of the three snakes — three noblewomen. These were the three enchanted swans, whom he had now redeemed. And they remained with him and with his wife in the castle, and they all lived together in peace and happiness, and if they have not died, then they must be still alive.