TRANSCRIPT:
[Slow string instruments play and fade to be heard under The Narrator] Narrator: Hello. Welcome to Mythical, the podcast that wanders the dark and fantastical pages of fairy tales and myths. This season, I’m reading the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Today’s story has dark tricks and a transformation in honor of the month of October and Halloween. It is “The Six Swans.” Today is also a special episode because I have a guest! Adding her voice and commentary with me is Kayla Knight, host of Get Grimm, a storytelling podcast about fairy tales and folk tales for adolescent folklorists, and co-host of That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It. Kayla and I have been friends for a long time, and I’m very excited to have her on Mythical. Before Kayla and I begin, I’d like to showcase two podcasts: Dark Remnants podcast, and Our True Crime Podcast. [A deep, slow siren, and a heartbeat] Male Voice: These are the dark fringes of our world. The pieces forgotten. The dark remnants. Dark Remnants is a podcast that features horror stories. These stories may be scary, brutal, odd, creepy, or just plain weird. If you’re a fan of horror, dark sci-fi, Lovecraft, or Creepy Pasta, then join me every other Saturday for a new tale to tell. You can find Dark Remnants wherever you get your podcasts, or visit darkremnants.com. Come and join us in the dark. [Boom and fade] Jen: Are your friends tired of hearing you talk about serial killers? Cam: While you’re at a party have you randomly blurted out the odds of a person being murdered by a complete stranger? Jen: Does your Hulu or Netflix only recommend documentaries on true crime? Cam: If you have answered yes to one or more of these questions, you may have a problem. Jen: And so do we! That’s why we started Our True Crime Podcast! Cam: We are the hosts: Cam and Jen. We’re lifelong best friends that love to talk about all things true crime, so we decided to start our own podcast, hoping to find others that share our passion. Jen: You can find us on ourtruecrimepodcast.com, or you can download new episodes of Our True Crime Podcast on Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, or any other places you download podcasts. Cam: See ya on Wednesdays! [Slow string instruments play under The Narrator] Narrator: I personally listen to both of these podcasts, and think you should give them a try if dark stories are of interest. Let’s begin today’s story: The Six Swans. I’m The Narrator, and I’ll begin, as all good stories should, with once upon a time. [Chimes to indicate the start of the story] Narrator: A king went hunting in a vast forest, got lost, and couldn’t find his way out. Finally he came upon a witch and asked her to show him the way out of the forest. However, the witch told him she wouldn’t do it, he had to remain there and would lose his life. He could only be saved if he married her daughter. The king cherished his life and he was so frightened he said yes, so the witch brought the maiden to him. Narrator’s Comments: That’s such a bad stroke of luck, you get lost in a forest and then a witch is like, “I’m not gonna tell you, but hey look I have a—“ Kayla’s Comments: She’s a witch! Narrator’s Comments: I’m not a witch, I’m your wife! [Laughter] Kayla’s Comments: Well, at least he didn’t get the witch as a wife. Narrator’s Comments: That’s true; he got the witch’s daughter as a wife. Kayla’s Comments: Yeah. Narrator’s Comments: But, I mean, if you really cherish your life, I get it, marry whoever shows up. Kayla’s Comments: Can we talk about how there’s always a random witch hanging out in the woods? Narrator’s Comments: Right? Is that where all the witches live? Kayla’s Comments: I guess so. Narrator: Though she was young and beautiful, he couldn’t look at her without getting the creeps and secretly shuddering. However, he intended to keep his promise. Then, the old woman led both of them on the right path out of the forest, and once they were at the king’s house, the witch’s daughter became his wife. Kayla’s Comments: I mean, at least she trusted him to marry her once they were out of the forest and didn’t make him marry her while they were still there. Narrator’s Comments: Right, ‘cause who’s to say that the king wouldn’t just bolt in a different direction once he got out of the forest. Kayla’s Comments: I mean, the witch could probably track him down, they do show up in random places all the time. Narrator’s Comments: Probably. Witches are very powerful in fairy tales. Now the king still had seven children from his first wife, six boys and a girl, and since he was afraid the stepmother might harm them, he brought them to a castle in the middle of a forest. It lay so well concealed nobody knew the way to it, and he himself would not have found it if a wise woman had not given him the ball of yarn. When he threw the ball before him, the yarn unwound itself and showed him the way. Kayla’s Comments: Wish the yarn in my house did that. Narrator’s Comments: Right? I want that yarn. It would be so handy for lost things. Kayla’s Comments: Tie my keys to it. And my phone. And me! Narrator’s Comments: But I get being afraid for his children’s’ life, he literally just met this woman…and she’s the daughter of a witch. Kayla’s Comments [Sarcastic]: Gee, I wonder if he was reason to be suspicious. Let’s find out. Narrator: Since the king loved his children very much, he frequently went to the castle. However, the queen became curious and wanted to know why he was going out into the forest all alone. She interrogated the servants, and they revealed the entire secret. The first thing she did was use her cunning and acquire the ball of yard. Then she took seven small shirts and went out into the forest alone. The ball of yarn showed her the way and when the six little princes saw her coming from the distance, they were delighted because they thought their father was coming and ran out to her. [Running footsteps] But all at once she threw a shirt over each one of them, and as soon as they were touched by the shirts, they were turned into swans and flew away over the forest. Kayla’s Comments: This woman has some freaky good aim if she can land a shirt on a kid in the first try. And then six times in a row. Six little boys too! Narrator: Now the queen thought that she had gotten rid of all her stepchildren and returned home. Narrator’s Comments: Could she not count? Kayla’s Comments: Maybe she didn’t know about the daughter? Narrator’s Comments: That’d be weird though. Kayla’s Comments: Well, she only saw the six little boys. Narrator’s Comments: Yeah, but she took seven shirts. So…she just has a random shirt left? Kayla’s Comments: I don’t know, maybe she’s just sexist. Narrator: So the maiden, who had remained in her room, was saved. The next day the king went to the castle in the forest, and she told him what had happened and showed him the swan feathers that had fallen down from her six brothers in the courtyard. The king was horrified but couldn’t believe that the queen had done such an evil deed. At the same time, he was worried that the princess might also be stolen away from him. So he wanted to take her with him. However, she was afraid of her stepmother and begged the king to allow her to spend one more night in the castle. Then, during the night, she fled and went deeper into the forest. Kayla’s Comments: But wasn’t he the one that put them in the tower to begin with? Because he didn’t trust the stepmother and now all of a sudden he doesn’t believe the queen could do such an evil deed. What is wrong with this man? Narrator’s Comments: Right? You don’t trust your wife, so you hide your kids. It doesn’t make any sense; the guy’s an idiot. [Footsteps on leaves] Narrator: She walked the entire day, and toward evening she came to a hut. Once she entered, she found a room with six small beds. Since she was now tired, she lay herself down beneath one of the beds and wanted to spend the night there. [Birds flying] Yet at sunset six swans came flying through the window, landed on the floor, and blew on one another until all their feathers were blown off as if some cloth had slipped off them, and there stood her six brothers. She crawled out from beneath the bed, and the brothers were both glad and distressed to see her again. Kayla as the Brothers [Fast and Accented]: You can’t stay here, Narrator: They said. Brothers: This is a robbers’ den. When they come home from their marauding they live here. We can take off our swan skins for only a quarter of an hour every evening and assume our human form during this time. Then it’s all over. If you want to rescue us, you must sew six little shirts made out of asters, but during this time you’re not allowed to speak or laugh. Otherwise all your work will be for naught. Narrator: As the brothers were speaking, the quarter of an hour expired, and once again they were transformed into swans. The next morning, however, the maiden gathered asters, perched herself on a branch of a tall tree, and began to sew. She didn’t speak a single word or laugh. She just sat there and concentrated on her work. After she had been there a long time, the king who owned this land went hunting and came to the tree where the maiden was perched. His hunters called to her and told her to come down. [Men shouting] But because she was not permitted to answer them, she wanted to satisfy them by throwing them presents. So she threw down her golden necklace. Yet they continued to call out. So she threw them her girdle, and when this didn’t work either, she threw down her garters and little by little everything that she had on and could do without until she had nothing left but her little shift. Kayla’s Comments: I don’t like how this story isn’t very clear on which king this is. Narrator’s Comments: Yeah, it says the king that owned the land, so it can’t be her father. But it doesn’t seem like she ran very far from her father’s land. Kayla’s Comments: Maybe the kept the extra castle on the border, like a border fortress? Narrator: Still all this was not enough for the hunters. They climbed the tree, carried her down, and led her by force to the king, who was astonished by her beauty. He covered her with his cloak, lifted her onto his horse, and brought her to his home. Even though she was mute, he loved her with all his heart, and she became his wife. Narrator’s Comments: I can just picture when they’re, like, taking her down by force, she can’t make any sound so is she, like, kicking around or whatever? ‘Cause she can’t scream for help. Just kinda has to go along with it. Kayla’s Comments: I would be. I don’t care if my brothers stay swans. More for me. I can be queen if they’re all swans. Narrator’s Comments: Well, she’s gonna be queen of this land, she gets married to him. Kayla’s Comments: Well, then you get more land. And more money. Narrator’s Comments: That’s true, ‘cause she’ll get her father’s land too. Narrator: Now the king’s mother was angry about all of this and spoke ill of the young queen: nobody knew where the wench came from, and she wasn’t worthy of the king. When the queen gave birth to her first child, the old mother-in-law took the child away and smeared the queen’s mouth with blood while she was asleep. Then she accused the young queen of having eaten her own child and of being a sorceress. However, because of his great love for his wife, the king refused to believe this. Narrator’s Comments: Do they not have any sort of writing utensil in this kingdom? Can she not write anything down? Kayla’s Comments: Probably not. That probably breaks the rules. Narrator’s Comments: Well, that’s dumb. ‘Cause that’s not speaking or laughing. Narrator: Some time later the queen gave birth to a second prince, and the godless mother-in-law played the same trick and accused the queen of cannibalism again. Since the queen wasn’t allowed to talk and had to sit there mute and work on the six little shirts, she couldn’t save herself and was sentenced at the stake. The day came when the sentence was to be carried out. It was exactly the last day of the six years, and she had managed to finish sewing the six shirts. Only the left sleeve of the last shirt was missing. When she was led to the stake, she took the six shirts with her, and when she stood on the pile of wood and the fire was about to be lit, she saw the six swans flying through the air until they descended right near her. [Birds flying by] So she threw the shirts over them, and as soon as the shirts touched them, the swan skins fell off, and her six brothers stood before her in the flesh. Only the sixth one was missing his left arm: instead, he had a swan’s wing on his shoulder. Now she could speak once again and told everyone how her mother-in-law had slandered her in such a wicked way. Consequently, the old woman was tied to the stake and burned to death. However, the young queen lived with the king and her six brothers a long time in great joy. [Chimes to signal the end of the story] [Strings play softly under The Narrator] Narrator: The moral of today’s story is: Learn to write. You never know when you or your siblings will be cursed by an evil stepmother your father married so he could get directions home. “The Six Swans” is my favorite fairy tale, and the final version is my favorite of all of them. I’m sure you’ll be surprised to hear that the final version the Brothers Grimm published has some edits to it. It’s a little more complete, with some questions answered. It explains that the king got lost in the forest by hunting a deer so intensely that his men couldn’t follow him. It implies that the witch and her daughter knew the king would be in the forest and were waiting for him; or that the witch made the deer appear. Rather than interrogating the servants, the queen bribed them with money and they told her about the children and the ball of yarn. In this version it is clear that the queen does not know how many children the king has. It even says that once she has turned the brothers into swans she thinks she has gotten rid of all the children. She does know witchcraft, and sews the transformation into the shirts. The princess and the king have no idea that the queen is behind the brothers’ disappearance; the princess simply thinks they’ve turned into swans and left her alone. There’s more dialogue overall in the final version, but where it is best put to use is between the brothers and the sister. She’s involved in asking questions, and the brothers mention the six years, rather than it being a last minute add on in the first version. The Brothers Grimm added dialogue between the king and the witch, the brothers and sister, and the princess and the king and his men when she is found in the tree. The king tries all the languages he knows to see if she will respond. He is so taken by her polite manners and modesty that he falls in love with her; at least it’s more than her beauty. He clothes her and feeds her. And the mother-in-law mostly hates the girl because she won’t speak. In the final version there is a third child that the princess bears, and the mother-in-law kidnaps that child as well. Until that point the king is adamant that if the princess would speak, she’d declare her innocence, but after the third child is taken, he puts his wife before a court who sentence her to death by fire. Once her brothers are freed of their curse—which it still doesn’t say how they know how to reverse their curse—the children are returned to their parents. What the final version doesn’t answer is how the king and mother-in-law didn’t know of the princess of the bordering kingdom. Today’s story was read from The Complete First Edition, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of The Brothers Grimm. Translated and Edited by Jack Zipes. If you have a fairy tale you would like me to read aloud, you can email me at [email protected]. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram at Mythicalpodcast. Where I post behind the scenes, updates, and clues to each week’s episode. If you like the show, please leave a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts, as I greatly appreciate it and it helps other people find the show. Thank you, Kayla, for lending “The Six Swans” your voice in this episode! Links to Get Grimm will be in the show notes. I highly recommend them. Thank you for joining me today. I’m The Narrator, and this is Mythical. [Music swells and fades]
SHOW NOTES:
"Once again they were transformed into swans." Die Sechs Schwäne It's best not to wander forests alone: witches hide between the trees. Beware stepmothers: they may turn you into a swan. Learn to write: you may not be permitted to speak. Transcript If you have a fairy tale you'd like me to read aloud, email me: [email protected] Instagram: @mythicalpodcast Twitter: @mythicalpodcast Get Grimm Dark Remnants Our True Crime Podcast Men Shouting SFX from Jace on Freesound.com Other SFX from Zapsplat.com
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2019
Categories |