The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen. Short summary

5 seconds

The stepmother turned 11 step-grandchildren into swans. Their sister Elsa did everything she could to remove the evil spell without fear of obstacles or even death. Her brothers regained their former appearance, and all lived happily ever after.

1 minute

Elsa and her 11 brothers lived happily ever after in the royal palace. But a wicked stepmother appeared. She bewitched the stepchildren: they turned into swans, and could only assume their former appearance after sunset.

Elsa tried to find out where the brothers had gone. But the stepmother soiled her in the mud, and her father, not recognizing the girl, threw her out of the palace.

Elsa met an old woman who told her about the 11 beautiful birds with crowns on their heads at a nearby lake. So the girl met her brothers. After sunset, they became boys and wove a willow basket for their sister.

In the morning they set off, carrying Elsa through the air. At night, the girl had a dream that an old woman told her how to undo the spell of the swan brothers: they only had to put on shirts made of nettles, and before that, they did not make a sound.

Elsa immediately set to work. She tore nettles and knitted. Because Elsa went to the cemetery to get nettles, people thought she was a witch and decided to burn her. Already at the fire, Elsa was knitting her 11th shirt. She managed to put them on the swans, and they became young men.