SWAN MAIDEN
by Tala Bar © 2007
I
Autumn has arrived, and the forest standing away from the lake filled with colorful leaves in red, orange and purple; looming in front of the other trees, tall birches with straight, shimmering white trunks, were shedding their yellow leaves that swayed with the light ripple on the water. It was morning when, from among the cloak of clouds that covered the sky, a flock of shimmering white birds appeared above the lake, circled once and twice before swooping down to the water. Nine swans now decorated its bright surface, floating gracefully among the leaves and the shivering reflection of tall trees.
Toward noon, the air became heavier and the swans began dropping off to sleep. The largest and oldest of them sent a hidden signal, and they gathered behind her, as she led them to the bank of the lake. Clumsily, they climbed on to its withering grass and then, with no one there to watch, the transformation took place. The swans flapped their wings and made a little dance with their webbed feet, and in a minute there stood nine lovely maidens. They were all clad in shimmering white shifts, and they all had long golden hair and bright blue eyes.
On the deserted bank of the lake they flocked together, chattering and singing, dancing together until they got tired. Then they sat on the grass, and some lay down to sleep. After a while, the tallest and oldest of them rose and woke them up.
“Sygna,” she said to the youngest girl, “it is your turn this year, so I expect you to do your duty.”
“Yes, Mother Song,” the girl said, as they all flapped their arms, made their little dancing steps and turned back into swans, that waded back into the water.
After a short while a hunter came out of the forest, carrying his bow and arrows. He was a tall, young man with dark red hair and deep blue eyes, handsome as can be. As he spotted the swans on the water, he immediately set his bow, pulled an arrow out of the quiver on his back and fixed it firmly on the string. With a loud noise, the swans lifted up in the air and started flying low, circling above his head. One of them, though, instead of rising into flight, swam directly toward him. Out of pure astonishment at that unusual behavior, the hunter did not shoot but stared curiously at the swan.
The swan then climbed clumsily on the bank, flapped its wings and made its little dancing steps, and turned into a beautiful girl wearing nothing but a shimmering white shift over her purely white skin. Her golden hair fell like a waterfall over her shoulders, and a pair of bright blue eyes gazed openly at the handsome hunter, who was still holding his weapon poised for shooting.
“Hunter!” she cried at him with her musical voice.
“Swan Maiden!” he exclaimed weakly, dropping his bow and arrow to the ground, “I thought you existed only in Fairy Tales!”
She looked at him with her enchanting half a smile and said, “But here I am, flesh and blood, ready for you if you'd take me!” She came into his arms, and he could not avoid doing what was being demanded of him.
Afterward, he asked, gazing into her eyes, “Will you come with me, then, to my house?”
“Tell me your name, and I'll think about it,” she said, laughing. He thought he had never heard such a musical laugh before.
“My name is Alan, but what has that do to with anything?”
“I'll come with you, Alan the Hunter, for a period,” she said, the music of her voice throwing enchantment into his mind so he could not hear properly what her words were.
***
The hunter's house was a little log cabin, with one large room for sitting and eating and cooking, and a small back room for sleeping. It looked like a mess when the couple came in, with soiled clothes and dishes strewn everywhere, and everything covered with dust. Sygna looked and sighed, then she made a movement with her arm. A golden glow poured over the house, the dust and soiled equipment vanished, and the house looked as polished and orderly as it had never been before.
“That's more likely,” she murmured, more to herself then to her mate, because he had eyes only for her and nothing else.
“Show me around, Hunter,” she said to him, “I'd like to know the place I'm going to live in for a while.”
He looked at her for a moment, suddenly realizing that over the shift she had been wearing, she had now a kind of garment he had never seen before. As it went well with her form, he said nothing about it, but silently led the way out of the house and down into the village.
The Hunter's house was situated at the edge of a small hamlet, which filled the space where the forest had retreated away from the bank of the lake. Naturally, some of the inhabitants made their living in fishing in the lake, and others in hunting in the forest. The women, beside looking after their houses and their children, occupied themselves at mending fishing nets, and gathering eggs, fruit and roots in the wood.
As the couple were walking among the village houses, a young woman, tall and sturdy, came out from among the trees. When she saw Alan in company of a strange female, she turned toward him; Sygna could see the frown on her face, under dark brown hair and stormy gray eyes. The young woman was carrying a full basket, and she addressed the Hunter in a low, dark voice.
“Here you are, Alan. And what do you mean by wandering around the village in the middle of the day, in the company of some –“ She obviously lacked the words she needed to describe Sygna, whose appearance was nothing like she had ever seen before.
“Er – Reina, I see you've done well in the forest,” Alan said, clearing his throat in obvious confusion. The young woman gazed at him with her stormy eyes, too furious to speak.
Sygna intervened. “Go back home, Alan; I'll talk to Reina.” As Alan obeyed, compelled by her words, Sygna turned to the woman, her clear blue eyes pouring out their golden glow over her. Like the Hunter, Reina succumbed to the Swan-Maiden's enchantment.
“You shouldn't worry,” Sygna said. “I'm here for the duration, and when I'm gone you will have him back. If everything goes well, I'll then bless you two and everything you own.”
She then turned and followed Alan to his cabin, while Reina following her with her eyes, a dumb expression on her face.
II
Sygna came to live with Alan in his cabin as if they were husband and wife, although there had never been a wedding. Her enchantment filled the house and the village, and people accepted her as one of them – only an unaffected stranger could have seen the difference. But while he went on with his business, hunting in the forest to bring in their daily food, she was never occupied as the other women. She kept the house in order by a movement of her arm, she brought in fruit and roots by calling them out from the forest, and she kept the other women happy by charming them with her songs.
Winter came. Snow covered the forest's trees, and the water froze in the lake. In clear days, Sygna and Alan spent their time skating on the ice or walking in the snow; otherwise, she made the days go by quickly, just by charming her surroundings, while her pregnant belly grew from month to month. When spring came, they went for walks in the forest looking at the sprouting leaves and sitting on the grass peeping on the bank of the lake. At last, the swans came back, and Sygna went down to the lake to meet her sisters.
“We'll stay until you give birth, child,” Mother Song said to her. From that day onward, every day when Alan had gone hunting in the forest, Sygna would go down to the lake for their company. Then the blossoms began to appear, and Sygna had her first labor pains.
“Shall I call the midwife of the village?” Alan asked her, worryingly, when she woke him in the night.”
“No; in the morning, I'll go down to the lake and my sisters will help me deliver,” she told him.
“Your sister?” he asked in wonder. He had not known about her daily meetings with the Swan Maidens by the lake, and did not really remember the circumstance of their first meeting.
“Never mind,” she said, “don't worry, I'll be all right.” As usual, he was too charmed to know what is going on.
In the morning, Sygna went down to the lake, and the swans came up to meet her. “Come into the water,” Mother Song told her, “you'll have it easier this way.”
Thus, with the help of the Swan Maidens, Sygna had her first child, a lovely boy with bright coppery hair and deep violet eyes. When the Hunter came home that evening, she was waiting there with their son to meet him, and he was overcome by the boy's beauty.
***
Next autumn, it was clear that Sygna was pregnant again, and early next summer, with the help of the Swan Maidens, she gave birth to another beautiful boy, who had fair hair and shiny green eyes. But when she became pregnant again the third autumn, Alan said, “As much as I love our boys, I hope this time it's a girl; I'd love to have a daughter by you, Sygna, she must be the most beautiful girl in the world.”
“She will be,” Sygna answered, “with golden hair and bright blue eyes, just like me; but you'll never have the chance to see her.”
Still under the spell of her enchantment, Alan did not pay much attention to what she said. Then spring came and the swans arrived again and were floating on the lake's water. That day, when Alan was hunting in the forest, Sygna left the house and went in search of Reina. The young woman was sitting in front of her parent's house, preparing food for cooking. As she raised her stormy gray eyes toward Sygna, the Swan Maiden sat by her side.
“I am going away, now,” she said in her musical voice, “and you can go to the house and claim your man.”
“Don't you love him, then?” asked the deep, low voice in wonder.
“Love? It's not for me to love. I had a need of Alan, as you can see by my children, and the girl I am carrying now. He was enchanted and could not see you, but now he'll take you in and you'll have your life together.”
“But what about his sons? He'll be devastated to lose them!”
“I cannot take my sons with me, I'm leaving them to Alan and you to look after. You'll have to take good care of them as your own, you see, and if you do, I'll bless your house and everything in it, including the two children of your own, a boy and a girl you're going to have. But if you neglect my sons, you'd better wish for another life because you'll not have any here.”
She spoke very quietly, but Reina knew what was in her voice. She raised her eyes to those of the Swan Maiden and said, “You needn't worry and there's no need for a threat. I'll take good care of everything belonging to Alan, including his and your sons.”
Then Sygna stood up, and a flock of swans came flying over her head. She waved her arms and made the little dance with her feet, took the shape of a swan that rose up in the air to join her sisters.
At that moment Alan came out of the forest. He just managed to see his wife transformed and taking to the air, and he cried after her, “Don't go, Swan maiden! Come back!”
Reina came up to him, “It's no good, you know, she's going. But you'll have me now, Alan.” He ignored her, looking with yearnings after the flock of swans, which circled once and twice above their heads, then rose higher up in the sky and flew away. Only then he shook all over as if wakening from a dream, and looked in amazement at the girl standing next to him.
“Reina! Where have you come from? And what am I doing here, in the middle of the day?”
“Come,” she said, taking his arm, “let's go to your cabin and take a look at your sons.”
“Sons?” he sounded amazed. But she led him away and without too much explanation, took over the house and his life. From that day onward, Alan thought he had never been happier in his life before Reina joined him in it.
END
Tala Bar was born and is living in Israel . She holds an M.Phil. degree in literature from the London University , and taught Hebrew and English languages and literature before she became a full time writer. She has had a number of books, stories and articles published in print and on the Net, both in Hebrew and English. Among the publications where her stories and articles have been published are Bewildering Stories, The Wheel, Unlikely Stories, Scribal Tales and many others.
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