Swan-maiden

Shaykh Nasr, Lord of the Birds: he enters the usual forbidden room; falls in love with the pattern Swan-maiden; wins her by the popular process; loses her and recovers her through the Monk Yaghmús, whose name, like that of King Teghmús, is a burlesque of the Greek; and, finally, when she is killed by a shark, determines to mourn her loss till the end of his days.

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

A critic has complained of my tracing the origin of the Swan-maiden legend to the physical resemblance between the bird and a high-bred girl (vol.v. 346).

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

I should have explained my theory which is shortly, that we must seek a material basis for all so-called supernaturalisms, and that anthropomorphism satisfactorily explains the Swan-maiden, as it does the angel and the devil.

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

Swan-maiden myth, and occurs in a few other Italian tales.

Italian Popular Tales Thomas Frederick Crane

Nor is it wanting, though not found in the same plenteous measure that will meet us when we come to deal with the Swan-maiden myth -- that is to say, with the group of stories concerning the capture by men of maidens of superhuman birth.

The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology Edwin Sidney Hartland 1887

A Pomeranian saga forms an interesting link between the Swan-maiden group and the legends of Enchanted Princesses discussed in the last chapter.

The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology Edwin Sidney Hartland 1887

Swan-maiden, or fairy, in other stories of the group.

The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology Edwin Sidney Hartland 1887

He also cites an incoherent Swan-maiden tale from Castrén, of which he manages to make more sense than I can (Castrén, "Altaischen Völker," p. 172).

The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology Edwin Sidney Hartland 1887

Capture of the Swan-maiden proper is effected by theft of her robe: in other types either by main force, or more frequently with her consent, more or less willingly given, or by her own initiative.

The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology Edwin Sidney Hartland 1887

Something, however, must be said on the Swan-maiden as divine ancestress.

The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology Edwin Sidney Hartland 1887