Swan Maiden. A swan transforms herself at will into a maiden. She resumes her swan form by putting on her swan coat. (It is difficult to tell in most Swan Maiden tales whether the primary form is swan or maiden: the incident may belong at D161.)

Motif

Magic. · Transformation. · Transformation: animal to person. · Transformation: bird to person. · view the constellation · filed as D361.1

Attested across traditions

Filed across the traditions

Spanish *Boggs FFC XC No. 400A
Germanic Grimm Deutsche Mythologie I 354, Krappe Mod. Lang. Review. XXI 66, MacCulloch Eddic 258ff.
French Sébillot France II 198, III 207
U.S. *Baughman. – Arabian: Burton Nights V 345ff., VIII 31 n.
Persian Bricteaux Contes Persans 97
India *Thompson-Balys
Chinese Graham
Japanese Anesaki 258. – Indonesian: *DeVries's list Nos. 151–153, Dixon 64, 138 nn. 13–18, 207ff.
Australian ibid. 294f. – N. Am. Indian: *Thompson Tales 356 n. 284
Eskimo (Greenland) Rasmussen I 364, II 12, III 74, 199, (Central Eskimo): Boas RBAE VI 615, (Smith Sound): Kroeber JAFL XII 170, (Cumberland Sound): Boas BAM XV 179, (Kodiak): Golder JAFL XVI 95.
general *Type 313, 400, 465A
general *BP III 406
general **H. Holmström Studier över svanjungfrumotivet i Volundarkvida och annorstädes (Malmö 1919)
general Cosquin Indiens 348, 387, 391ff.
general *Köhler-Bolte I 444
general G. de Raille RTP IV 312
general *Penzer VIII 213
general Fb "jomfru" II 43, "svane" III 664a. – Irish myth: Cross
general Boberg
general Polynesian, Melanesian: ibid. 64, 138 nn. 13–18
general *Hatt Asiatic Influences 94ff.

Within the index

1 finer motif beneath it

Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)

Carried in tale types