The Six Swans

A king's new wife, a secretly wicked witch, cursed his six sons from a previous marriage into swans out of jealousy, and would have cursed his young daughter too had the girl not fled into the forest, where she eventually found and lived quietly with her transformed brothers, who could only regain human form for fifteen minutes each evening.

A fairy in a dream told her the only way to break the curse: she must weave six shirts from starflowers gathered in silence, and speak not a single word for six full years, or the spell would remain forever. She began at once, weaving tirelessly and staying utterly silent even when a passing king fell in love with her and made her his queen, unable to explain herself.

His own mother, suspicious of her silence, accused her of witchcraft, and the queen, still years from finishing her task and unable to defend herself with words, was sentenced to be burned at the stake. As the flames were lit, she finished the final stitch on the sixth shirt and threw all six over her swan brothers, who transformed back into men instantly and saved her — the sixth shirt, finished just in time, missing one sleeve, leaving that brother with a single swan wing for the rest of his life, a permanent reminder of how close silence had come to costing everything.