Far away in a northern kingdom, there lived a king with eleven sons and one daughter named Eliza. The princes were noble and kind, writing with diamond pencils on golden slates, while Eliza sat on a stool of crystal, looking at her picture book that cost half a kingdom. These children were the happiest in all the land, but their happiness was not to last forever.
Their father married a wicked queen who hated the children. She sent little Eliza to live with peasants in the countryside. Then she turned to the eleven princes and cast a terrible spell. 'Fly away like great birds who have no voice!' she cried. But her magic could not make them ugly. Instead, the brothers became eleven beautiful wild swans with golden crowns on their heads, and they flew away over the forest.
Years passed, and Eliza grew into a beautiful young woman. When the wicked queen saw her, she tried to curse her too with three poisonous toads. But Eliza was so good and innocent that the toads turned into red poppies the moment they touched her. The queen then disguised Eliza with walnut juice and tangled her hair, making her unrecognizable. When the king saw her, he declared she was not his daughter, and poor Eliza fled into the forest to find her brothers.
Eliza wandered through the dark forest for days, sleeping on soft moss beneath the trees. One morning, she met an old woman who told her she had seen eleven swans with golden crowns swimming in a nearby river. Following the river to the sea, Eliza found eleven white swan feathers on the shore. As the sun began to set, she saw eleven magnificent swans flying toward her, their golden crowns glittering in the fading light.
The moment the sun disappeared beneath the waves, the swans' feathers fell away and eleven handsome princes stood before Eliza - her beloved brothers! They embraced her with tears of joy. The eldest brother explained their curse: they must fly as swans while the sun shines, becoming human only at night. They lived in a beautiful land across the sea, visiting their homeland just once a year. 'How can I break this spell?' Eliza asked, and they talked through the night.
The brothers wove a net of willow and rushes, and when dawn came and they became swans again, they carried Eliza across the vast ocean. They flew all day, racing against the setting sun. Just as the sun touched the horizon, they reached a tiny rock in the middle of the sea - their only resting place. The brothers stood crowded together on the rock as waves crashed over them and lightning split the sky, but they sang hymns of hope until morning came.
They reached a beautiful land with a cave covered in green vines. That night, Eliza dreamed of a fairy who looked like the old woman from the forest. 'Your brothers can be saved,' the fairy said, 'if you have courage. You must gather stinging nettles from churchyards and weave them into eleven coats. But from the moment you begin until you finish, you must not speak a single word, or your brothers will die.' Eliza awoke to find a nettle burning in her hand.
Eliza immediately began her painful task. The nettles burned terrible blisters on her hands, but she crushed them with her bare feet and spun them into flax, then wove the flax into cloth. One day, while she worked in silence, a handsome king found her in the forest. Enchanted by her beauty, he brought her to his castle to be his queen. Though she could not speak to explain, she brought her nettles and her weaving with her.
Eliza married the king and loved him dearly, but she could not tell him why she wept or why she worked on her strange coats each night. The archbishop whispered to the king that she was a witch. When Eliza ran out of nettles and had to gather more from the churchyard at midnight, the archbishop followed her. He saw her among the graves and declared she must be condemned. The king's heart filled with doubt and sorrow.
Eliza was sentenced to be burned at the stake. In her dark cell, she continued weaving desperately. She had finished ten coats, but the eleventh was not complete - she had only one sleeve left to weave. As the cart carried her to her death, she worked frantically on the last coat while the crowd jeered. Her fingers bled, but still she could not speak a word.
Just as they were about to light the fire, eleven white swans descended from the sky. Eliza threw the eleven nettle coats over them. Instantly, the swans transformed into her eleven brothers - princes once more! The youngest brother's coat had only one sleeve, so he kept one swan's wing instead of an arm. Now Eliza could finally speak! She told the whole story of her innocence and her brothers' curse.
The king embraced Eliza with tears of joy, and the people who had condemned her now celebrated her courage. The firewood at the stake burst into bloom with red roses. The king plucked the most beautiful rose and placed it in Eliza's hand. Church bells rang throughout the land as the princess who had remained silent out of love was finally free to speak - and to live happily ever after with her beloved brothers and her king.
