Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/590

 spread her wings, and never returned. In some household tales a wicked step-mother throws white skirts over her step-children, and they are at once transformed into swans. A similar story is that of Hasan of Basra in the Arabian Nights.

The old fables of Valkyries were misunderstood, when Christianity had cast these damsels from heaven, and the stories were modified to account for the transformation. The sweet maidens no more swam of their own free will in the crystal waves, but swam thus through the force of an enchantment they were unable to break. Thus, in the Irish legend of Fionmala, the daughter of King Lir, on the death of the mother of Fingula (Fionmala) and her brothers, their father marries the wicked Aoife, who, through spite, transforms the children of Lir into swans, which must float on the waters for centuries, till the first mass-bell tingles. Who does not remember Tom Moore’s verses on this legend?— “Silent, O Moyle, be the roar of thy water; Break not, ye breezes, your chain of repose, While, murmuring mournfully, Lir’s lovely daughter Tells to the night-star the tale of her woes. When shall the swan, her death-note singing, Sleep with wings in darkness furl’d? When will heaven, its sweet bells ringing, Call my spirit from this stormy world?