Once upon a time, there was a king who had eleven sons and a daughter. The princess was named Elisa. She was extremely beautiful, kind - hearted and gentle. The eleven prince brothers were also handsome and brave, and their family lived a very happy life.
However, one day, the evil stepmother used magic to turn the eleven princes into wild swans. They were forced to leave the palace and fly far away. The poor Elisa was very sad. She was determined to look for her brothers and find a way to break the magic spell on them.
Elisa left the palace and set off towards the unknown distance. She walked through many forests and encountered all kinds of difficulties. Sometimes she couldn't find food, and sometimes she was chased by wild beasts. But she always had the longing for her brothers and the firm belief to save them in her heart, so she never gave up.
One day, Elisa came to a lake. There were eleven beautiful wild swans swimming on the lake. She recognized at once that these were her brothers. The swans were also very excited to see Elisa, but they couldn't speak and could only rub their heads against Elisa to show their affection.
As night fell, Elisa fell asleep by the lake and had a dream. In the dream, a fairy told her that to break the magic spell on her brothers, she needed to weave eleven long - sleeved armors with thorny nettles, and during the weaving process, she couldn't speak, or her brothers would die. After waking up, Elisa decided to follow the fairy's instructions.
She began to look for nettles by the lake. The thorns on the nettles pricked her hands full of wounds, but she endured the pain and continued to weave. During the day, she sat by the lake and weaved, and her swan brothers guarded her beside.
One day, when Elisa was concentrating on weaving, a young king passed by while hunting. He saw Elisa and was attracted by her beauty and concentration. The young king asked Elisa what she was doing, but Elisa couldn't speak and could only look at him silently.
The king thought Elisa was mute, but he still fell deeply in love with Elisa, so he took her back to the palace and wanted to marry her.
Elisa still didn't forget her task in the palace. She secretly weaved nettle armors every day. However, the archbishop in the palace saw that Elisa was always doing strange things silently by herself and didn't speak, so he began to speak ill of her in front of the king, saying that she was a witch.
The king began to have doubts about Elisa, but he still loved Elisa deeply, so he was very conflicted in his heart.
Finally, under the instigation of the archbishop, the king decided to lock Elisa in prison. Elisa still didn't give up weaving in prison. Her fingers were pricked by the nettle thorns until they bled, but she knew that as long as she persisted a little longer, she could finish the armors and save her brothers.
When Elisa finally finished weaving the eleventh armor, she was extremely happy. She put on one armor and then took the other ten armors to her swan brothers. As soon as the swan brothers put on the armors, they regained their human forms.
Elisa could finally speak. She told the king what had happened. The king regretted very much his doubts about Elisa. He asked Elisa for forgiveness. Elisa forgave the king, and then she and her brothers lived happily in this country. Since then, they have lived a peaceful and happy life.
