The Magic Swan

The Magic Swan is a European fairy tale collected by Hermann Kletke. Andrew Lang included it in The Green Fairy Book.[1]

Synopsis

Two older brothers abused the youngest son, Peter. An old woman advised him to run away. When he did, she told him he should go to a certain tree, where he would find a man asleep and a swan tied to a tree; he should take the swan without waking the man, and everyone would fall in love with its plumage, but when they touched it, he could say "Swan, hold fast" and they would be prisoners. With this, he could make a princess who never laughed to laugh.

He collected a great string of people, and the princess laughed at the sight. The king offered him a choice of land or gold, and he took the land. Then he trapped the princess with the swan and won her as his wife, but the swan flew off.

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gollark: You can at least fix some of the terrible design choices in the process.
gollark: It checks if a thing halts. Yes, the halting problem is impossible, but IIRC it's partly doable for well-specified languages if you accept some false positives.
gollark: I don't think a totality checker is practical.

See also

References
  1. Andrew Lang, The Green Fairy Book, "The Magic Swan"
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