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A summary of the Irish story The Children of the Lir as told by Ella Young (from 1910’s Celtic Wonder-Tales).
King Lir of the Tuatha Dé Danann had four children who were transformed into swans by their jealous stepmother, Aoife.
Cursed to endure 900 years of exile across three different bodies of water, they maintained their human speech and beautiful singing voices throughout their long ordeal.
The spell carried specific conditions for its end: the marriage of a northern king and southern queen, the arrival of a Christian missionary, and the ringing of a prayer bell.
After centuries of suffering through bitter storms and isolation, the siblings returned to their father’s home only to find it in ruins, as the magical era of their people had faded from the world.
Eventually, they encountered a holy man named Saint Kemoc.
When a king from the North attempted to seize them by force, the physical contact broke the enchantment.
The swan feathers fell away, revealing the siblings as withered, ancient humans who immediately perished of old age.
Their spirits were finally freed to enter the afterlife, leaving behind a legacy that granted protected status to all swans in Ireland.