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She had expressed in her usual autocratic manner a wish that he should be presented to her, and had determined upon the evening of the first performance of The Swan-Maiden as the appointed time. Davilof appeared doubtful, and declared that Quarrington was leaving England and had already fixed the date of his departure.
Nay, we need not go out of Europe itself to find the same plot serving for a saga in one land and a märchen, detached from all circumstances of time and place, in another. An excellent example of this is furnished by the myth of the Swan-maiden, one of the most widely distributed, and at the same time one of the most beautiful, stories ever evolved from the mind of man.
Had he taken into consideration other types such as Hasan, the Marquis of the Sun, the Star's Daughter; had he been aware of the savage variants all over the world, he would not have formed a theory so inconsistent with the facts, and so little fitted to solve the problems propounded, not merely by the phenomena of the Swan-maiden group, but by those of other tales in which supernatural beings intervene.
There was little or nothing about her to remind one of the successful ballerina, and Michael found himself poignantly recalling the innocent, appealing charm of the Swan-Maiden. It was difficult to associate this woman with that other who had so unconsciously turned down his pal the man who had loved her. "Well? Did it go all right?" Magda's eyes sought Gillian's eagerly as she put the question.
And so, beneath the tremendous reception which they gave her, there throbbed an element of sadness, behind all the cheers and the clapping an insistent minor note which carried across the footlights to where Magda stood bowing her thanks, and smiling through the mist of tears which filled her eyes. The dance which she had chosen for her last appearance was the Swan-Maiden.
The variants of the Marquis of the Sun are found chiefly among European nations, whose history, institutions, and habits of thought lead them to attach great value to paternal authority. The Marquis of the Sun type is, therefore, more recent than the other types of the Swan-maiden tradition, none of which so uniformly in all their variants recognize the father's supreme position.
She falls on her knees, beseeching the witch Ritmagar for mercy, but no answer is vouchsafed, and gradually the Swan-Maiden finds herself growing weaker and weaker, until at last death claims her.
'Know, O Lir, said Finola, 'that we are thy children, changed by the wicked magic of our step-mother into four white swans. When Lir and the Dedannan people heard these words, they wept aloud. Still spake the swan-maiden.
The cross was broken to pieces in order to make way for the building of the old Leeds church hundreds of years ago, but the fragments have been pieced together, and we can see the swan-maiden carried above the head of Volund, her wings hanging down and held by two ropes that encircle her waist. The smith holds her by her back hair and by the tail of her dress.
At length the witch appeared once more and, yielding to his impassioned entreaties, declared that the Swan-Maiden might reassume her human form during the hour preceding sunset, and Magda the Swan-Maiden released from enchantment for the time being came running in on the stage.
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