Don't fuck (with) swans

[firecat]

This is three years old but I only just saw it.

https://charminglyantiquated.tumblr.com/post/152450840403/so-if-theres-one-single-trope-im-always-down-to

so if there’s one single trope i’m always down to fight it’s the animal bride (folklore motif 402??) which a lot of you are probably familiar with as the selkie - the fisherman either falls in love, steals her skin to trap her on land/gain power over her, or they fall in love and THEN he steals her skin to keep her from leaving, and either way she spends a lot of time gazing sadly out to sea and then she or her child finds the skin and never returns again.
and that’s awful on a whole lot of levels - it’s not love, it’s control.
BUT. but the thing is. you how selkies/seal women was a pretty common variation of this? another really popular one was swans.
i just want you to think about that for a moment. swans. like…I get it, they’re pretty, graceful birds, certainly it’s easy to imagine them magically becoming pretty graceful ladies? but have you ever fought a swan. swans are awful. swans are the devil’s geese. imagine seeing a pretty magic lady and being absolutely enchanted by her, and stealing her magic feather cloak, and then you go up and say ‘hey i’m in love with you, let me make you my queen, it will be great, we’ll be so happy’ and she just looks at you for a moment and…
you know i was going to say maybe she just shouts for her sisters and suddenly you’re realizing you’ve made a terrible terrible mistake bc you’re surrounded by big fucking birds who are all hissing. but honestly if this swan lady is as aggressively down to brawl as any other generally unhappy swan, then she’d straight up fuck you up on her own. she’d just deck you roundhouse, honestly. you don’t fuck with swans. why does this trope exist

This reminds me of two things.

(1) My favorite selkie story is more along the lines of the animal groom, because a male selkie impregnates a human woman, she bears a son, he says "will you marry me?" and she says "no." Then her son grows up and ends up killing him.

(2) My favorite swan story is about Zeus and Leda, where Zeus is the swan, and knowing how evil swans are just makes the story more believable, or should I say hotter.

Comments

[the_siobhan]

I got chased by a swan once as a teenager. Can confirm.

[hitchhiker]

hah, too true!

[lilysea]

And Australian swans - black swans - are even more bolshie.

They will have a go at anyone who gets within 100 metres of their cygnets... even when they've decided to set up camp next to a bicycle hire and canoe hire shop, which is also a snack shop.

[ironed_orchid]

I clicked on the tumblr link only to discover that I had already liked it. I have no recollection of doing so, but it seems in character.

[silveradept]

Yeah, swans will hurt you if you get close enough for them to do it.

[piglet]

I have a bard friend who tells the funniest variation on that story — she’s a goose. A horrible, horrible goose! Guy gets bus just desserts, lol.

[firecat]

I've come too close to having a goose do that to me.