The six swans is one of the Grimm’s Brothers many fairytales of wonderment and imagination.  Like all fairytales this tale of the six swans and their devoted younger sister is filled with dreamlike possibilities.  Fairy tales, otherwise known as “magic stories” are generally classified Traditional Literature. 

This tale is in a children’s picture book form with richly coloured and detailed accompanying illustrations from Adrie Hospes.   This Picture book is a traditional/modernist picture book with text on one side of the page and generally the picture is on the opposite side. However on a number of pages throughout this text the illustrations extend over the two pages.

Margaret Hunt translated this version of The Six Swan’s and even though the text is much shortened the key points and the structure of the original is closely followed.

This version of The Grimm Brother’s The Six Swans with Adrie Hospes’ illustrations engages the children’s feelings which leads to readers of the text to care about what happens in the tale, as well as how the story ends.   The Six Swans has a successful mixture of the predictable and the unpredictable, the unpredictable encouraging children to use their imaginations to guess what will happen next, how the tale will end and when the story comes to a close, the children or other readers may wonder what may happen after.  Like other Grimm Brother’s texts, The Six Swans has a worthwhile message to say, the simple notion that is in most fairytales, that good is rewarded and bad is punished also that whether it be with a soul mate, animal, family member or friend, true love prevails. All these elements make this version of The Six Swans a good, successful traditional/modernist picture book.

It is believed that The Six Swan’s by the Grimm’s Brothers influenced Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake”, as did the very familiar tale by Hans Christian Anderson’s, The Wild Swan’s which also features brothers who are turned into swans and rely upon their younger sister to save them.