"The Wild Swans" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a princess who rescues her 11 brothers from a spell cast by an evil queen. The tale was first published on 2 October 1838 in Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. First Booklet by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark. It has been adapted to various media including ballet, television, and film.
Illustration from the book Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, 1872
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.