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Swan's Wing
Lothar, a handsome young lord with a swan's wing in place of one arm, falls under the icy spell of the powerful Countess Almira
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 12, 2012
This is one of two novel-length re-tellings that I know of which concern the fate of the seventh swan-brother, the one whose coat of nettles had one sleeve unfinished and whose left arm remained a swan's wing when the rest of him was restored to human form. The other is by Nicholas Stuart Gray, but I prefer Synge's version. It has all the flavor of the original fairy-tale, of innocent girls and tormented young men facing cruel and poetic fates, with sexual undercurrents reminiscent of, oh, everyone who's retelling fairy-tales now, but it startled me when I read this one. The ending is notably uncompromising.
October 26, 2023
Meh, 2 1/2 stars
An extra half star is for the beauty of the writing, because the writing itself IS lovely, but as a story it really does not hold together that well. The thing is, I bought this as a fairy tale retelling; the cover is fairly clearly referencing Hans Christian Andersen with his Twelve Swans story. There are also lashings of the Brother's Grimm The Goose Girl and a few others, but they are mish mashed together in a way that I do not feel works well. Not as a fairy tale, not as a fantasy.
It is not a long book, the first 40 pages have NOTHING to do with anything I thought the book was about. The first part is about how Matthew is found as a child in the woods and grows up in a village that reviles him as a 'devils child' until the priest finds out he has an innate talent for carving. And apprentices him to a stone mason in a town.
Matthew grows to be an excellent stone mason, and the authors medieval knowledge is obvious as she talks about masons and priests ect (there is a lot of medieval God attitude in here in general). Despite being a great artist and craftsman, Matthew (who shows clear signs of being bipolar) is socially inconsistent, a perfectionist and gets depressed when his work does not go well. One day he gets so depressed he wanders away and doesn't go back.
Then he encounters a man called Loathr with a wing instead of an arm, a Goose girl who is in love with winged man and all three wander off down the road for no particular reason. Through their aimless wandering they eventually come to a city (two thirds through the book) where the description on the back cover finally takes place. And then that is over and so is the story. Leaving one not at all enlightened about anything much at all.
The only character I really liked or who felt remotely real was Goose-Girl Gerda's Gander who went with them, so it fails as a fiction, for me at least, as I could not give a toss what happened to the characters. Fairy tales don't REQUIRE believable characters to work, but they do require a deep numinous quality and they tend to need a moral or a point. This book has magic, but no point and there is no sense of the numinous about it at all, though God is a ever present feature. Christianity does not always mix all that well with myth and fairy tale so that might have helped inhibit the whole thing.
As a quest it fails, because the motifs and encounters along the way are minor, lacking in emotive connection and significance. Anyhow, the writing was very nice indeed and as a debut novel (I think it is) it probably does not deserve me being too critical about it. I hope the author went on to write medieval, historic fiction, because she clearly has a good knowledge of this. The most exciting part of the book was when she was discussing stone masonry in the church dynamic. More of that!
Also on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnfBo....
An extra half star is for the beauty of the writing, because the writing itself IS lovely, but as a story it really does not hold together that well. The thing is, I bought this as a fairy tale retelling; the cover is fairly clearly referencing Hans Christian Andersen with his Twelve Swans story. There are also lashings of the Brother's Grimm The Goose Girl and a few others, but they are mish mashed together in a way that I do not feel works well. Not as a fairy tale, not as a fantasy.
It is not a long book, the first 40 pages have NOTHING to do with anything I thought the book was about. The first part is about how Matthew is found as a child in the woods and grows up in a village that reviles him as a 'devils child' until the priest finds out he has an innate talent for carving. And apprentices him to a stone mason in a town.
Matthew grows to be an excellent stone mason, and the authors medieval knowledge is obvious as she talks about masons and priests ect (there is a lot of medieval God attitude in here in general). Despite being a great artist and craftsman, Matthew (who shows clear signs of being bipolar) is socially inconsistent, a perfectionist and gets depressed when his work does not go well. One day he gets so depressed he wanders away and doesn't go back.
Then he encounters a man called Loathr with a wing instead of an arm, a Goose girl who is in love with winged man and all three wander off down the road for no particular reason. Through their aimless wandering they eventually come to a city (two thirds through the book) where the description on the back cover finally takes place. And then that is over and so is the story. Leaving one not at all enlightened about anything much at all.
The only character I really liked or who felt remotely real was Goose-Girl Gerda's Gander who went with them, so it fails as a fiction, for me at least, as I could not give a toss what happened to the characters. Fairy tales don't REQUIRE believable characters to work, but they do require a deep numinous quality and they tend to need a moral or a point. This book has magic, but no point and there is no sense of the numinous about it at all, though God is a ever present feature. Christianity does not always mix all that well with myth and fairy tale so that might have helped inhibit the whole thing.
As a quest it fails, because the motifs and encounters along the way are minor, lacking in emotive connection and significance. Anyhow, the writing was very nice indeed and as a debut novel (I think it is) it probably does not deserve me being too critical about it. I hope the author went on to write medieval, historic fiction, because she clearly has a good knowledge of this. The most exciting part of the book was when she was discussing stone masonry in the church dynamic. More of that!
Also on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnfBo....
Read
January 2, 2026had middling hopes that were surpassed twice or three times over, v beautiful and artful and with a rich, heavy, tapestry quality that i really admired. reminded me a little of reading geraldine mccaughrean's a little lower than the angels as a child ?
February 26, 2021
This book, which I bought at a sale where I got a random grocery bag full of books for a few dollars, is breathtaking and unlike anything I’ve ever read
March 18, 2025
So weird
September 2, 2013
This story follows the fate of the 11th prince from Hans Christian Anderson's tale, "The Wild Swans." After his sister made the garments to save her brothers from their step-mother's curse, Lothar's was without one sleeve. This is his story...a man with a swan'e wing in place of an arm, searching for an escape from his enchantment, told through the eyes of a gifted stone carver named Mathew, who is disillusioned with life. A lyrical, timeless, powerful story...lovely and bittersweet. I love this little book so much!
Read
May 27, 2008Based on The Wild Swans.
January 4, 2010
Uber fast read (only 152 pages) of a traditional fairy tale slightly twisted.
December 28, 2012
Absolutely enthralling.
February 17, 2014
A combination of The Wild Swans and The Snow Queen told from an outsider’s perspective. It doesn’t really come together. It’s sad and weird, but mostly weird.
July 31, 2010
Almost as good as The Seventh Swan, and if I'd read it first I probably would have loved it more.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews