child, the wicked mother-in-law takes away the infant and accuses the Queen of killing and eating him, but the King refuses to believe it. The young Queen gives birth to two other children, but twice again the mother-in-law hides them away and falsely claims that she has killed and eaten her babies. The King is unable to keep protecting her, and unable to properly defend herself, the Queen is sentenced to be burned at the stake as a witch. All this time, she has held back her tears and her words, and sewing the star-flower shirts no matter what. On the day of her execution, the Queen has finished making all the shirts for her brothers. When she is brought to the stake, she takes the shirts with her and when she is about to be burned, the six years expire and the six swans come flying through the air. She throws the shirts over her brothers and they regain their human form, although the youngest brother's left arm remains a wing due to his own shirt missing a sleeve (in some variants, the sister is unable to finish the last shirt in time, leaving her youngest brother a swan permanently). The Queen is now free to speak and, with her brothers' support, defends herself against the accusations against her. The Queen's three missing children are found alive and her evil mother-in-law is the one who is burned at the stake as punishment. In the end, the Queen, her husband, three children, and six brothers live happily ever after. Analysis Folklorist Stith Thompson points that the stories of the Aarne–Thompson–Uther ATU 451 tale-type follow a long literary history, beginning with the tale of the Dolopathos, in the 12th century. The Dolopathos, in medieval tradition, was later used as part of the Knight of the Swan heroic tale. Fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes cites that the Brothers Grimm considered an origin in Greco-Roman times, with parallels also found in French and Nordic oral traditions. The Brothers Grimm themselves, on their annotations, saw a connection of "The Six Swans" tale with a story of seven swans published in the Feenmärchen (1801) and the swan-ride of the Knight of Swan (Lohengrin). They also saw a connection with the swan shirts of the swan maidens of the Volundarkvida. On his notes on Children of Lir tale, in his book More Celtic Fairy Tales, folklorist