The swans featured in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" were probably Mute Swans, Cygnus olor, large white showy birds with long graceful necks. On a typical adult, the only colour is a bright orange bill with a black base. Native to Eurasia, the Mute Swan has been transported to many parts of the world by humans. Today, the bird is valued for its beauty, but it has a long history in folklore and tradition.
Ancient Beliefs About Swans
A traditional belief dating back millennia has it that the Mute Swan makes no sound until just before it dies, when it sings beautifully just once. Though this folk wisdom is incorrect, it is the origin of the figure of speech swan song, meaning a farewell or final performance.
Sailors once thought that sighting a swan was a good omen, probably because the birds float so lightly on the water. The 13th Century monk Bartholomaeus Anglicus is quoted as follows: “Shipmen trow that it tokeneth good if they meet swans in peril of shipwreck… Shipmen desire this bird for he dippeth not down in the waves (Medieval Bestiary).” Others regarded the swan as an omen of good weather.
Medieval Mute Swans
By the Middle Ages, Mute Swans were domesticated and raised for meat and feathers. In England, swan breeders marked their birds by carving a pattern of notches in their beaks—young swans were marked annually in a roundup called a swan upping, and any unmarked birds automatically belonged to the British monarchy.
Mute Swans Today
Today, Mute Swans are no longer eaten, but they are familiar birds in parks and wetlands. Introduced to the United States in the 1800s, the species is considered invasive in the northeast.
In England, all unmarked Mute Swans on open water still officially belong to the Crown, and the Queen employs a Swan Marker who participates in annual Swan Uppings on the Thames. The Crown’s swans are banded, and the Swan Marker checks on their general health and physical condition. The British Monarchy still often gives Mute Swans away as gifts.
Swans on the Seventh day of Christmas
Religious interpretations of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" claim that the seven swans represent the seven sacraments of Catholicism, however this is likely to be a more recent use of the lyrics. In the 1700s, when the song was written down in English, the Mute Swan was a beautiful bird, a good omen, a domestic animal, a source of feathers for down and decoration, a possible choice for Christmas dinner, and a gift from the monarchy—reasons enough to consider seven of them a generous Christmas gift.
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Sources
Birds in Legend Fable and Folklore. Ingersoll, Ernest. New York: Longmans, Green and Co.; 1923
“Mute Swan.” Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. rspb.org.uk
“Swan Upping.” The Monarchy Today
“Swan.” Medieval Bestiary
Rosemary Drisdelle - Rosemary Drisdelle has been published many times as a nonfiction writer and several times as a poet. Her first book, Parasites: Tales of ...
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