King Lir lived happily with his four children until his first wife died. He remarried a woman named Aoife who grew jealous of the children's love for their father. With the help of a Druid, Aoife turned the children into swans under a spell that could only be broken by the sound of a church bell. The children spent 900 years as swans until an old man heard a church bell and broke the spell, but the children had aged so much that they died.

2. Once upon a time
there lived a king
called Lir. He lived
happily with his four
children.
The queen was dead
and the children
missed her terribly.
The King decided to
marry again, so that
his children would
have a mother.
He married a woman
called Aoife.

3. Aoife grew jealous of the children because their
father loved them so much. She wanted the king
all to herself.
Aoife asked a Druid to help her, and together
they thought up a terrible spell.

4. Aoife put a spell on the
children and turned
them into swans.
Only the sound of a
church bell could break
the spell.

5. When the king
discovered what
had happened he
banished Aoife from
the kingdom.
King Lir promised a
reward to anyone
who could break the
spell, but nobody
knew how.
The king spent the
rest of his life
beside the lake,
talking to his
children, until he

6. The children spent 900 years living as swans. It was
a harsh life with little food and the years passed
slowly.

7. Then one day the
swans heard the
sound that had
waited 900 years
for. It was the
sound of a church
bell.
An old man, called
Camhóg, sprinkled
holy water on the
swans and they
turned back into
very old people and
died.

8. That night Camhóg
dreamed that he
saw four swans
flying up through
the clouds.
He knew that the
children of Lir
were going to
Heaven to be with
their mother and
father again.