It features versions of the swan maiden, a mythic female character that alternates between human and animal shapes.
The story is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 400, "The Man on a Quest for the Lost Wife", in a form of the narrative that, according to scholars, appears in Northern Europe, namely, in Scandinavia and in the Baltic Sea.
Esben finds three white swans coming to the fields, tunring into human maidens by their feather cloaks, wings and gossamer veils, and dancing in the meadow.
She then tells Esben to find her in her own castle, located "south of the sun, west of the moon and in the middle of the world", and departs.
On the road, he meets three pairs of goblins fighting over magical objects: a hat of invisibility, seven-league boots, and a Swiss knife that both revives the dead and kills people.
Later, he finds the huts of three old women: the first rules over the animals of the forest, the second all the fishes in the sea and the third all the birds of the air.
Lene recognizes the ring and rushes to Esben to hug him, but fears for his safety, since a witch lives in the castle and may turn him to stone with but a glare.
Esben put on the invisibility hat, enter the witch's quarters and kills her with the Swiss knife.
He goes after her on a long quest, often helped by the elements (Sun, Moon and Wind) or by the rulers of animals of the land, sea and air (often in the shape of old men and old women).
[16][17] Romanian folklorist Marcu Beza recognized an alternate opening to swan maiden tales: seven white birds steal the golden apples from a tree in the king's garden (an episode similar to German The Golden Bird), or, alternatively, they come and trample the fields.
[18] Researcher Barbara Fass Leavy noted a variation of the first opening episode which occurs in Scandinavian tales: a man's third or only son stands guard on his father's fields at night to discover what has been trampling his father's fields, and sees three maidens dancing in a meadow.
[19] Similarly, Swedish scholar Waldemar Liungmann [sv] also noted that the motif of keeping watch over the fields at night is a "typical development" of Swedish, Nordic and Baltic Sea variants of the story he termed Das Märchen von der Schwanenjungfrau ("The Fairy Tale of the Swan Maiden").
In this tale, a farmer has three sons, the two elders help in the fields, while the youngest, Esben, is of a quiet demeanor.
The maidens try to bargain for the wings with a hidden stash of money under the rock, which Esben accepts, but still wants to marry one of them.
Esben repeats his proposal and the princess accepts, promising to return in three months, but she warns him not to invite the local king's son.
The princess hesitates to join the festivities, and asks him to find her "south of the sun, east of the moon and westward to all the winds", then rides off.
The third troll summons all birds, but the eagle comes late, since it was flying close to the castle south of the sun, east of the moon and westward to all the winds.
One of the maidens agree to be his wife, as long as he prepares everything for their wedding in two month's time, but not to invite the king's son.
When she sees the king's son, she decides to postpone her wedding, and tells Hans to seek her in "The Golden Tower at the End of the World".
Before she departs, the princess gives Hans three tablecloths: one can produce food, the other can build a castle for him to stay the night in a richly furnished bedroom, and the third can create a land bridge with trees and animals for him to cross the sea.
In return, she gives him her dead husband's pair of mile-walking shoes and a sword that dissolves anything it touches, and directs him to a troll that may help him.
[22] In a Danish tale published by folklorist Hans Ellekilde [sv] with the title De tre Svanejomfruer ("The Three Swan Maidens"), a man sows peas in his fields, but they are trampled every year on midsummer's night.
She promises to return within a year, and tells Hans to prepare their wedding with the pots of gold hidden under three stones in the field.
Before she leaves, she tells him he must not invite the king to the wedding, for the maidens are under the magic power of a witch that razed their castle, once located in their fields.
Hans tells his father and elder brothers about the events, and, to confirm his tale, guides them to the hidden stash of gold under the stones.
With the ruckus in town, the king notices the man is coming and going, and learns of the upcoming wedding, to which Hans's father invites him.
Hans and the swan maiden marry, and live in the Castle Silammen, south of the Sun, east of the Moon, and on the other side of the ocean.