swancoat, swan shift

swap even though she may have borne him children, she a umes her former shape and flies away from him forever. [VALKYR, WISH-CHILDREN.] "These lovely swan - maidens must have been long known to German tradition. When they bathe in the cooling flood, they lay down on the bank the swan-ring, the swan shift; who takes it from them has them in his power."Grimm: Deut. Mythol. (ed. Stallybra ), i. 428.