The Children of Lir (a picture book by Sheila MacGill-Callahan)

The craggy coast of Ireland provides a brooding backdrop for this stirring folktale, reputed to be the genesis of Shakespeare's Lear. After the death of his wife, Aobh, King Lir marries her sister Aiofe, whose beauty "hid an evil heart." Jealous of her husband's love for his four children, Aiofe casts a spell on the youths, turning them into swans "for three times three hundred years," or until the twin mountains bordering the kingdom should come together...