The flock takes to the air, and the now beautiful swan spreads his gorgeous large wings and takes flight with the rest of his new family. He is shocked when the swans welcome and accept him, only to realize by looking at his reflection in the water that he had been, not a duckling, but a swan all this time. The ugly duckling, now having fully grown and matured, is unable to endure a life of solitude and hardship any more and decides to throw himself at the flock of swans deciding that it is better to be killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness and misery.

When spring arrives, a flock of swans descends on the lake.

He spends a miserable winter alone in the outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the lake that partly freezes over. Winter arrives.Ī farmer finds and carries the freezing little duckling home, but the foundling is frightened by the farmer’s noisy children and flees the house. He is delighted and excited, but he cannot join them, for he is too young and cannot fly. The duckling sees a flock of migrating wild swans. He finds a home with an old woman, but her cat and hen tease and taunt him mercilessly and once again he sets off alone. He wanders sadly from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks and geese until hunters slaughter the flocks.

One of the little birds is perceived by the other birds and animals on the farm as an ugly little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse from them. When the story begins, a mother duck's eggs hatch. Den Grimme ælling = The Ugly Duckling‬, Hans Christian Andersen

Original ugly duckling story