Malcom, you wrote your bit here on Molly Bawn 5 years ago, but many belated thanks.

I have a transcript from a recording made by a colleague of mine in the 1970's about a girl who could become a swan who gets accidntally shot by her father ( as opposed to brother) whislt in Swan form. It was collected from a woman who was about 82 at the time of the telling and in looking upon it recently I thought to myself "Aha! Molly Bawn!" but now I see I need to dig a great deal deeper into the background of the informant who was born in Sligo but emmigrated to the USA when still a very young woman. I was searching for orgins on Molly Bawn and saw your post in this thread. In the tale the informant said Molly revereted to human form as her father watched her die, having shot her through her heart. (Sort of like LonN Chaney Jr. in The Wolfman I suppose!)

Kinda freaky that the theme seems to go so far back but not surprising.

I don't visit Mudcat very often - just when I have enough stuff to look up to keep me busy for a few hours and I always find some wonderful material here. If I visted more often, I'd never get a thing done! Too much fascinating information here.