According to the story of the Children of Lir, a mother pushed away her four children by turning them into swans. They lived lives of sadness for 900 years in this form before being returned to their human bodies to die at peace.

Unlike many humans, swans are one of the animals that mourn when they experience loss.

Photographed by Alicja Kielan for Galerie Op Enheim, Wrocław, and WR Saunders