Storytelling Week 13: The Princess and the Pea

The Princess and the Pea, by Dulac

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   There once was a Prince who wanted to meet a real princess very much. But not just any princess: he wanted to meet a princess that could identify with him, as he had grown tired of girls always asking him to marry them without knowing anything about him. He knew the reason why most of them asked: they wanted to be endowed with the riches that his kingdom had acquired over his family's legacy. His mother was the main source of his woes, as she only invited the most upwardly mobile girls in society to the citadel celebrations and parties.
   To solve his own problem he set out in the world, traveling to lands wide and far in search of a proper princess that was truly a good person at heart. However, despite all his efforts to conceal his identity, all the princesses he visited found out about him and immediately asked them to be wedded. He suspected his mother was the source of all this, as she had insisted that she come with him and knew his travel itinerary.
   So, the Prince headed back to his castle, depressed into the thought that he would either be forever alone or destined to marry someone whom he didn't love. However," he thought "if chance plays me a good hand, perhaps the princess and I will meet under the guise of luck."
   As fate would have it, an awful storm brewed up one night, one that no ordinary person, especially not a person of nobility, would be willing to risk life and limb in. Nonetheless, there came a knock at the door, and the princes attended his guards as they let the stranger in: it was a young girl, beautiful even with her clothes torn to rags. She tells the Prince that she indeed is a Princess and would very much like to have a place to rest for the night. Before she could tell her story about how she came to be in her worn and torn state, she collapses from exhaustion.
   The Prince orders that she be given as many mattresses for her bed as she pleases, and this number winds up being around twenty or so. Even though her requests throughout the night were decadent, the Prince maintained in his mind that she might be the princess he was looking for. His mother, however, caught wind of the new visitor and couldn't hold herself from intervening. She sneaked into the bed chamber where the lost princess was sleeping and placed a tiny pea under the mattresses. "This", she thought, "would prove whether she was a real princess come morning."
   When morning came, the princess was bathed and refreshed with new clothes. Then the Prince, his mother, and the princess all met in the great eating hall for breakfast. The Prince asked the princess how she slept. "Awfully dreadful!" she exclaimed, "I woke up feeling like I had slept on a rock." The Prince was curious as to why this was the case, and his mother chimed in to say that she had hidden a pea in the mattresses, and if the girl had felt the pea, she would have shown sensitivity enough to be a real princess.
   Trying to overlook this tricky intervention by his mother, he asked the princess to tell him about herself. Immediately, and without almost any hesitation, the girl said,"Well, I had heard of your kingdom's predicament, and I wanted to know if it was truly as terrible as they all say..." The Prince frowned, he knew where this was going. "... And I wanted to know how I could help. My hand is free after all." the princess fluttered her delicate hand at him in a flirty manner. She was absolutely gorgeous, but he knew that no good could come of choosing her. The Prince ate the rest of his breakfast in silence.
    Afterward, he called for a carriage to take the princess back to her kingdom. He looked to the noon-ward sun and said, "Perhaps a real princess doesn't exist. But maybe if I look amongst the commonfolk, I will be able to find a person who is not occupied with wealth or prestige. Maybe then I will find a princess: not a REAL princess, but a good person; noble in heart and soul."

Author's note: I followed the general premises of the original story, but I wanted to change the ending so that the prince wasn't as swayed as he was in the original story by superficial values and pursuits. I think it adds more to the story if the Prince was not merely focused on finding a princess, but someone who he could actually see himself with as a person.
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Reading Diary B: Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales

The Little Mermaid, by Anne Andersen (1920)

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The most lengthy tale in Hans Christian Andersen's collection is that of the Little Mermaid. It starts out with a description of the Sea King and his kingdom. It also paints a picturesque image of his little daughters, with one being more beautiful than all the others. The grandmother of the princesses promised the prettiest princess, who was all curious about the world above the sea, that once she reached her 15th birthday, she could see that world.
Once that day came, the first thing she saw was a ship. On this boat, she spots a handsome prince, whose birthday the crew were celebrating. But after the celebration, the princes ship encounters bad weather, wrecking the vessel. The prince had fallen into the sea, from which the little mermaid rescued him. She brought him to shore, but once he recovered he didn't know she had been his savior.
This caused the little mermaid to become quite silent, but soon the secret was out that she was in love with a human. The little mermaid often went to see the prince after that, and also hearing news of him by the sailors that passed by. One day, her grandmother let the little mermaid onto how she could be with the prince: the prince must love her and only her. To get help she seeks out the counsel and guidance of a sea witch...

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Reading Diary A: Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

Th• Princess and the Pea, by Dulac

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   The first tale told is the Princess and the Pee, which is about a prince that searches for a real princess. After searching for many months, far and wide, he isn't able to find one. But one stormy night, he takes in a girl who claims to be a real princess. The mother of the prince tests this by placing a pea under the girl's mattress as she sleeps. In the morning, the princess complains that she didn't sleep well at all. The prince reasons: if she was sensitive enough to sense the pea through the mattress, she must be a real princess.
   The next tale of the Emperor's New Suit, which is about a young emperor who thought so much of new clothes that he just spent all of his resources to get the best ones he could. One day, he encounters a duo of swindling merchants who claim their clothes are fabulous, but are invisible to all who are unworthy of the emperor's position, or otherwise stupid. The cloth makes its way to the emperor, who wears it foolishly, and is seen naked by all of his people.
   The story after that is the Wicked Prince, which is about a prince who wanted to greedily rule all things. Once he had ruled over all things in his continent, he claimed that he even wanted to rule over God. But as he set out to challenge God, the deity sent out a swarm of gnats. This tortured the prince, who ordered his men to cover him in wrappings. They did, but one gnat got in and continued to torment the prince. All of his men laughed at him and how he was conquered by a single gnat.

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