Princess and the Pea: The original tale

While not having it's own Disney Princess adaptation the fairy tale of The Princess and the Pea is still one of the most popular. But how well do you know the original story?

In this blog post I will be sarcastically summarizing this fairy tale and sharing the tidbits of info I learned as part of my research for writing my own retelling of this story, The Princess and the Pea, which is a free novella you can download the read right now if you want.

Important Disclaimer:

Before I get started, just a gentle reminder that even though I enjoy poking fun of them there’s a lot more complexity to fairy tales than we can comprehend because we don’t have the same experiences and knowledge that the average person from the 1800s would have. But, teasing the original story is so fun, so let’s go!

The Princess and the Pea was written by Hans Christian Andersen, who published it in 1835. Unlike the Little Mermaid, which is an original fairy tale by Andersen, The Princess and the Pea was based on traditional folk tales Andersen heard as a child.

The story of The Princess and the Pea goes as follows:

Once upon a time there was a (super snobby) prince decided he wanted to marry a princess. But not just any princess a real princess. (Because there are tons of fakes out there. Obviously.) He traveled the world searching for a real princess, but was unable to find one, and it seemed like there was something off about all the princesses he did meet.

So the prince returned home. One night, during a terrible storm, someone knocked on the castle door. The prince’s father–the King–went and opened it, revealing a soggy, mud spattered princess who claimed to be a real princess.

The prince’s mother–the queen–was suspicious, so she hurried to the bedchamber the so-called real princess was going to stay in, and took off all the bedding of the bed, placed a single pea there, then had twenty mattresses laid on top of it and twenty down beds on top of the mattresses. (Question: how did this real princess not suffocate from sinking into that many down beds? Second question: Why did the queen have twenty mattresses hanging around?)

An illustration by Edmund Dulac of the princess on the mattress. Note the room’s high ceiling to allow for all those mattresses!

The queen then sent the princess to the chamber and was told to sleep there all night. In the morning she asked the princess how she slept. The (ungrateful, whiny) princess lamented that she slept terribly poorly and couldn’t sleep all night because there was something so hard in the bed she got bruises on her whole body. (Uh-huh, not only is she a terrible house-guest, she’s apparently incapable of rolling on to her side.)

This (somehow?) proved to the King, Queen, and prince that she was a real princess–because she felt the pea through all the mattresses and down beds. And “Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.”

So the prince took her as his wife, and the pea was “put in a museum where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it.” (Because everyone wants the pea that a whiny princess claimed gave her bruises. It makes the pea super valuable.)

And that’s the story! Charming, hmm? To be fair, I don’t think the story translates well into English, and Andersen chose some really poor wording in trying to get the moral across–which isn’t as terrible as it seems. You can learn more about that in this blog post on the story’s moral.

And here's the link again if you haven't tried my fantasy retelling of this story: Read The Princess and the Pea. It features a mercenary female lead who is called to the castle to help protect the fabled Pea of Primeorder by Prince Channing.

(Best of all? It's free!).

Goose Girl and Weird Symbolism

If you're not familiar with the original story of The Goose Girl I highly recommend you go read my sarcastic summary of it in this other blog post. Things typically are a little weird in fairy tale stories but they get QUITE weird in Goose Girl.

I’m just going to put it out there, the symbolism and the moral of the original Goose Girl story is awfully muddled. In fact, it seems like the Brothers Grimm–who are usually quite clear cut in their morals–can’t decide if they are telling a coming of age story, or a tale to remind kids to listen to their elders.

Here’s my case:

So the old queen is sending her beautiful daughter off to a far away country to get married–a pretty clear transition from girlhood to adulthood, right? Well some of the weirder parts of the story drive that point home, specifically the handkerchief with the three drops of blood on it.

In my research I found several reasons for why the handkerchief was important–some explanations said it was divine proof of the princess’s royal identity, others say it places the princess under the old queen’s care and protection. But what everyone agrees on, is that the handkerchief ties the princess to the queen and by losing it, she severs the bond between them which is how the maid manages her takeover.

So let’s recap: The princess is traveling to a foreign country BY HERSELF to get married, but because she steps entirely out of her childhood she ends up dooming herself and the maid takes over. (That’s not exactly an encouraging coming of age tale.)

The princess’s continued action doesn’t make it any better either. When they arrive at the kingdom of her husband-to-be, she stands around in the courtyard and does NOTHING until the old King (not her intended) basically asks “Why is there a random girl doing nothing in my courtyard?”

Her inattention continues, even to the point where when Falada–who is called her faithful steed–is KILLED. Indeed, the princess shows no signs of growing up at all until Little Conrad tries to pluck her hair and she sicks the wind on him. After that, she grows a little more proactive, but she only speaks to the King because Conrad complained about her so if this really was a coming of age story it’s a pretty poor one. (“Sit on your bum, kids, and one day you too will be crowned princess because one of your co-workers complained to HR!”)

The Goose Girl by Walter Crane.

I did read a few explanations that argued that princess is displaying meekness and sweet temperament–which prove her divine status as a royal. These same explanations claimed that her return to her royal status just shows that nobility is more than just a title but is something you’re born with that will eventually reveal itself. Honestly I think that’s a load of horse droppings–birth does NOT make you better or lesser than someone. Plus this doesn’t really help the coming of age argument anyway, all it does is make a case for the many childish kings/queens from history.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the actions of the old King that point to the story of being more of the “listen to your elders” instructive parable.

The King notices the princess when she arrives, actually listens to Little Conrad and then summons the princess, and he’s also the one who figures out how the princess can get around her vow by telling the stove, and he’s the one who handles the chambermaid when her betrayal is revealed.

But the whole bit at the start–where the old queen bids farewell to her daughter in what is clearly a bid for the childhood-to-adulthood-narrative–kinda messes up the King’s often overlooked wisdom and intelligence.

Personally, I’m more inclined to go for the ‘listen to your elders’ moral, but I admittedly have very little patience for heroines who aren’t proactive or even just productive.

But what do you think, Champions? Does the original story make a little more sense, now? What kind of story do YOU think it is?

If you're interested in reading my retelling of Goose Girl. (In which Falada does NOT die!) You can read it in Kindle Unlimited or in ebook and paperback!

Click here for Amazon.com  or Click here for all other Amazon stores

Until the next post, have a lovely day!

Goose Girl: The Original Fairy Tale

The original fairy tale of the Goose Girl is... strange to put it gently. And if all you know of it are the more mainstream adaptations of it you might be super shocked to hear what craziness is in the original! Which is why I'm bringing back my tradition of sarcastic summary of a fairy tale!

This summary and the little facts I share as part of it are based on the research I conducted in preparation for my own retelling of this story: A Goose Girl.

Important Disclaimer:

I enjoy poking fun of these stories but I promise I really do love them. That being said–hold one, this one gets weird. (Also, warning, it is pretty gory.)

The Goose Girl, as many of the fairy tales I’ve retold, was first recorded by the Brothers Grimm, and was published in 1815. Although the story called "goose girl" is the specific Brothers Grimm version, there’s actually so many stories/variants like it, it has it’s own “Type.” (Sort of the way Sleeping Beauty and the Wild Swans have sooooo many variants as well.) As example, a similar version is “the Golden Bracelet.”

The story starts with an old queen who has a daughter–a beautiful princess who is promised to a prince in a far away kingdom. When the time comes, the queen sends the beautiful princess off with a huge dowry/amount of money because she loves her daughter so much. (She loved her so much, in fact, that the only escort she sent with the princess was a chambermaid. Yeah. I don’t buy it!)

Before the girls set off the queen gives the princess a handkerchief with three drops of her blood on it, and tells her daughter it will be of service to her. (No explanation is given for this. I’m assuming there is some kind of symbolism that is lost to us due to the massive culture shift. At least I hope so, because GUARDS would have been a far more practical gift…)

The princess and the chambermaid travel for a while, until the princesses gets thirsty and tells the chambermaid to go fetch her some water. The chambermaid tells her to do it herself, which the princess does with a lot of melodrama. (The princess is sad because she can’t be bothered to fetch her golden cup for herself so she has to lie down on the ground and drink–because also there is apparently something wrong with her arms so she can’t LIFT THEM TO HER FACE. Then the drops of blood on the cloth tell the princess her mother’s heart would break in two if she saw her now–good times all around.)

This happens again, but this time when the princess leans over the water she drops her handkerchief into the stream and loses it. Next–and this is a direct quote from the original–“…the chambermaid saw what happened, and she rejoiced to think that she now had power over the bride, for by losing the drops of blood, the princess had become weak and powerless.”

…Okay, okay, in my research I uncovered several reasons for why this was a big deal, but if you don’t do the cultural research this is truly a “what the heck just happened?” moment. I go into this in another blog post (Goose Girl and Weird Symbolism), but for now just try to roll with it.

So because the princess is “powerless” now, the chambermaid orders her to swap clothes and horses, and forces her to vow that she will say not one word of this to anyone at the royal court or she will be killed on the spot. (How you ask? No idea.) The chambermaid then rides Falada–the princess’ horse who can apparently talk(??)– to the kingdom.

When they arrive the chambermaid is greeted as the princess and is taken up into the castle while the real princess is left standing in the courtyard like an idiot. (I know she has taken the vow and everything, but seriously, girl, standing around was the most helpful thing for your situation that came to your mind?)

The king (NOT the prince!) notices the princess in the courtyard and sees that she has surprisingly beautiful features, so he asks the chambermaid about her. The maid lies and says she’s a random girl she picked up as a traveling companion, and that the king should give her work to do. So the king sends her to tend to the royal geese with the goose boy, Little Conrad. (That’s actually the name given to him in the fairy tale!)

Meanwhile, the maid/false princess gets nervous about Falada, and fearing that he might tell everyone the truth (Honestly, the fact that horses can talk in this story might be the least weird thing about it.) she has him killed.

So the princess-turned-goose-girl hears about this, and asks the guy who slayed Falada if he would stuff the horse’s head and nail it above the gate she passes through every morning while taking the geese out. Whenever she passes by the horse head, it repeats a line very similar to the one recited by the drops of blood on the handkerchief.

Little Conrad notices the exchange, just as he notices that the princess has gorgeous gold hair that she unbinds and brushes whenever they’re SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING GEESE! He wants to pluck a few of her hairs for himself (I would too if she was supposed to be helping me and instead sat on her rear brushing her hair) but when he tries to do so the princess tells the wind to blow Conrad’s hat so he’ll chase it until she’s done with her beauty routine. AND THE WIND LISTENS. (Say whaaaat?)

This also happens twice before Little Conrad loses his temper and tells the king he can’t work with the princess/goose girl, and then relays the entire story. (Good on you, Little Conrad, for having excellent communication skills!)

The king calls for the princess/goose girl, who says she has taken a vow so she cannot tell anyone. The king then tells that, if that is the case, she should pour out her sorrows to an iron stove and then walks away. The princess does so, not knowing that the King had hurried around to the stove’s vent, so he can hear everything she says. When the full story is told the King dresses her in royal clothes, summons his son and tells him everything that has happened–and as it goes in many fairy tales, the prince sees her beauty and falls in love with the princess on the spot–and throws a party.

The chambermaid attends the party, but doesn’t recognize the princess in her splendor. (Maybe she’s related to Cinderella’s prince?) So the king questions the chambermaid, and asks her what should happen to a servant who betrays their master.

The maid tells the king the servant deserves to be stripped naked, placed in a barrel studded with nails, and dragged through the streets by horses. The king essentially tells her “You are the betrayer, and so this will be done to her,” and just as he promises it is done.

…but then the princess and shallow prince marry and live happily ever after! Yaaaaayy!

If you want to read a retelling that is really true to the original–without making it seem quite so unbelievably/weird, I highly recommend Shannon Hale’s “Goose Girl.” Despite the base material, it’s a beautiful retelling of the story, and my absolute favorite version.

But one aspect of the original story that I absolutely hate is how the horse Falada dies. Which was my main motivation to write my own adaptation of the story: A Goose Girl. (In which Falada does NOT die!) It's a standalone sweet fantasy romance story you can binge in a day, and you can read it in Kindle Unlimited or in ebook and paperback!

Click here for Amazon.com or Click here for all other Amazon stores

Until the next post, have a lovely day!