The Princess and the Pea: Where it Fits

I thought it was about time I wrap up the Princess and the Pea with a post that examines where in history it falls.

The cues in the story unfortunately had to be a bit limited–I needed to keep it at a novella length or I wasn’t going to make the deadline for the Summer Reading Event–but it still gives you some information to work off.

There are two big clues, however, that help you settle it in the time line. The first being that at start of the story Torrens isn’t known for its music and instruments–something that was established in the first book of the series with Beauty and the Beast. And the second is the epilogue scene in which you meet Evariste and Angelique, and Evariste brags that Angelique has recently saved Princess Rosalinda of Sole (Aka Briar Rose of Sleeping Beauty.)

So this story is a true prequel in that it happens before any of the events of the Timeless Fairy Tale series. (That’s if we’re counting the Snow Queen books separately, which I do.) It’s known that Princess Rosalinda was cursed approximately fourteen years before Severin was cursed and Evariste was captured, and Lis and Channing had already been married for a number of years before then, so you’re looking at approximately 19-24ish years before Book 1 in the series.

A final–less obvious–clue lay in the identity of the bushy-bearded King of Torrens who shows up in Frog Prince. That King is neither Albion, nor Channing (both of whom are still alive) but Channing and Lis’ adopted son. How is he king of Torrens if Channing and Albion are alive, and why does he have such a bushy beard? Those questions will be answered in his fairy tale book–which will take place after the events of Snow White and Angelique’s story. (Some of you have already successfully guessed what his story will be, but for those of you who haven’t the biggest hint to his fairy tale lies in his beard.)

If you want to see an exact timeline that shows you everything that has happened in the Timeless Fairy Tale series–including the events of Princess and the Pea–check out these Champion created timelines (scroll down a little to see them).

The Princess and the Pea: The Moral

The Princess and the Pea was written in 1835 by Hans Christian Andersen. If you aren't familiar with the original story you can read a quick (and sarcastic) summary of it over in this other blog post.

What I did not mention in the other post is that at the time of its publication it was about as popular as a lead balloon.

The critics were hostile and disliked the informal, “chatty” tone of the story–and the other two it was published with.

Over the years the story has also been poked apart by readers who point out the irony in the story. The most glaring irony/plot hole, is that a princess who is so tired she can’t sleep because of a pea and it gives her bruises, arrived at the prince’s castle alone, in a rainstorm, with soaked clothes, and had traveled a long distance. A princess who was sensitive enough to feel a pea would never do something so daring and uncomfortable.

As for the moral, some believe Andersen meant the story to be tongue-in-cheek and poke fun at the ridiculous measures aristocracy went through to preserve their bloodlines, others believe Andersen mostly meant for the story to drive home that “sensitivity” is required to be a true noble, not wealth. This is thought because although Andersen mingled with the “upper-crust” he was never accepted as one of them due to his poor birth, and thus he identified with the princess who had no visible wealth or even great beauty. (As a side note: Andersen was not a rich man, and lived off wealthy patrons, which is also why some think he wanted to believe aristocracy was something besides breeding and wealth.)

Regardless of what others say, Andersen himself said he meant for the described “sensitivity” to be emotionally sensitive. Meaning the princess was compassionate and would be sensitive to the needs of her people, and that’s what made her a true princess. It’s a worthy moral–and one I tried to communicate in my retelling–but Andersen did a pretty poor job in communicating it. (Though that can be attributed to its length. It’s seriously about ten paragraphs long. In fact, this blog post is about the same length as the story.)

It was actually Andersen’s words–that a true princess was one sensitive to her people’s needs–that sparked the idea for my retelling–but I decided to come after it from a slightly different angle. (I was also inspired by the last few lines of Andersen’s tale, in which he notes that the pea that ruined the princess’ sleep was put in a museum, and it is still there if no one has stolen it. It made me ponder why anyone would ever want to steal such a thing, and so the Pea of Primeorder was born!)

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!).

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!).