Twelve Dancing Princesses: The Moral & My Retelling

Normally I like to devote a whole post to the morals of the original fairy tale, but I’ll be honest…it’s pretty thin in Twelve Dancing Princesses. In fact, when I was researching the story I came across only a few resources that cited morals, and the best of them involved the German version with the soldier, not the French version with the gardener’s boy.

One proposed moral is that parents need to let their children grow up, and they cannot grasp them too tightly. This is displayed in the way the king/duke locks the princesses into their room and they still get away at night to do whatever they want.

Another proposed moral is something along the lines of listening to elders. Though many princes and nobles try, it is the wounded, middle-aged soldier who succeeds, and even that’s only because he listened to an old wise woman.

Some say that the French version encourages suffering and patience for the sake of love. (Why else would a shallow-boy have put up with the bratty youngest sisters’ antics?)

But as I read over all of these…none of them really appealed to me.

So before I even crafted Quinn, before I even introduced the elves in Swan Lake, I looked at my series (including all my planned books) and contemplated what I wanted a main theme to be for 12 Dancing Princesses. Often in my stories you’ll see lots of themes of friendship, loyalty, and sticking together. These things are great and important. (No matter who you are, you NEED support!) But there is a problem with that…sometimes we get so caught up in our friendships we make poor choices because of those important relationships. We allow others to influence us to do things we wouldn’t normally do or say because they’re our friends. So I decided 12 Dancing Princesses would be the story where I flaunt friendship…and then shatter it by making Quinn choose to do the right thing rather than choose to follow her companions.

One of the hardest things to do is to step away from your friends and family and do the right thing. It takes a lot of courage, because even if what you stand for is correct it doesn’t guarantee that your friends will understand and accept your decision. Personally, I’ve had several relationships crumble because friends have asked me to do things that I know are wrong. It’s hard, and it happens more often than you would think, which is why I felt it was important to address with this particular tale.

Which launches us into my retelling! As I mentioned in a prior post, for my retelling I decided to stitch the two versions together. Quinn represents the German tale, and Roy the French version.

There’s a few obvious hints. Quinn is a soldier, she takes the silver tree branch as evidence, she receives the cloak from Angelique whom she initially thinks to be an old woman (And yes, for you Stil fans out there, the cloak originally belonged to Rumpelstiltskin. It’s the one Pricker Patch ripped that Stil gives to Angelique after Gemma gives him a new cape.) and she approaches the venture more from a “we’re going to fix this” perspective than a lovesick motivation.

Roy on the other hand is the gardener’s boy (or at least he pretends to be), he hides the twigs from the beautiful trees in the bouquet for the eldest princess (eldest not youngest, because the youngest twins aren’t even teenagers yet, ewwwww!) and he appears to be stupidly in love/motivated by the chance to marry a princess.

You can see a nod to the tales in the way the princesses drug their victims (German) and that those who succeed in following them are cursed as well (French.) The silver, gold, and diamond trees are featured in my story and both the German and French version as well, but I chose to have the princesses cross a river rather than a lake (featured in both original versions) to get to the elves because I thought a river would be a better divider between the elf and human lands.

Additionally, my story includes the grand parties featured by both stories, and the philtre that serves as a plot point in the French version. (The curse being caused by the food and drink was also a subtle nod to the French version’s philtre.)

Even my choices of making the elves the hosts of the celebration was taken from one of the many other variations of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, in which the parties were hosted by fairies. (Pretty sure Emerys would slug me, though, if he knew he was the substitute for a fairy king.)

And that is the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I hope you enjoyed it, and that the story made you laugh and cheer.

And if you're now interested in reading my adaptation of this popular fairy tale here are the links:

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

12 Dancing Princesses: Where it fits

Where does the story of Twelve Dancing Princesses fit into the Continent and the timeline of the series?

The Twelve Dancing Princesses make their first debut in the Timeless Fairy Tale series through Cinderella, in a conversation between Friedrich, Merrich, and Deiderrik, and they pop up every few books after that. But besides saying the bare minimum (That they are cursed or something as they wear their shoes out every night) I keep all details under wraps, until the Black Swan Smugglers arrive.

In Swan Lake I reveal that Odette and her crew have been delivering a philtre that freezes the heart of emotion and inspires a passionate desire to dance. This is the first clue that the elves are tied to the twelve dancing princesses as the French version of the story includes that exact same philtre. I planned for the elves to be included since early on in the series, and I knew the Twelve Dancing Princesses would be my ticket.

As you learned in Frog Prince, all the curses, spells, and calamities that have befallen my characters is the work of the Chosen–who have been plotting and planning for centuries. The Chosen specifically target countries and people with power who ruined their attack on Verglas, so naturally the elves would make the top of the list.

Because the elves–though quite limited in number–are a people group, the Chosen would have to strike against all elves if they really wanted lock them out of the incoming fight. Preferably they would want to kill them, but as you recall the elves’ curse was originally powered by Lord Enchanter Evariste, and due to the purity of his magic it couldn’t be twisted to do that. (It is worth mentioning, however, that Angelique’s magic wouldn’t have that problem, which is some food for thought….)

It’s also worth noting that the Chosen acted against them fast. It happened so quickly, in fact, that Emerys and his people didn’t even know Evariste had been kidnapped. (There will be more about this in future books, but its safe to conclude this was done on purpose.)

And if you want a much more detailed overview of the timeline for the Timeless Fairy Tales series I highly recommend you check out one of the Champion created Timelines linked on my fairy tale page (it also has a map showing all the countries!)

12 Dancing Princesses: The French Version

While not having it's own Disney Princess adaptation the fairy tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses is still well known in pop culture. But how well do you know the original story?

In this blog post I will be sarcastically summarizing the French version of this fairy tale and sharing into I picked up when researching my own retelling of this story, The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

It’s a bit unusual that I delve into two different versions of the story, but, as you will see by the end of the post, in my retelling I actually stitched these two versions together…and I’m too big of a geek to let that slide without pointing out how I did it. 😉 So here we go!

In the French version, not only do the princesses have very little to recommend them besides beauty, but the hero–a boy who works under the palace gardener–is an absolute beast. The hero was originally a peasant boy who left his village because he thought the girls there were ugly. I’m not making this up! He decides he wants to marry a princess because they are said to be prettier, and since he’s handsome he has decided he is far above the likes of the girls in his village. (So…I guess he’s Gaston if Belle wasn’t around?)

Our shallow hero dreams of an enchantress who tells him to go to the castle and there he can marry a beautiful princess. So our hero-who-deserves-a-smack-upside-the-head sets out and snags the career of gardener’s boy. (Personally I think pig keeper would suit him better…)

As it just so happens the duke (don’t ask why their father is a duke and they are princesses, there is no explanation given for that gem.) who owns the castle has 12 beautiful daughters who–despite being triple locked in their room–wear out their shoes every night and commonly sleep until the afternoon. The duke offers a reward to anyone who can find out what they are doing–because of course the girls lie and insist they are sleeping. Strangely, whenever someone is locked in the princesses’ chambers to investigate their activities, the following morning when the doors are unlocked they are nowhere to be found. (The duke, apparently, is not as crazy as the king from the German tale as he offers no time limit and, more importantly, no death threat if you can’t uncover the mystery. Not like it matters, though, as in this version no one is seen again after their first try.)

One of our stuck-up gardener’s boy’s tasks is to give the princesses a bouquet every morning–which is how he falls in love with the youngest princess who is naturally also the prettiest. The enchantress returns to our dolt-of-a-hero in his dreams and gives him gardening advice on how to grow two laurels which will then bud flowers that will make him invisible.

The gardener’s boy does this, and when his laurels are fully grown he sneaks into the princesses’ rooms while wearing the flower of invisibility and hides under their beds. The sisters search the rooms, but eventually get dressed in their prettiest gowns and go through a trap door.

This gorgeous illustration of the princesses coming down their hidden staircase is the work of Henry J Ford, who lived from 1860-1941.

As in the German version, our shallow hero is following so closely behind them he steps on the gown of the youngest princess. Similarly, they walk through the tree groves of the silver, gold, and diamond tress, and come to a lake where the twelve boats and princes are waiting for them.

Just as the soldier did, the gardener’s boy hops on the boat of the youngest princess–who also lectures her prince for rowing so slowly.

At the other side of the lake is a splendid castle that has lots of food, drink, and other luxuries. The princes (who number at least 50 and were actually all the men who tried to uncover the princesses’ secret) dance the night away with the princesses because the girls had previously given them a philtre that froze their hearts and filled them with the desire to dance. (Which I suppose makes these girls slightly better than the princesses in the German version. Now they are only kidnappers instead of murderers.)

As a side note, I couldn’t make heads or tails of the castle. There are servants, and yes they have the princes, but no one explains who owns the castle or why it exists. A couple of variants credit the fairies, but that’s usually as far as it goes. Moving on!

The princesses dance the night away and then hurry home shortly before dawn. On the way back the gardener’s boy snaps off a twig of the silver trees and then puts it in the bouquet meant for the youngest princess later that morning. The events repeat–though this time the shallow hero snags a gold twig and places it in the youngest princesses’ bouquet–and when he follows them a third time he snatches up a diamond twig. The youngest princess by now knows he has been following them, and even though the gardener’s boy promises not to tell anyone–including her father–she  tattles to her older sisters who make fun of her for the gardener boy’s obvious infatuation with her.

The eldest sister states they should throw him in prison and have him killed, which upsets the youngest. (I have no idea what she thought would happen, I mean really, they are already confirmed kidnappers!) Frightened, the youngest princess threatens to tell their father if they harm the gardener’s boy, so they decide to take him with them to the castle instead. Throughout the night the youngest princess insults the gardener’s boy, who responds calmly that she need not fear that she will become a gardener’s wife. After a night of dancing and food, the princesses try to feed him the philtre that will freeze his heart and force him to join the other princes they have captured/kidnapped.

The gardener’s boy knows what the drink is, but is willing to drink it because he loves the youngest daughter even though she’s been nothing but an absolute jerk to him. Surprisingly, the youngest princess tells him not to drink it and that she would rather be a gardener’s wife after all. The gardener’s boy flings the philtre aside, which breaks the curse over the princes. (Because reasons??) The remaining eleven princesses each choose a prince to marry, then flee back home in the boats just before the castle crumbles. (Because nothing makes for good romance like marrying your captor and fleeing your crumbling prison together!)

The gardener’s boy and the youngest princess explain to the duke everything that happened, then they are married and the gardener’s boy is made a prince. (But not before the princess burns down his magical laurels. Because it wasn’t enough she nearly got him cursed for all eternity, nooooo!)

If you've already read my version of this fairy tale you probably see exactly how I combined the stories! The heroine Quinn is the wiser/less shallow soldier from the German version, and Roy–her Band Gallant companion–is the gardener’s boy who is a bit obsessed with princesses. You can read this follow up blog post where I go into more detail, and discuss why I did what I did and how it fits into my book series: The Timeless Fairy Tales.

And if you're now interested in reading my adaptation of this fairy tale with a soldier heroine and not a normal hero for this tale (hint: he's not one of the soldiers!) her are the links:

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