The Princess in the Chest

Last updated

The Princess in the Chest, also known as The Princess in the Coffin [1] (Danish: Prinsessen i Kisten) [2] is a Danish fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book . [3]

Contents

Another tale of this type is La Ramée and the Phantom .

Synopsis

A king left his queen because they were childless and told her if she did not have a child by the time he returned, in a year, he would part with her. An old woman advised her to eat a bud from a bush. She would have a daughter. The old woman would give her a nurse, who must raise the girl without anyone else seeing her until she was fourteen. The queen did as she said, but when the fourteen years were one day short of complete, the king went to see her. The princess said that now she would die. The king had his choice of a pestilence, a long and bloody war, or putting her body in a wooden coffin and setting a sentinel over it every day for a year. He did not believe it, but chose the coffin. The next morning, she was dead. He did as she directed, but every night, the sentinel vanished. Soon, the story was that the princess's ghost ate whoever it was, and soldiers deserted rather than take on the duty. The king got more by offering rewards, but no one ever received it.

One day, a smith named Christian came to the capital looking for work. Soldiers got him to agree to the job, because he had gotten drunk. When the drink wore off, he tried to flee, but a little man stopped him and told him to stay in the pulpit until the coffin lid slammed. He went into the pulpit, and at midnight, the princess came out and howled, demanding the sentinel. She saw him in the pulpit but could not get up after him. Finally, she had to go back to the coffin.

The next day, the king gave him a reward and a good meal, where he had plenty to drink, until the king offered twice the gold, and Christian agreed to stay the next night, too. He tried to flee, and the little man stopped him again, telling him to stay in front of the altar and hold the prayer book there. The princess rushed up to the pulpit that night; when she did not find him, she shrieked that war and pestilence would begin, but then she saw him and could not reach him. She had to go back to the coffin, but she was less ugly that night than the one before.

The third day, Christian agreed when drunk again, but only for half the kingdom. He tried to sneak off again, this time earlier to avoid the little man, and through a window. The little man still stopped him, but this time he was to lie down by the coffin and climb inside as soon as she left it. She came out at midnight and shrieked that war and pestilence would come. She eventually found him in the coffin but was unable to reach him. Despite her attempts to threaten and coax him out of the coffin, he did not move. Then she went away and soft music came. Christian heard a mass of thanksgiving being said for the deliverance. At dawn he came out and found the princess alive. She told him the curse was broken and if he agreed, they would marry. If not, she would go to a convent and he could never marry another as long as she lived (for the service he'd heard was a marriage ceremony of the dead). Christian agreed to marry. The king consented and made good on his promise to give Christian half his kingdom, eventually inheriting its entirety on the king's death.

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 307, "The Princess in the Shroud" or "The Princess in the Coffin": a cursed princess or woman comes out of her grave or coffin at night to attack people. [4] These tales are, according to scholarship, more commonly collected among East European populations, [5] especially in Russia. [6]

German scholar Kurt Ranke supposed that the tale type originated from Eastern European legends about vampirism. [7]

Distribution

The tale type is also present in the Ukrainian tale corpus, with a number between 22 and 28 variants collected under the banner The Princess Rising from the Grave. [8]

According to professor Jūratė Šlekonytė, type 307 is "popular all over Lithuania", with 222 variants registered. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East of the Sun and West of the Moon</span> Norwegian fairy tale

"East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a Norwegian fairy tale. It was included by Andrew Lang in The Blue Fairy Book (1890).

"Cap-o'-Rushes" is an English fairy tale published by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.

"The Three Princesses of Whiteland" is a Norwegian fairy tale, collected by Norwegian writers Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their collection of folktales and legends Norske folkeeventyr (1879). Scottish poet and novelist Andrew Lang collected it his The Red Fairy Book (1890).

The Golden Crab is a Greek fairy tale collected as "Prinz Krebs" by Bernhard Schmidt in his Griechische Märchen, Sagen and Volkslieder. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.

The Blue Mountains is a fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book (1894), but provided no bibliographical information and its origin remains obscure.

Fair, Brown and Trembling is an Irish fairy tale collected by Jeremiah Curtin in Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland and Joseph Jacobs in his Celtic Fairy Tales.

"The Glass Coffin" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 163. Andrew Lang included it in The Green Fairy Book as The Crystal Coffin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Golden Lion</span> Italian fairy tale

The Golden Lion is an Italian fairy tale collected by Laura Gonzenbach in Sicilianische Märchen. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book.

The Mermaid and the Boy is a Sámi fairy tale collected by Josef Calasanz Poestion in Lapplandische Märchen. Andrew Lang included an English-language version in The Brown Fairy Book (1904).

The Little Good Mouse is a French literary fairy tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.

The Green Knight is a Danish fairy tale, collected by Svend Grundtvig (1824-1883) in Danish Fairy Tales (18??) and by Evald Tang Kristensen (1843-1929) in Eventyr fra Jylland (1881). Andrew Lang included a translation of Kristensen's version in The Olive Fairy Book (1907).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Sea-Maiden</span> Scottish fairy tale

The Sea-Maiden is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as John Mackenzie, fisherman, near Inverary. Joseph Jacobs included it in Celtic Fairy Tales.

The Story of Bensurdatu is an Italian fairy tale collected by Laura Gonzenbach in Sicilianische Märchen. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book.

"Niels and the Giants" is a Danish fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener</span> Irish fairy tale

The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener is an Irish fairy tale collected by Patrick Kennedy in Fireside Stories of Ireland. Joseph Jacobs included it in More Celtic Fairy Tales.

The Sleeping Prince is a Greek fairy tale collected by Georgios A. Megas in Folktales of Greece.

"Mossycoat" is a fairy tale published by Katherine M. Briggs and Ruth Tongue in Folktales of England. It appears in A Book of British Fairy Tales by Alan Garner. The story known by folklorists was collected by researcher T. W. Thompson from teller Taimi Boswell, a Romani, at Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, January 9, 1915.

The Princess in the Suit of Leather is an Egyptian folktale. It may also be referred to as The Princess in the Leather Burqa. This story was originally published in translation in Inea Bushnaq's 1986 collection Arab Folktales. Author Angela Carter included it in The Old Wives’ Fairy Tale Book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Lindworm</span> Danish fairy tale published in the 19th century by Danish folklorist Svend Grundtvig

King Lindworm or Prince Lindworm is a Danish fairy tale published in the 19th century by Danish folklorist Svend Grundtvig.

The Story of Princess Zeineb and King Leopard is a French language fairy tale published in the 18th century. The tale belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom as a subtype, with few variants reported across Europe.

References

  1. ↑ J. Grant Cramer, Danish Fairy Tales "The Princess in the Coffin"
  2. ↑ Grundtvig, Sven. Danske Folkeaeventyr: Efter Utrykte Kilder. Kjøbenhaven: C. A. Reitzel. 1876. pp. 142-158.
  3. ↑ Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, "The Princess in the Chest"
  4. ↑ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. pp. 40-41. ISBN   0-520-03537-2
  5. ↑ Haney, Jack V.; with Sibelan Forrester. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume III. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2021. p. 536.
  6. ↑ Delarue, Paul. The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1956. p. 386.
  7. ↑ Ranke, Kurt. Folktales of Germany. University of Chicago Press. p. 206. ISBN   9788130400327.
  8. ↑ Andrejev, Nikolai P. "A Characterization of the Ukrainian Tale Corpus". In: Fabula 1, no. 2 (1958): 233. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1958.1.2.228
  9. ↑ Šlekonytė, Jūratė. Lithuanian Folk Narrative: Tales of Magic. Vol. 1. 2017. p. 721.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.