the real princess by hans christian andersen

The townspeople and courtiers rubbed their eyes and wondered who could have been out in such a storm. An eerie knock was heard at the town gate. At midnight, a calm fell as suddenly as the storm itself had arrived. As the prince sat by the fire reading, lightning drew closer and closer and thunder rattled the windows until it seemed sure they'd break. The Old King and Queen welcomed him home.Īnother summer passed and the leaves were falling from the trees when, one evening, a terrible storm blew in from the sea. At last, the prince returned home in despair he wanted a princess so badly. Behind closed doors, they even snickered. People started to say that he was looking for something that he did not want to find. Each had the proper pedigree and credentials, but there always seemed to be something not quite right about each one. In his travels, he found many princesses. But this he knew: She must be a real princess. He traveled around the world to find someone like himself, a proper princess to share his life. There was once a prince, a lonely prince. The pea was put into the museum, where it may still be seen to this day, if no one has stolen it or eaten it.The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen retold by XineAnn So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess. Nobody but a real princess could have felt it. Now they knew that she was a real princess, because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty feather beds. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. In the morning she was asked how she had slept. On this the princess had to lie all night. Then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. But she said nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding off the bedstead, and laid a pea on the bottom. “Well, we’ll soon find that out,” thought the old queen.

And yet she said that she was a real princess. It ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. The water ran down from her hair and clothes. But, good gracious, what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. Suddenly a knock was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it. There was thunder and lightning and the rain poured down. So he came home again and was very sad, for he wanted very much to have a real princess. There was always something about them that was not quite right.

There were princesses out there alright, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones or not. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted.

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess, but she had to be a real princess.

The real princess by hans christian andersen