Collected Item: ““The Princess in the Chest.” The Pink Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897, pp. 57-72.”
Full bibliographic citation (MLA)
“The Princess in the Chest.” The Pink Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897, pp. 57-72.
Title of the complete book/anthology (not a single chapter/fairy tale)
The Pink Fairy Book
The name of the author or editor of the complete book/anthology (leave blank if none are listed)
Andrew Lang
Illustrator(s) of the book/anthology (leave blank if none are listed)
H. J. Ford
City where the book/anthology was published
New York and London and Bombay
The country where the book/anthology was published (use United States for US publications)
US and England and India
The publisher of the book/anthology (as written on the title page)
New York: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Date of publication (or date range from the library catalog, if no dates are listed in the book)
1897
The decade the book was published (use the drop down menu)
1890-1899
The fairy tale type (use the drop down menu)
Persecuted Maidens
What is special about this version of the tale?
Translated from Danish, this edition of The Princess in the Chest has been simplified for young readers. It comes from The Pink Fairy Book, one volume of a larger collection of stories and fairy tales for children. This version of the tale softens some of the frightening themes by incorporating some lighthearted humor and including a few detailed illustrations.
A brief summary of the plot that highlights any unique variations
Although it is modified for children, this version of The Princess in the Chest closely follows the original narrative arc. The tale begins with a king and queen who cannot have children. Instructed by a wise woman, the queen has a daughter, but the child is taken away and cannot be seen by her parents until she is fourteen. The king breaks the command on the eve of her fourteenth birthday and so the princess dies and the king must place a guard beside her chest every night for a year. Every guard placed at her chest disappears by morning and the number of men willing to do it grows thin. A smith named Christian agrees to stand guard, but that night he tries to escape and is stopped by a little man who instructs him on how evade the cursed princess who climbs out of her chest at night. He survives three nights guarding the chest, each time following the instructions of the little man. The morning after the third night, the princess is now alive again and freed from sorcery. Christian is rewarded by the king and he marries the princess.
A link to a digital copy of the book
https://archive.org/details/pinkfairybook00lang/page/56/mode/2up
Your full name (this entry will not appear on the public site)
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