Rabbit Ears Book Blog: Fairy Tale and Folktale Fridays #26: The Princess and the Pea

Hey there! Welcome to "Fairy Tale and Folktale Fridays," a new feature on my blog where I discuss about some fairy tales and folktales I have read throughout the years.

The Princess and the Pea

Type: Fairy Tale

Country of Origin: Denmark

Main Character Hero or Heroine: Heroine

Recommend?: Yes!

The story starts off with a prince wanting to marry a princess and his mother, the Queen, tells the prince that he must marry a real princess. So, the prince goes around the land trying to find a real princess, but every princess he came across either didn't have any manners or were too clumsy to be actual princesses. One stormy night however, a young princess, who was soaking wet, came to the castle and asked for some shelter from the storm. The Queen didn't believe that she was a real princess due to her messy appearance, but she decided to give the princess shelter anyway. In order to see if she was a real princess or not, the Queen decided to put a pea underneath 20 mattresses that the princess will be sleeping on. The goal of this was to see if the princess can feel the pea underneath all of those mattresses since a real princess would have skin delicate enough to feel a small pea underneath all of those mattresses.

I was actually pretty interested in this story! The whole bit about a real princess feeling a small pea underneath all of those mattresses was a bit weird yet amusing to me since I thought it would be a bit ridiculous for anyone to feel something so small underneath all of those mattresses! I think this story did a pretty good job at exaggerating the expectations that princesses are supposed to meet, such as being able to walk on items without breaking them (which is impossible for anyone to do, even for a princess) which made the story hilarious to read through. Quite an amusing read, indeed!

1. Do you think that the expectations for a real princess are a bit too high?

In the context of this story, yes I do think that the Queen's expectations for a real princess were a bit too high (not breaking anything underneath their feet would be a feat that would be impossible to meet) , although it was amusing to see such expectations from the Queen and the King!

2. Do you think this story did a good job at portraying the message of don't judge others based on looks?

Yes, I think this story really did a great job at portraying the message of not judging people based on their looks. Even though the princess didn't look like a real princess at first, it eventually revealed that she was a real princess all along, which also brings in the message that you are beautiful in the inside no matter what you look like on the outside.

3. Do you think that you can feel a pea under your mattress?

Probably not! Either I'll smash the pea with my body or I'll be too sleepy to feel it!