The Light Princess
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The Light Princess is a fairy tale by George MacDonald. It was published in 1864.
[edit] Synopsis
A king and queen, after some time, have a daughter. The king invites everyone to the christening, except his sister Princess Makemnoit, a spiteful and sour woman. She arrives without an invitation and curses the princess to have no gravity. Whenever she was accidentally moved up in the air, she had to be brought down, and the wind was capable of carrying her off. As she grows, she never cries, and never can be brought to see the serious side of anything. The court philosophers, when consulted, are unable to propose any cure that the king and queen will suffer to be used.
She passionately loves swimming, and when she swam, she regains her gravity. This leads to the proposal that if she could be brought to cry, it might break the curse, but nothing can induce her to cry.
A prince from another country sets out to find a wife and found fault in every princess he found. He had not intended to look at the light princess, but becoming lost in a forest, he finds the princess swimming. Thinking she is drowning, he "rescues" her, ending up with her in air and bitterly scolding him. He falls instantly in love and, at her demand, puts her back in the water, and goes swimming with her. Days pass, and the prince learns that her manner is changed between the water and the land, and he can not marry her as she is on land.
Princess Makemnoit discovers that the princess loves the lake and sets out to dry it up. The water is drained from the lake, the springs are stopped up, and the rain ceases. Even babies no longer cry water.
As the lake dries up, they discover that the only way to stop it was to block up the hole the water is flowing from, and the only thing that would block it would be a living man, who would die in the deed. The prince volunteers, on the condition that the princess keep him company while the lake fills.
The lake fills up, and when the prince drowns, the princess drags his body from the lake to take it to her old nurse, who is a wise woman. They tend him through the night, and at dawn, he wakes. The princess falls to the floor and cries.
After the princess masters the art of walking, they marry. Princess Makemnoit's house is undermined by the waters, and falls in, drowning her, and the light princess and her prince have many children, who never lose their gravity.
