The Princess and the Pea

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The Princess and the Pea
Vilhelm Pedersen illustration
Author	Hans Christian Andersen
Original title	Prinsessen på ærten
Translator	Charles Boner
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish
Genre(s)	Fairy tale
Publisher	C. A. Reitzel
Publication date	1835
Published in English	1846
Media type	Print

"The Princess and the Pea" (Danish: "Prindsessen paa Ærten"; "Prinsessen på ærten" in modern orthography) is a fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young woman whose claim to being a real princess is tested by placing a pea under her mattresses. The tale likely had its source in folk material, and, in the Aarne and Thompson classification of folktales, "The Princess and the Pea" is categorized under its own type as type 703, The Princess on the Pea. ii The story was first published in 1835. It has been adapted to various media including musical comedy and television drama.

1 Plot summary
2 Sources
3 Publication
4 Translations
5 Adaptations
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot summary

A prince wants to marry a real princess. He travels about the world searching for a real princess but returns home disappointed. One evening, a young woman claiming to be a real princess seeks shelter from a storm in the prince's castle. The prince's mother decides to test the validity of her claim by placing a single pea on a bedstead and piling twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds atop it. There, the young woman spends the night. In the morning, she tells her hosts she endured a sleepless night, being kept awake by something hard in the bed. The prince rejoices. Only a real princess possesses the delicacy to feel a pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. The two are married, and live happily ever after.

[edit] Sources

Andersen claimed to have heard the tale as a child, but no Danish oral variant of the tale has been recorded. Similar tales are known in Sweden.^[1]^[2] In some versions, the princess discovers the test with the aid of helper, and passes it with the foreknowledge. Andersen, however, had his princess remain innocent of the secret and suffer an uncomfortable sleeplessness.^[3]

[edit] Publication

Andersen, 1862

The tale was first published in Copenhagen by C.A. Reitzel 8 May 1835 in Fairy Tales told for Children. First Collection. First Booklet. 1835. (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Første Hefte. 1835.). The publication was Andersen's first volume of fairy tales. "The Princess and the Pea" was the third tale in the booklet which included: (in contents order) "The Tinder Box" (Fyrtoiet), "Little Claus and Big Claus" (Lille Claus og store Claus), and "Little Ida's Flowers" (Den lille Idas Blomster). The tale was republished 18 December 1849 as a part of Fairy Tales. 1850. (Eventyr. 1850.) and again, 15 December 1862 as a part of Fairy Tales and Stories. First Volume. 1862. (Eventyr og Historier. Første Bind. 1862.).^[4]

[edit] Translations

The tale was first translated into English by Charles Boner (who increased Andersen's lone pea to a trio of peas) and was first published in A Danish Story-Book, 1846. The title is sometimes translated into English as "The Real Princess", "How to tell a True Princess", or "The Princess on the Pea".^[2]^[5]

[edit] Adaptations

A.J. Ford illustration, 1894

Andrew Lang included a version, "How to tell a True Princess", in The Yellow Fairy Book.
Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy based on the story, that opened on Broadway in 1959 and was adapted as telemovies in 1972 and 2005.
The animated short, Princess and the Pea aired as a Fractured Fairy Tale segment during the first season (1959-60) of the animated television series, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
A Soviet movie adaptation, entitled Printsessa na goroshine (The Princess and the Pea) and directed by Boris Rytsarev, was released in 1976.^[6]
A parody of the tale, The Princess and the Bowling Ball, can be found in The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales.
The American children's television program Sesame Street has twice told the story as parody.
Gail Carson Levine rewrote the tale as The Princess Test.
Faerie Tale Theatre produced a version starring Liza Minnelli (1982).
HBO's "Happy Ever After" set the tale in China.
Debra Tracy rewrote the tale as "The Clever Princess Who Slept on a Pea" in Newfangled Fairy Tales.
An animated feature film was made in 2002 in a co-production between the US and the Hungarian studio PannóniaFilm. [1]
The computer game Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe features a princess who can only be woken by putting a pea under her mattresses.