The Princess and the Pea - Danish

My dear son, the Prince, was handsome, clever, and kind, but finding him a wife was proving to be a royal headache. I am the old Queen, you see, and it was my duty to ensure he married a real princess, but that was much easier said than done. This is the story of how a stormy night, a clever idea, and a single tiny vegetable solved our problem, a tale you might know as The Princess and the Pea. Our castle was grand, with towering spires and flags that snapped in the wind, but it felt empty without the right princess. My son traveled the whole world searching for one. He met princesses who could sing like nightingales and princesses who could paint beautiful pictures, but there was always something not quite right about them, something that made him doubt they were truly royal through and through. He would return home so sad, his shoulders slumped, because he so desperately wanted to find a real princess to love. I worried for him, but I also knew that a true royal heart was a rare and sensitive thing, and it couldn't be faked. I just needed a way to prove it.

One evening, a terrible storm raged outside the castle walls. The wind howled like a hungry wolf, rain lashed against the windows, and thunder boomed so loudly it shook the dinner plates on the table. In the middle of this chaos, we heard a loud knocking at the town gate. The old King himself went down to see who could possibly be out on such a night. Standing there was a young woman. Water streamed from her hair and clothes, running in rivers from the tips of her shoes. She looked a fright, but she held her head high and said she was a real princess. 'Well, we'll soon find that out,' I thought to myself, though I didn't say a word. I smiled politely and led her inside to warm up. While everyone else was busy getting her dry clothes and a warm drink, I slipped away to prepare her bedroom. I had a plan, a very clever, secret test. I went into the guest room, had all the bedding taken off the bed, and right in the middle of the bedstead, I placed one single, small, green pea. Then, I took twenty soft mattresses and piled them on top of the pea. And on top of the mattresses, I piled twenty of the fluffiest eiderdown quilts. That is where the princess was to sleep all night. It was a bed so high she would need a ladder to climb into it, but I knew if she was as sensitive as a true princess should be, my little test would work perfectly.

The next morning, we all gathered for breakfast. The princess looked pale and tired. I tried to hide my excitement as I asked her, 'And did you sleep well, my dear?' 'Oh, dreadfully!' she said with a sigh. 'I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. 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. It has been a terrible night!' A hush fell over the breakfast table. The Prince looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes. I couldn't help but smile. My plan had worked! I knew at once that she must be a real princess, because nobody but a real princess could have such delicate skin and be so sensitive as to feel a tiny pea through twenty mattresses and twenty eiderdown quilts. It was the proof I had been looking for. This wasn't just any girl who had stumbled out of the storm; she had the true, unmistakable sensitivity of royal blood.

So the Prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess. He was the happiest I had ever seen him. And as for the pea, it wasn't thrown away. Oh no, it was put into the royal museum, where you might still see it today, if no one has stolen it. This story, first written down on May 8th, 1835, by the wonderful Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, became famous all over the world. It wasn't just a funny story about a bed and a pea. It was a way to think about how true worth and character are not always what you see on the outside. Sometimes, the most important qualities, like kindness and sensitivity, are hidden deep inside. The story reminds us to look beyond appearances and to understand that even the smallest things can reveal the biggest truths. Today, this tale continues to inspire plays, books, and dreams, encouraging us all to be a little more sensitive to the world and to the people around us, proving that a good story, like a true princess, never loses its charm.