The Princess and the Pea

A prince searches the whole world for a real princess, and one stormy night a soaking-wet girl knocks at the city gate and says she is one. The old queen hides a single pea under twenty mattresses and twenty eider-down beds, and in the morning the princess has not slept a wink.

Scene 1: A Real Princess

The Princess and the Pea. Once upon a time, there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess. But she would have to be a real princess. He traveled all over the world to find one. There were princesses enough, but there was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.

Scene 2: A Knock in the Storm

One evening, a terrible storm came on. There was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly, there was a knocking at the city gate, and the old king went to open it. It was a princess, standing out there in front of the gate. But good gracious! What a sight the rain and the wind had made her look! The water ran down from her hair and clothes. It ran into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said: “I am a real princess.”

Scene 3: Twenty Mattresses

The old queen thought: “Well, we’ll soon find that out.” But she said nothing. She went into the bedroom and took all the bedding off the bed. Then she laid a pea on the bottom. On the pea she laid twenty mattresses, and on top of the mattresses, twenty eider-down beds. On this, the princess had to lie all night.

Scene 4: Black and Blue

In the morning, they asked her how she had slept. The princess said: “Oh, very badly! I have scarcely closed my eyes all night.” She went on: “Heaven only knows what was in the bed! I was lying on something hard, and now I am black and blue all over.”

Scene 5: A True Story

Now they knew that she was a real princess. She had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds. Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that. So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess. And the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it. There, that is a true story.

Moral: You cannot always tell who someone really is from how they look at the door.

Questions about The Princess and the Pea

More stories to read aloud

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• Hansel and Gretel — Left in the forest, Hansel and Gretel find their way home by moonlit white pebbles, but the next time birds eat their breadcrumbs and they come to a house of bread and cake.
• Henny Penny — An acorn falls on Henny-penny's head, and she is sure the sky is falling, so she sets off to tell the king with Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey and Turkey-lurkey.