The Princess and the Pea

There was once a prince who wished very much to marry a real princess. He traveled through many lands and visited many castles. He met ladies in silks and jewels, and some were called princesses by everyone around them. Yet each time he returned home with a small doubt in his heart. Something was missing, though he could not always say what it was.

One evening a terrible storm broke over the castle. The sky was black, lightning flashed, and rain ran down the walls and steps. In the midst of the thunder there came a knocking at the town gate. The old king went to open it, and there stood a young woman drenched from head to foot. Water streamed from her hair and cloak, but she stood upright and said that she was a princess.

The queen said little. She did not argue, and she did not laugh. Instead she went quietly to the bedchamber and placed a single pea upon the bedstead. Over it she laid twenty mattresses, and over those twenty eider-down beds. The bed rose high and soft like a white hill, and the young woman was invited to sleep upon it.

In the morning they asked how she had rested. “Oh, very badly,” she said. “I hardly closed my eyes. There was something hard in the bed, and I am bruised all over.” Then the queen knew that the guest must be a true princess, for no one else could have felt a pea through so many layers of softness.

So the prince married her, and the pea was put in a cabinet, where it might still be seen if no one has taken it away. The tale smiles as it is told, yet it also suggests that delicate feeling can be real and worthy of care.