”The Princess and the Pea” is a timeless fairy tale that continues to captivate readers of all ages. Though seemingly simple, the story offers several layers of interpretation and provides valuable insights into human nature and societal values.

Text | A new fresh translation

Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

The Princess and the Pea | Prindsessen paa Ærten (1835)

Translation by © Henrik Frederiksen | Founder Elephanttribe.org with the assistance of Google Translate and AI

Once upon a time there was a prince; he wanted a princess, but it had to be a real princess. To find one, he traveled all over the world, but everywhere there was something in the way. There were plenty of princesses, but if they were real princesses, he couldn’t quite tell, there was always something that wasn’t quite right. Upon his return, he was so sad, because his greatest wish was to have a real princess.

One evening, the weather was terrible; it was lightning and thunder, the rain poured down, it was quite terrifying! Then there was a knock at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.

It was a princess who was standing outside. Goodness, what a sight she was in all that rain and awful weather! Water streamed down her hair and clothes, pouring into the toe of her shoe and out of the heel, and then she said that she was a real princess.

“Yes, we will find out!” thought the old queen, but she said nothing, went into the bedroom, took off all the bedclothes and laid a pea on the bottom of the bed, then she took twenty mattresses, laid them on top of the pea, and then twenty more goose down duvets on top of the mattresses.

There the princess was to lie at night.

In the morning they asked her how she had slept.

“Oh, terribly badly!” said the princess, “I have hardly closed my eyes all night! God only knows what was in that bed? I have been lying on something hard, so that I am quite brown and blue all over my body! It is quite dreadful!”

Then they could see that it was a real princess, because she had felt the pea through the twenty mattresses and the twenty goose down duvets. No one could be so tender-skinned, except a real princess.

The prince then took her to wife, because now he knew that he had a real princess, and the pea was placed in the treasure room, where it can still be seen, that is if no one has taken it.

You see, that was a really great story!