# The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces explained — Household Tales

> Chapter companion for Household Tales by Jacob Grimm.

## What happens

A king's twelve daughters mysteriously wear out their shoes each night. Many princes fail to discover their secret and are executed. A wounded soldier, aided by an old woman who gives him an invisibility cloak, follows the princesses to an underground castle where they dance with twelve princes. He collects tokens, reveals the truth to the king, and marries the eldest princess.

## Themes in this chapter

### Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished

The soldier's cleverness and perseverance are rewarded with marriage and kingship, while the princesses' secret dancing is exposed and the princes are bewitched.

### Magic and the Supernatural

The invisibility cloak, the underground castle, and the bewitched princes highlight the magical elements that drive the plot.

### Promises and Their Consequences

The king's proclamation sets a deadly challenge; the soldier's successful discovery fulfills the promise of reward.

## Character check-ins

### the princess

The eldest princess leads her sisters in nightly dances and gives the soldier a sleeping draught.

### the young King

The king who offers his daughter's hand and kingdom to whoever discovers the princesses' secret.

### the soldier

A poor wounded soldier who uses an invisibility cloak to follow the princesses and solve the mystery.

### the stranger

The old woman who provides the soldier with advice and the invisibility cloak.

## Key lines

> But in the morning when he unlocked the door, he saw that their shoes were worn out with dancing, and no one could find out how that had come to pass.

Each morning, the king found the princesses' shoes completely worn out from dancing, but no one could explain how it happened.

_Establishes the central mystery of the story._

> Then the King caused it to be proclaimed that whosoever could discover where they danced at night, should choose one of them for his wife and be King after his death, but that whosoever came forward and had not discovered it within three days and nights, should have forfeited his life.

The king announced that anyone who could find out where the princesses danced would marry one of them and inherit the kingdom, but failure within three days meant death.

_Sets the stakes for the suitors._

> With that she gave him a little cloak, and said, 'If you put on that, you will be invisible, and then you can steal after the twelve.'

The old woman gave him a small cloak that made him invisible, allowing him to follow the princesses unseen.

_Key magical aid that enables the soldier's success._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters/the-shoes-that-were-danced-to-pieces
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters