Household Tales · Chapter
The Two Kings' Children explained
A king's son, fated to be killed by a stag, is instead captured by a giant who sets him three nightly trials with his daughters.
What happens
A king's son, fated to be killed by a stag, is instead captured by a giant who sets him three nightly trials with his daughters. With the help of the youngest princess and magical earth-workers, he completes impossible tasks of clearing a forest, building a castle, and cleaning a fishpond. After fleeing together and using transformations to evade the king, the prince forgets her due to a sleeping potion, but she ultimately wins him back through a walnut dress ruse, leading to their wedding and the exile of the false bride.
Themes in this chapter
Transformation and Redemption
The prince and princess repeatedly transform into a briar, rose, church, priest, and fishpond to escape, and the prince is redeemed after forgetting his beloved.
Promises and Their Consequences
The king's conditional promises to give his daughter in marriage lead to a series of trials and eventual elopement.
Magic and the Supernatural
Magical earth-workers, stone statues that answer calls, and enchanted walnuts with dresses drive the plot.
Characters to notice
- the young King
The king's son who is captured by a giant and must complete tasks to win a bride.
- the princess
The youngest daughter of the giant king who helps the prince with magic and later wins him back.
- the king
The giant king who sets impossible tasks and pursues the fleeing couple.
- the queen
The queen who advises the king on how to recapture the couple and later locks the prince's door.
- the servant
The servant who gives the prince a sleeping drink but later helps him stay awake.
Key passages
“There was once on a time a King who had a little boy of whom it had been foretold that he should be killed by a stag when he was sixteen years of age”
A king had a son whose fate was to be killed by a stag at sixteen.
Sets up the prophecy that leads to the prince's capture.
“I have already ruined six pairs of glass skates with running after thee, and have not been able to get thee.”
The giant says he has worn out six pairs of glass skates chasing the prince.
Highlights the giant's persistence and magical elements.
“Then the stone image of St. Christopher nodded its head quite quickly, and then more and more slowly till at last it stood still.”
The stone statue of St. Christopher nodded quickly at first, then slower until it stopped.
Illustrates the magical assistance for the nightly trials.
“I will at once change thee into a briar, and myself into a rose, and I will shelter myself in the midst of the bush.”
The princess transforms the prince into a briar and herself into a rose to hide from her father.
Key transformation used to escape pursuit.
“She had had the forest cut down for him, she had had the fishpond cleaned out for him, she had had the castle built for him, she had changed him into a briar, and then into a church, and at last into a fishpond, and yet he had forgotten her so quickly.”
The maiden lamented all she had done for the prince, yet he forgot her.
Shows her sacrifice and his forgetfulness due to the sleeping potion.