Short Fiction · Chapter
XIII: Here I Am explained
The king despairs of finding a volunteer to sacrifice himself to save the princess, who lies dying.
What happens
The king despairs of finding a volunteer to sacrifice himself to save the princess, who lies dying. The prince, having been away, learns of the oracle and resolves to offer himself, bargaining that the princess may accompany him during his slow drowning. The king reluctantly agrees, and the hole in the lake is discovered.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Divine Chastening
The prince's willingness to endure a slow drowning for the princess's sake reflects a sacrificial suffering that echoes divine chastening.
Family and Sacrificial Love
The prince's self-offering for the princess, whom he loves, exemplifies sacrificial love, though not strictly familial.
Characters to notice
- Prince
The prince, disguised as a shoeblack, volunteers to sacrifice himself by plugging the leak in the lake, bargaining for the princess's company during his drowning.
- The Princess
The princess lies motionless, taking only lake-water, and is the reason for the king's desperate search for a volunteer.
- King Ralph
The king, frustrated by the lack of volunteers, initially rages at the prince but eventually grants his condition for the sacrifice.
Key passages
“She will die if I don’t do it, and life would be nothing to me without her; so I shall lose nothing by doing it.”
The prince reasons that since life without the princess is meaningless, sacrificing himself to save her is no real loss.
The prince's internal justification for his self-sacrifice.
“I will cork your big bottle.”
The prince offers to plug the leak in the lake, using a metaphor of a bottle stopper.
The prince's nonchalant declaration to the king about his plan.
“that, as I must on no account die before I am fairly drowned, and the waiting will be rather wearisome, the princess, your daughter, shall go with me, feed me with her own hands, and look at me now and then, to comfort me”
The prince stipulates that the princess must accompany him during his slow drowning, feeding him and offering comfort until the water reaches his eyes.
The condition the prince sets for his sacrifice.