The Twelve Dancing Princesses Page #2

The Twelve Dancing Princesses is a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm about twelve princesses who mysteriously wear out their shoes every night. Their father, the king, desperate to find out their secret, promises that anyone who can solve the mystery will marry a princess and inherit the kingdom. A soldier, with the help of an old woman, discovers that the princesses sneak out each night to dance with twelve princes in an enchanted underground castle. He reveals the truth to the king, and according to the king's promise, marries the eldest princess.

• Children

								

soldier said nothing about what had happened, but determined to see more
of this strange adventure, and went again the second and third night;
and every thing happened just as before; the princesses danced each time
till their shoes were worn to pieces, and then returned home. However,
on the third night the soldier carried away one of the golden cups as a
token of where he had been.

As soon as the time came when he was to declare the secret, he was taken
before the king with the three branches and the golden cup; and the
twelve princesses stood listening behind the door to hear what he would
say. And when the king asked him. ‘Where do my twelve daughters dance at
night?’ he answered, ‘With twelve princes in a castle under ground.’ And
then he told the king all that had happened, and showed him the three
branches and the golden cup which he had brought with him. Then the king
called for the princesses, and asked them whether what the soldier said
was true: and when they saw that they were discovered, and that it was
of no use to deny what had happened, they confessed it all. And the king
asked the soldier which of them he would choose for his wife; and he
answered, ‘I am not very young, so I will have the eldest.’--And they
were married that very day, and the soldier was chosen to be the king’s
heir.
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