The Twelve Dancing Princesses
A king suspects that his twelve daughters go dancing every night… and a young prince takes on the challenge to discover them.
There was a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. They slept on twelve beds in one room, and when they went to bed, the door was closed; but every morning, it was found that their shoes were quite as worn out as if they had been dancing all night, yet no one could find out how it happened, or where they had been.
The king immediately announced to the whole country that if anyone could discover the secret and find where the princesses danced at night, that person would choose the person he liked the most as his wife and would become king. After death, whoever tries and fails will be put to death after three days and nights.
A king’s son soon arrived. He was very cheerfully entertained and, in the evening, was taken to the room next to the room where the princesses lay on their twelve beds. There he sat and watched where they went to dance, and so that nothing could pass unheard by him, the door of his room was left open. But the king’s son soon fell asleep, and when he woke up in the morning, he found the princesses all dancing because the soles of their shoes were full of holes. On the second and third nights, as well, the king ordered him to be beheaded. After him came several others, but they were all equally lucky and all lost their lives in the same way.
By chance, an old soldier, injured in battle and unable to fight anymore, passed through the country where this king ruled. As he was walking through a forest, he met an older woman who asked him where he was. Walking.
“I hardly know where I’m going or what I’d better do,” the soldier said. ‘but I think I’d love to find out where the princesses dance, and then maybe I’ll be a king.’
“Oh,” said the old woman, “that is not a very difficult task: just take care not to drink any of the wine that one of the princesses will bring you in the evening, and as soon as she leaves, you pretend to be fast asleep.’
Then she gave him a cloak and said:
‘As soon as you put it on, you will become invisible, and then you can follow the princesses wherever they go.’
When the soldier heard this excellent advice, he determined to try his luck, so he went to the king and said he was ready to undertake the task.
He was as well received as the others, and the king ordered that beautiful royal robes be given to him; when night fell, he was led into the outer room. Just as he was about to lie down, the eldest princess brought him a cup of wine, but the soldier secretly threw it all away, being careful not to drink a drop. He then lay down on the bed and, after a while, started snoring loudly as if he was fast asleep.
The twelve princesses heard this and laughed loudly, and the eldest said, ‘This fellow might well have done a wiser thing than to lose his life in this way!’
Then they stood up, opened the drawers and boxes, took out all the beautiful clothes, dressed before the glass, and jumped about as if they were eager to start dancing.
But the youngest said:
‘I don’t know what it is; while you are having such fun, I feel very uncomfortable. I’m sure some mishaps will happen to us.”
“You fool,” said the eldest, “you are always afraid. Have you forgotten how many of the king’s sons watched in vain? As for this soldier, even if I don’t give him sleeping pills, he still gets enough sleep.”
When they were ready, they went to look at the soldier, but he still snored and did not move his arms or legs, so they thought they were pretty safe; the eldest went up to his bed and clapped his hands, and the bed sank to the floor, and a trap door opened. The soldier saw them descend one by one through the hatch, the eldest leading the way. Thinking that there was no time left, he got up, put on the cloak the older woman had given him, and followed them; but halfway up the stairs, he stepped on the youngest princess’s dress, and she shouted to her sisters:
‘All is not well; Someone grabbed my cloak.”
‘You fool!’ said the eldest, ‘it’s nothing but a nail in the wall.’
Then they all went down, and at the bottom, they found themselves in a most beautiful grove of trees, and the leaves were all silver, sparkling, and sparkling beautifully.
The soldier wanted to take away some of the souvenirs of the place, so he broke off a small branch, and there was a loud noise from the tree.
Then the youngest girl said:
‘I’m sure it’s not okay – didn’t you hear that noise? That has never happened before.”
But the eldest said:
‘Only our princes shouted with joy at our approach.’
Then they came to another grove, where all the leaves were of gold, and the third part, where the leaves were all sparkling diamonds. The soldier broke off a branch from each man, and every time there was a loud noise, the youngest girl trembled with fear, but the eldest still said only princes cry with joy. So they went on until they came to a large lake, and at the edge of the lake, there were twelve little boats with twelve handsome princes on them, who seemed to be waiting there for the princesses.
One of the princesses entered each boat, and the soldier entered the same boat as the youngest. When they were rowing on the lake, the prince was in the boat with the youngest princess, and the soldier said:
‘I don’t know why it is, but although I am rowing with all my might, we are not going as fast as usual, and I am quite tired: the boat seems too heavy today.’
“It’s just the hot weather,” said the princess: “I feel hot too.”
Across the lake was a beautiful illuminated castle, from which came the merry sounds of trumpets and horns. There they all landed and entered the castle, each prince dancing with his princess; and the soldier, who was always invisible, also danced with them; and when she offered any princess a cup of wine, he would drink it all so that when she brought the cup to her mouth, it was empty. At this time, the youngest girl was also terrified, but her older sister was always silent.
They danced until three in the morning; their shoes were worn out, so they were forced to leave. The princes rowed back to the lake again (but this time, the soldier placed himself in the boat with the eldest princess), and on the other side, they parted, the princesses promising to return the next night.
When they reached the stairs, the soldier ran before the princesses and lay down, and as the twelve tired sisters gradually ascended, they heard him snoring on the bed, so they said, ‘It’s quite safe now.’ Then they undressed, put away their nice clothes, took off their shoes, and went to bed.
In the morning, the soldier said nothing of what had happened but resolved to learn more about this strange adventure and went again on the second and third night, and everything happened as before. The princesses always dance until their shoes are worn to pieces before returning home. However, on the third night, the soldier carried away one of the golden cups to mark where he had been.
When the time came to declare the secret, he was brought before the king with three branches and a golden cup, and the twelve princesses stood behind the door, listening to see what he would say. And when the king asked him,
‘Where do my twelve daughters dance at night?’
He replied,
‘With twelve princes in an underground castle.’
Then he told the king everything that had happened and showed him the three branches and the golden cup he had brought. Then the king called the princesses and asked them if what the soldier said was true. When they saw they had been discovered and there was no point in denying what had happened, they confessed everything. The king asked the soldier which of them he would choose to be his wife, and he replied: ‘I’m not very young, so I’ll take the eldest.
And they were married that very day and the soldier was chosen as the king’s heir.
