The Princess and the Goblin

At this stage of life I didn't think I was a big fan of fairy tales. That's something you grow out of, right? Well this spring I was scrolling and learned about one I hadn't heard of before. It's called The Princess and the Goblin and written by George MacDonald, a Scottish author and minister, and was published in 1872. Apparently this tale had a huge influence on C.S. Lewis and that knowledge was good enough for me to have some interest. MacDonald was mentor to Lewis Carroll as well, writer of the original Alice in Wonderland stories.

The Princess and the Goblin got added to my ever-growing list of books to hunt, typically at used book stores and the like. It wasn't at the Half Price Books near me and I figured I'd find it eventually but wasn't in a big rush. I'm always looking for options to read to the kids but have plenty. It's such an old story too so I thought stumbling upon it was unlikely. Then up in Alaska, during our trip in July, there it sat on the bookshelf at my in-laws house. They've always had a nice collection for their kids to read, they homeschool, but this was definitely one I did not expect to see. I grabbed it and started reading immediately, and finished it before our five days there or whatever it was were up.

This is longer than many of the old fairy tales you'll find in a typical collection, like those from Hans Christian Andersen. It's a little over 100 pages in the printing I read (on Wikipedia and Amazon it's listed as ~200-300). Yet the style is similar. The setting is simple to describe, a faraway medieval kingdom. Its king is a busy man, always moving about to see his people, and his daughter the princess is growing up in a lonely castle on a mountain. The main characters are all pretty straightforward. There's the curious and bold eight year old princess who's a bit naive as to the ways of her world. There's her nanny, who's all too familiar with her task and potential nearby dangers. There's the 12 year old miner boy who's terrifically capable and courageous and indispensable.

The beauty of this story is the more complex plot, it's a proper novel. First of all the mountain near the castle is home to a whole race of goblins, creatures that used to be men that live underground and have over time been warped into something a tad grotesque. They even have pets that are also demented and vary wildly in shape. The goblins are, at first, described as untrustworthy and devious (you could say tricksy) and it's wasn't obvious to me whether or not they're truly evil. But the people who live in the castle, the nanny certainly, are afraid of them. The princess doesn't know of their existence and why she always needs to be inside well before dark. One beautiful day the giddy princess is having so much fun they mistakenly stay out too long and only make it back with some help from the boy. But that's only the introduction.

One day, the princess Irene takes a chance to explore a part of the castle she's didn't know existed. She finds herself climbing a staircase and inside an unfamiliar tower. There she meets an old woman, one who lives all alone and works all day on a loom. The woman says she's the princess's great-great grandmother, and shares her name. The princess later questions whether or not this all really happened.

Meanwhile the goblins are scheming. They do not like how they are viewed and are making plans to strike back at the humans above, perhaps take for themselves a hostage of great import. They're smarter than you might think, with unique personalities. The miner boy, Curdie, discovers these aims and single-handedly tries to prevent them, sacrificing his nights and sleep in the process. I'm not going to spoil what happens from then on out.

I will say I loved it. It's clearly an older-style story, a little raw, and I had no idea where it was going to go. Part of this was my reading with modern, less trustful eyes. The great-great grandmother to me seemed of questionable integrity. But she operated in every way as a fairy godmother, or a guardian angel, and I should've known when the princess mentioned her to the king and the resulting twinkle in his eye. I also didn't know what to think of the goblins themselves. They were I thought written as if the audience was familiar with them and even so they took a turn for the worse. Regardless it's clear where Tolkien's orcs developed from, especially considering they are only referred to as 'goblins' in his first (published) story, the Hobbit. Discovering those kind of connections is fun. This is cultural tradition, out of which came my favorite stories, going further back than I'd gone before.

More than anything I think I loved the basic and yet full characters, most of all Irene and Curdie. They're clever, full of spirit and, as well, good and pure. There's no moral grayness, no qualms about what's right or wrong. And that's enough.

So, it turns out, I do still like fairy tales. Good old ones at least. I want to get this book for our family and read it again, aloud. There's a lot more MacDonald to explore too. I'm excited to check them out.