Fairy tale · 声匠改编 · 3:29
The Princess and the Pea
A soaking-wet girl at the gate says she's a princess. The queen has a test: one tiny pea under twenty mattresses. Andersen's classic, retold for bedtime.
Narrator
The Prince
The Old Queen
The King
The Princess
Higgins, the Royal ButlerAbout this story
The Princess and the Pea is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, first published in Copenhagen in 1835 in his very first booklet of fairy tales. Andersen said it was a story he had heard as a child. This retelling keeps the storm, the twenty mattresses and the pea in the museum, and adds a long-suffering royal butler and a princess who is honest even when it's awkward.
What it teaches
Real worth doesn't depend on fine clothes or a grand arrival; sooner or later it shows. This version also cheers the princess's honesty: she tells the truth about a bad night even when being polite would be easier.
Suits
Ages 3–8
Tips for telling it
- Stack cushions on the sofa, hide a pea underneath, and see who can feel it.
- Count the mattresses together as Higgins piles them up.
- Ask your child: what makes someone a real princess, or a real friend?
Questions people ask
- What is the moral of The Princess and the Pea?
- True nature shows itself, whatever someone looks like on the outside. Many readers also see Andersen gently poking fun at royal fussiness.
- How many mattresses are in The Princess and the Pea?
- Twenty mattresses, with twenty eiderdown quilts piled on top, all over a single pea. The princess still feels it and wakes up black and blue.
- Who wrote The Princess and the Pea?
- Hans Christian Andersen, who published it in 1835 in his first collection, Fairy Tales Told for Children. He said he had heard the story as a child.
Theater
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Borrowing Arrows with Straw Boats
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Zhou Yu sets a trap: 100,000 arrows in ten days. Kongming asks for three, waits for fog, and lets Cao Cao pay. Same cast as the Chinese episode.
The North Wind and the Sun
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The boastful North Wind and the gentle Sun bet on who can make a traveler take off his cloak. Aesop's fable of why warmth wins where force fails, retold.
