The Princess and the Goblin
The
Princess and the Goblin is a
children's fantasy
novel by George MacDonald.
It was published in 1872 by Strahan & Co., with black-and-white
illustrations by Arthur Hughes.
Strahan had published the story and illustrations as a serial in the monthly
magazine Good Words for the Young, beginning November 1870.[2]
Anne
Thaxter Eaton writes in A Critical History of Children's Literature that
The Princess and the Goblin and its sequel "quietly suggest in
every incident ideas of courage and honor."[3] Jeffrey Holdaway, in the New Zealand Art Monthly,
said that both books start out as "normal fairytales but slowly become stranger", and that they contain
layers of symbolism similar to that of Lewis
Carroll's work.[4]
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith,
1920
From The Princess and the Goblin
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920
Summary
Eight-year-old
Princess Irene lives a lonely life in a castle in a wild, desolate, mountainous
kingdom, with only her nursemaid, Lootie, for company. Her father, the king, is
normally absent, and her mother is dead. Unknown to her, the nearby mines are
inhabited by a race of goblins,
long banished from the kingdom and now anxious to take revenge on their human
neighbours. One rainy day, the princess explores the castle and discovers a
beautiful, mysterious lady, who identifies herself as Irene's namesake and
great-great-grandmother. The next day, Princess Irene persuades her nursemaid
to take her outside. After dark they are chased by goblins and rescued by the
young miner, Curdie, whom Irene befriends. At work with the rest of the miners,
Curdie overhears the goblins talking, and their conversation reveals to Curdie
the secret weakness of goblin anatomy: they have very soft, vulnerable feet.
Curdie sneaks into the Great Hall of the goblin palace to eavesdrop on their
general meeting, and hears that the goblins intend to flood the mine if a
certain other part of their plan should fail. He later conveys this news to his
father. In the palace, Princess Irene injures her hand, which her
great-great-grandmother heals. A week later Irene is about to see her
great-great-grandmother again, but is frightened by a long-legged cat and
escapes up the mountain; whereupon the light from her great-great-grandmother's
tower leads her home, where her great-great-grandmother gives Irene a ring
attached to a thread invisible except to herself, which thereafter connects her
constantly to home.
When
Curdie explores the goblins' domain, he is discovered by the goblins and stamps
on their feet with great success; but when he tries to stamp on the Queen's
feet she is uninjured due to her stone shoes. The goblins imprison Curdie,
thinking he will die of starvation; but Irene's magic thread leads her to his
rescue, and Curdie steals one of the goblin queen's stone shoes. Irene takes
Curdie to see her great-great-grandmother and be introduced; but she is only
visible to Irene. Curdie later learns that the goblins are digging a tunnel in
the mines towards the king's palace, where they plan to abduct the Princess and
marry her to goblin prince Harelip. Curdie warns the palace guards about this,
but is imprisoned instead and contracts a fever through a wound in his leg,
until Irene's great-great-grandmother heals the wound. Meanwhile, the goblins
break through the palace floor and come to abduct the princess; but Curdie
escapes from his prison room and stamps on the goblins' feet. Upon the goblins'
retreat, Irene is believed a captive; but Curdie follows the magic thread to
her refuge at his own house, and restores her to the king. When the goblins
flood the mines, the water enters the palace, and Curdie warns the others; but
the goblins are drowned. The king asks him to serve as a bodyguard; but Curdie
refuses, saying he cannot leave his mother and father, and instead accepts a
new red petticoat for his mother, as a reward.
Film adaptations
In
the 1960s, the novel was adapted in animated form by Jay
Ward for his Fractured Fairy Tales series. This version involved a race of innocent goblins
who are forced to live underground. The goblin king falls in love with a
princess, but a prince saves her by reciting poetry because goblins hate it.
A
full-length animated
adaptation of the book, directed
by József Gémes, was released in 1992 in the United Kingdom, and in June 1994
in the United States. This Hungary/Wales/Japan co-production, created at Budapest's PannóniaFilm, Japan's NHK,
and S4C and Siriol Productions
in Great Britain, starred the voices of Joss
Ackland, Claire
Bloom, William
Hootkins and Rik
Mayall.[5] The film's producer, Robin Lyons, also wrote the screenplay
and voiced the Goblin King. However, it was not well received commercially nor
critically upon its US release from Hemdale Film Corporation in summer 1994, reportedly grossing only $1.8 million
domestically and receiving mainly negative reviews (compared to Disney's very
successful The Lion King
that was released during the same month in the United States).
The
film's title is "De Prinses van het Zonnevolk" in Dutch (English: The
Princess of the Sun-people), "Prinsessan og durtarnir" in Icelandic
(The Princess and the Trolls), and "La princesse et la forêt magique"
(The princess and the magic forest) in French.
Other adaptations
- The Princess and the Goblins is also a poem by Sylvia Plath (1932–1963).
- Shirley Temple played Princess Irene in a production on an episode of her television show. Although the plot follows the basic outline of Macdonald's story, it glosses over the darker elements and is played primarily as comedy. Irene and Curdie are portrayed as young adults instead of children (with hints of a budding romance), and the goblins are forgiven their evil deeds and reform.
- It was a book in the "100 Classic Books" collection for the Nintendo DS.
- Twyla Tharp used the story in the full-length ballet of the same title. It was her first to incorporate children and was co-commissioned by Atlanta Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 2012.[6]
Legacy
- J. R. R. Tolkien's depictions of goblins within Tolkien's legendarium was heavily influenced by the goblins within The Princess and the Goblin Tolkien 2003, pp. 108.
- In C. S. Lewis' novel That Hideous Strength, Elwin Ransom says that he lives 'like the king in Curdie', and later in the novel, Jane Studdock reads the 'Curdie books'.
References
· WorldCat library records report "twelve
full-page illustrations in colour, and thirty text illustrations in black and
white", presumably from the title page; and 308 pages, 12 plates: OCLC 1114809890, OCLC 16568450. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
Probably the 12 colour illustrations are by a new artist and the 30 black-and-white are those by Hughes from the original serial and book publications, both uncredited in this edition. Other publishers created new editions thus, with artwork credited. For instance, J. B. Lippincott used new colour illustrations by Maria L. Kirk in 1907, OCLC 1582102.
Probably the 12 colour illustrations are by a new artist and the 30 black-and-white are those by Hughes from the original serial and book publications, both uncredited in this edition. Other publishers created new editions thus, with artwork credited. For instance, J. B. Lippincott used new colour illustrations by Maria L. Kirk in 1907, OCLC 1582102.
· · The Princess and the
Goblin title listing at the Internet Speculative
Fiction Database. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
·
Eaton, Anne Thaxter (1969). Meigs, Cornelia (ed.). A Critical History
of Children's Literature. Macmillan. p. 200. ISBN 0-02-583900-4.
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