Week 13 Storytelling: The Princess and the Pea

Once upon a time there was a prince. He really wanted to marry a true princess, but it was hard to find out if the princess was really a princess, or if she was a fake princess. He traveled all of the lands in search of a real princess with no luck. Every one that he ran into was not a real princess. He had almost given up hope but then his mother came up with a great idea.

She said that only a true princess could eat one thousand peas. The prince knew that this was a great idea so he decided to hold a contest and invite all of the princesses from all around the land. He sent out invitations to over fifty princesses in order to get as many as possible as he could. The contest would be held on a cool spring day.  

The day was finally here, and over forty of the fifty princesses that he invited showed up. They were all talking trash to each other saying who was going to win the contest, because they all wanted to marry this prince. He was the most handsome and noble prince from miles around, and this was there only opportunity to marry him. The contest began and all of the princesses were stuffing their faces with peas. One by one, they began quitting the competitions until only five of the princesses remained. They had all eaten over five hundred peas, which was halfway through the challenge. By the end, of course, only one princess claimed the crown. She was so happy to have completed the challenge.

A picture of peas similar to those the princesses ate. Web source: Wikipedia

The prince immediately asked the winning princess to marry him, and she of course obliged. They went off to get married in the most beautiful mountain in the world. After the ceremony, they returned to rule their kingdom as king and queen. The princess would go on to tell the story of how she ate one thousand peas to become the queen. She was the best princess there ever was, and they both lived to be happily ever after. All of the other princesses that were in the contest never went on to be married, for now all other princes knew that they were all not real princesses. Although this is sad for those that failed the competition, it was the only way to truly tell who was real, and who was a phony.

Author's Note:

This story is based off of the original: The Princess and the Pea. In the original story, the prince was still searching for a real princess. He searched everywhere and couldn't find one. So the queen stacked up twenty mattresses on top of a pea, and had the princess sleep on it without knowing that the pea was there. After the night of sleep, the queen asked how she slept. The princess said that she slept horribly because she felt something hard in her bed. This is how they knew she was a true princess. Instead of telling this original story, I decided for all of the princesses to have a pea eating contest instead. I thought this would make the story a little funier, and a little more interesting. 

The original story can be found here:  Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).

Extra Reading Diary: Anderson

The Little Mermaid 

The second part of this unit was all about the little mermaid. I had never read the original story of the little mermaid but I thought it was pretty good. I liked that this was more of a sad story. It definitely reminded me of the little mermaid movie that Disney made. I have always appreciated that movie and it was great to be able to read about the original. It was a very sad story though. This was by far my favorite story in the whole unit, although it was very lengthy. Sometimes it is hard to keep my attention in long stories like this, but I was definitely interested throughout the entire story. The mermaid was definitely my favorite character. It was sad all of the hardships and lies she had to go through, but it still made me happy at the end. 

A statue of a mermaid. Web source: Wikipedia

Sometimes I wish that mermaids are real, so it was cool to think that this was real story, even though it wasn’t. All of the stories throughout this unit were very well written and that is why I liked it so much. I think that this was the best story I have read all semester. I wish that there was more stories by this same person so that I could have the possibility to read more. I will probably look up more on this author and read more in the future.

Reading Diary A: Anderson

The Princess and the Pea: This is about a prince who wants to marry a princess, but it has to be a real princess.  The queen laid a pea at the bottom of twenty mattresses and twenty eider-down beds. The princess slept on them all night then was asked how she slept. She said she slept horribly because she felt something rock-hard in her bed. Since she had felt the pea, the prince knew that she was a real princess and so he married her. I really liked this story, but I thought it was kind of farfetched. It would have been nearly impossible for her to climb up on that many mattresses. Overall I really enjoyed this story.

A princess laying on a bunch of mattresses. Web source: Wikipedia

The Wicked Prince: I really enjoyed the overall flow of this story. I thought it had a lot of good detail throughout the whole thing, which is why I enjoyed it so much. I liked the wicked prince in this story even though he did many bad things. I thought he made the story a lot more interesting because people like there to be evil in the story sometimes. I liked the ending of the story the best. It really tied the whole thing together and made it a great overall story.

The Little Match-Seller: I thought this was a really great story. It was hard to pick my favorites in this unit because I truly enjoyed every story that was written in it. The little match-seller was a great character in this story. I was interested in what was going to happen next throughout the whole thing. I think that the way these stories were written were some of the best written ones in the whole class. This was one of my favorite stories, but I think I liked The Princess and the Pea better.