The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen Once upon a time,
There was a prince who wanted to marry a princess.
But she would have to be a real princess.
He traveled all over the world to find one.
But nowhere could he get what he wanted.
There were princesses enough,
But it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones.
There was always something about them that was not as it should be.
So he came home again and was sad,
For he would have liked very much to have a real princess.
One evening,
A terrible storm came on.
There was thunder and lightning,
And the rain poured down in torrents.
Suddenly,
A knocking was heard at the city gate,
And the old king went to open it.
It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate.
But good gracious,
What a sight the rain and the wind had made her look.
The water ran down from her hair and clothes.
It ran down to the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels.
And yet she said that she was a real princess.
Well,
We'll soon find that out,
Thought the old queen.
But she said nothing,
Went into the bedroom,
Took all the bedding off the bed stand,
And lay a pea on the bottom.
Then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea,
And then twenty eiderdown beds on top of the mattresses.
On this the princess had to lie all night.
In the morning she was asked how she had slept.
Oh,
Very badly,
Said she.
I have scarcely closed my eyes all night.
Heaven only knows what was in the bed.
But I was lying on something hard,
So that I am black and blue all over my body.
It's horrible.
Now they knew that she was a real princess,
Because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eiderdown beds.
Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.
So the prince took her for his wife,
For now he knew that he had a real princess.
And the pea was put in a museum,
Where it may still be seen,
If no one has stolen it.
There,
That is a true story.
And that is the end of our story this evening.
Until next time,
Sweet dreams.
