The Princess and the “Pea”
My name is Queen Damiana and I have been queen of the lands
of Catalán for over a decade. I am here today to tell you how I
became queen of this beautiful land. It all began with my husband who was then
known as Prince Roberto Gonzalez-Cabello and he had been longing for a wife for
many years. He searched far and wide to find the perfect princess bride, but he
could not be certain of whether or not the women he was visiting were truly princesses.
I was raised in a rural, impoverished region of Catalán, but
I have a remarkable wit and intelligence if I must say so myself. One day, I
was walking from our farm with this years harvest to the capital’s market and
while I reached the city gates it began to torrentially downpour with rain. I
walked up to the closest door I could see through the thick veil of rain and I
knocked on it until someone opened the door. However, when the door opened and
I saw Prince Roberto open the door I was in shock and awe. The prince looked at
me as if he had never laid eyes on another woman, and I instantly felt a fire
alight inside. However, Queen Adele asked me who I was and I don’t know what
happened, but the first thing that I could think of was to tell the queen that
I was a princess. The queen looked at me and I could tell by her look of
disgust that she did not believe a single word from my mouth and from that
moment on I wanted to prove her wrong. I knew that if I could convince the
queen that I was a princess then I could marry her strikingly handsome son. The
queen invited me to stay the night and left with a smirk that showed me she
would find a way to test me.
I walked into the room they allowed me to sleep in and when
I looked up I saw a bed with twenty-five mattresses and fifteen down comforters
placed upon the bed frame. I knew the moment that I saw it this was the test of
the queen and when they shut the door I immediately searched the bed and found
a small stone that looked like a pea in the middle of the bed. I had always
heard tales of how a princess could feel even a misplaced feather on her bed
and that they would not be able to sleep due to all of the pampering they
received. So I knew this was the queen’s way of testing to see whether or not I
was a phony. I stayed awake all night and kept rolling off the bed so that I
could receive a few bruises.
With a smile on her face the queen opened the door and was
shocked to see I was wide-awake. She
asked how I slept and I showed her the bruises that had formed on my body and I
could see the disbelief in her eyes. The queen went and told the prince that I
was in fact a true princess and he rushed into the hall, as I was about to
leave. He grabbed me by the hand and from that moment on it all seemed to be a
dream. We were soon married and had a beautiful son named Julian and a daughter
named Eleana. I may have tricked the prince and queen into believing I was a
princess, but I have been able to use all of my experiences from my upbringing
to help and make Catalán a happy place for all. Now make sure you never tell my
story or I risk the chance of being accused of treason and exiled from my
homeland.
Author’s Note:
For this story I used the story The Princess and the Pea by
Hans Christian Andersen. In the original story the prince was looking for a
bride, but could not find one. However, one rainy night a woman arrived at
their castle and claimed to be a princess. The queen did have a pea placed
under a large amount of mattresses and comforters in order to test if the woman
was truly a princess. That night the woman could not sleep due to the pea under
all of the mattresses showing that she was truly a princess. However, I decided
to change the story to show how the woman tricked the queen into thinking she
was a princess.
Bibliography: Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian
Andersen, translated by H.P. Paull (1872).
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