George MacDonald

The Princess and the Goblin George MacDonald

Princess Irene lives with her nurse, Lootie, and other servants in a large, old castle/farmhouse on a mountainside. In the mountains surrounding the house are mines worked by such men as Curdie (12 years old) and his father. There are also subterranean caves and caverns where goblins live, goblins who bear a grudge against the 'sun people' because they took the land above ground from them. The servants in the castle know about the goblins; they are never to let the princess be out after dark. One rainy day Princess Irene explores the house alone and discovers an unknown staircase that leads up several flights to a room where a beautiful old lady is spinning. She is Irene's great, great grandmother, Irene, a lady of undetermined age, who had given her name to the princess and, unknown to anyone in the castle, has come to take care of her. She is spinning a ball of thread for Irene. The princess returns downstairs, eager to tell Lootie about her grandmother. Lootie says she imagined her and, as Irene fails to find her grandmother the next time she looks for the stairs, she wonders if this is true. Irene and Lootie stay out after dark while out walking and Curdie rescues them from goblins with his songs, for goblins are repulsed by music and rhymes. Irene succeeds in finding her grandmother the next time she tries and receives from her the ball of the thread she has been spinning. Curdie discovers by working late the goblins' plot to kidnap the princess, wedding her to the goblin prince. He also discovers that the goblins' weakness is their feet, unprotected by shoes. Curdie is captured while learning all this. Following the thread that her grandmother has woven, Irene reaches Curdie in the goblins' cave and frees him. He cannot see the thread that guides Irene, nor does he see her grandmother when they eventually reach the castle. He leaves in anger because he thinks she is making a fool of him. He talks with his parents about this and his mother cautions him that just because he does not understand something is no reason to say that it isn't true. The goblins' attack is defeated by Curdie and the King's guards while Irene sleeps soundly at Curdie's house where her grandmother's thread has led her.