I became familiar with The Light Princess through a recorded dramatic reading - another treasure located at the local library. It was the second MacDonald fairytale I heard, the first being At the Back of the North Wind. The Light Princess is an easier read than The Golden Key, but it is not the latter's inferior.
The Light Princess begins like so many fairy tales: a kingdom, a king and a queen facing the great dilemma of having no heir, a spell, a prince, even a witch. The king is slightly pompous and comical, and the queen is serious and more sensible. Eventually, the couple are blessed with the birth of their daughter. The story may have been happy but uneventful if the king had not forgotten to invite his spiteful sister, Princess Makemnoit, to the christening. Princess Makemnoit, easily forgotten since she is an awful person, is the instigator of all misery and sorrow that plagues the characters.
To take her revenge for being overlooked, she casts a spell on the princess, depriving the baby girl of all her gravity. The spell and its result are discovered one day when the princess miraculously floats to the ceiling of her nursery, put afloat by the wind coming in through the open window. As the child grows up, her loss of gravity is felt keenly by the entire palace.
The loss of gravity is a horrible condition. Not only can the slightest breath of wind carry the princess away, but she has no gravity of spirit. She knows neither sadness nor sorrow nor anything grave. She laughs often, but even that lacks sincerity.
King John and his queen decide to consult the college of Metaphysicians. The materialist Hum-Drum and the spiritualist Kopy-Keck both try to solve the princess's problem, but the king and queen cannot possibly take their harsh advice. Instead, a temporary solution presents itself when, by accident, the princess discovers that her gravity is restored whenever she is submerged in water. From that day forward, the princess spends all her time swimming in the lake next to the palace.
The hero of the tale - aye, the prince - meets the princess one evening as she is swimming in the lake. She bewitches the prince, and he becomes her devoted admirer. As, however, true love requires some gravity of mind, his love is not returned by the princess, who is light of body, mind, and heart.
Princess Makemnoit learns of the princess's happiness and regained gravity in the lake, and, being the kill-joy that she is, she brings to life a giant serpent to drain the lake of all its water. The princess, who, despite of her loss of gravity, loves the lake. As she watches the water mysteriously drain away, she begins to fade and draw close to death. The king desperately searches for a way to save the lake and thus his daughter. Finally, a message is found in the mud that was once covered by the lake:
"Death alone from death can save.
Love is death, and so is brave -
Love can fill the deepest grave.
Love loves on beneath the wave."
"If the lake should disappear, they must find the hole through which the water ran. But it would be useless to try to stop it by any ordinary means. There was but one effectual mode - The body of a living man could alone stanch the flow. The man must give himself of his own will; and the lake must take his life as it filled. Otherwise the offering would be of no avail. If the nation could not provide one hero, it was time it should perish."*
Published in 1864, The Light Princess is a beautiful story - not devoid of its gravity to be sure. As with The Golden Key, it has a deeper meaning, another level of understanding aside from its surface story. It tells of a Prince who loved his princess with the truest, purest love. But it has much more to offer than that: it reminds its reader of a greater love, indeed, the Greatest love story ever told.
*MacDonald, George. The Light Princess. United States of America: The Meriden Gravure Company, 1969. Print.
The Light Princess begins like so many fairy tales: a kingdom, a king and a queen facing the great dilemma of having no heir, a spell, a prince, even a witch. The king is slightly pompous and comical, and the queen is serious and more sensible. Eventually, the couple are blessed with the birth of their daughter. The story may have been happy but uneventful if the king had not forgotten to invite his spiteful sister, Princess Makemnoit, to the christening. Princess Makemnoit, easily forgotten since she is an awful person, is the instigator of all misery and sorrow that plagues the characters.
To take her revenge for being overlooked, she casts a spell on the princess, depriving the baby girl of all her gravity. The spell and its result are discovered one day when the princess miraculously floats to the ceiling of her nursery, put afloat by the wind coming in through the open window. As the child grows up, her loss of gravity is felt keenly by the entire palace.
The loss of gravity is a horrible condition. Not only can the slightest breath of wind carry the princess away, but she has no gravity of spirit. She knows neither sadness nor sorrow nor anything grave. She laughs often, but even that lacks sincerity.
King John and his queen decide to consult the college of Metaphysicians. The materialist Hum-Drum and the spiritualist Kopy-Keck both try to solve the princess's problem, but the king and queen cannot possibly take their harsh advice. Instead, a temporary solution presents itself when, by accident, the princess discovers that her gravity is restored whenever she is submerged in water. From that day forward, the princess spends all her time swimming in the lake next to the palace.
The hero of the tale - aye, the prince - meets the princess one evening as she is swimming in the lake. She bewitches the prince, and he becomes her devoted admirer. As, however, true love requires some gravity of mind, his love is not returned by the princess, who is light of body, mind, and heart.
Princess Makemnoit learns of the princess's happiness and regained gravity in the lake, and, being the kill-joy that she is, she brings to life a giant serpent to drain the lake of all its water. The princess, who, despite of her loss of gravity, loves the lake. As she watches the water mysteriously drain away, she begins to fade and draw close to death. The king desperately searches for a way to save the lake and thus his daughter. Finally, a message is found in the mud that was once covered by the lake:
"Death alone from death can save.
Love is death, and so is brave -
Love can fill the deepest grave.
Love loves on beneath the wave."
"If the lake should disappear, they must find the hole through which the water ran. But it would be useless to try to stop it by any ordinary means. There was but one effectual mode - The body of a living man could alone stanch the flow. The man must give himself of his own will; and the lake must take his life as it filled. Otherwise the offering would be of no avail. If the nation could not provide one hero, it was time it should perish."*
Published in 1864, The Light Princess is a beautiful story - not devoid of its gravity to be sure. As with The Golden Key, it has a deeper meaning, another level of understanding aside from its surface story. It tells of a Prince who loved his princess with the truest, purest love. But it has much more to offer than that: it reminds its reader of a greater love, indeed, the Greatest love story ever told.
*MacDonald, George. The Light Princess. United States of America: The Meriden Gravure Company, 1969. Print.
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