The Twelve Dancing Princesses – #FolkloreThursday

In her book, Enchanted Tales, Laura Sampson retells the enchanting story of ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’, a tale from France by Charles Deulin.

How enchanting it would be to open a door and step through into a secret world built especially for you! The twelve dancing princesses of this tale can do just that – a good reason why the story remains so popular across Europe, in lots of different versions. This one is by Charles Deulin, a French writer from a small town on the French-Belgian border, and is full of details – food, clothes and place names – inspired by his home region. In the village of Montignies-sur-Roc lived a young cowherd named Michel. He had curly hair and pretty blue eyes, and people called him “Stargazer” because he was always gazing upwards, dreaming of adventures. One summer’s day, a fairy in a golden dress appeared to him and sang, “Go to the Château of Beloeil, and you will marry a princess!”

The Stargazer eagerly did as the fairy instructed. When he arrived at the château the next day, everyone was talking about a strange mystery. Each night, the twelve beautiful princesses of Beloeil went to bed in a suite of rooms locked with three strong bolts. But each morning, their satin shoes were worn through as if they had been dancing all night. Their father, the duke, had declared: “ANYONE WHO CAN SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF THE WORN-OUT SHOES MAY MARRY ONE OF MY DAUGHTERS!”

Princes had come from across the land to try their luck, but each one who came vanished overnight.

I am no prince – the duke will laugh at me if I come forward, thought Michel, so he found work in the château gardens, making daily bouquets for the princesses, who accepted them but never looked at him or thanked him.

But one day, the youngest, Lina, glanced up and smiled. Michel’s heart leapt, and he longed to get to the bottom of the mystery.

That night the fairy appeared to Michel again with two baby laurel trees – a rose and a cherry – a golden bucket and a golden rake.

“Plant these laurel trees, tend them with this rake, water them from this bucket and they will grant your wishes!” she sang, before disappearing. Michel did as the fairy instructed.

One day the cherry bloomed with a white flower. Michel plucked the flower and placed it in his shirt button, hoping to impress the young princess. Miraculously, the flower instantly made Michel invisible! This is my chance to solve the princesses’ mystery! he thought. That evening, invisible, he hid under a bed in their suite. As soon as the door was shut for the night, he heard wardrobes opening, clothes rustling and laughter. Then – CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CREAK! A trapdoor in the floor swung open. Michel slipped out from under the bed and followed the princesses through the door, so close he accidentally stepped on Lina’s dress. Lina looked behind her but saw nothing. “I must have tripped!” Michel followed the princesses down a staircase, along a corridor, through a woodland of silver, then one of gold, and another of sparkling diamonds, until they came to a glass-clear lake. Twelve princes were waiting in twelve shining boats to row each princess across to a castle, which shone in the twilight. Michel sat invisible beside Lina. Why is my boat so slow and heavy? she wondered. But the wild music coming from the castle soon distracted her. The boats docked, and everybody rushed to the castle’s ballroom. It was full of mirrors, sparkling lights and rich hangings. From a corner, Michel admired the dancing princesses. Lina’s velvet-black eyes shone as she whirled across the jewelled dancefloor. He envied the princes dancing with them, not knowing that they were the suitors who had gone before: an enchanted potion had made them forget everything of the world above.

When the princesses’ shoes were worn through, the music stopped and they ate sugar cookies, waffles and cakes. Then, Michel followed the princesses silently, back across the lake and through the diamond and gold woodlands. But at the silver woodland, he broke off a tiny sprig from one of the trees and – CLANG! – the whole wood rang.

“What was that?” asked one princess.

“Probably just a bird,” said another.

Michel raced ahead to the princesses’ suite – up the stairs, through the trapdoor, out of an open window and down a hanging vine back to the gardens at first dawn light. He removed the white invisibility flower and got to work gathering the princesses’ daily bouquets. When Michel gave them to the princesses later, Lina found a silver twig in hers.

How can this be? she thought but said nothing.

For the next two nights Michel followed the princesses. Each time, on the way back, he plucked a sprig from a tree for Lina’s bouquet – the next from the golden woodland and then from the diamond. When Lina found the diamond sprig, she confronted Michel. “You must have followed us. How?”

“I hid,” Michel replied.

“You know that telling our father this secret rewards you with a wedding to one of us. Will you tell him?”

“I do not intend to,” he replied.

“But why stay silent?” she asked, puzzled.

Michel said nothing, but the other princesses saw his blue eyes meet Lina’s. They saw her heart melt.

“How ridiculous! Lina wants to be a gardener’s wife!” they taunted.

“Never!” Lina cried and threw her bouquet at Michel with disdain.

Later that day, the sisters agreed that Michel should meet the same fate as the other suitors. They invited Michel to join them in plain sight that night.

Michel accepted, but he couldn’t go to a grand dance dressed in his simple clothes. Then he remembered the rose laurel. In the gardens, he whispered a wish into its petals and, within a moment, he was dressed like a prince, in black velvet that matched Lina’s eyes, and a diamond feather brooch sparkling on his cap.

Once again, through the trapdoor, down the stairs, through the woodlands of silver, gold and diamond, and towards the dance they went. Lina looked at Michel and laughed, embarrassed. “Don’t you look princely!” she said.

“Maybe. But I’m still a gardener,” he said. “Not good enough for you.”

They danced all night, and when the ball was over, the eldest princess held out a golden cup, and said, “Gardener, secret-revealer, let’s drink to you!”

Michel had overheard them talking and knew the cup contained the forgetting potion, but he took it and raised it to his lips anyway, with a longing look at Lina.

“NO!” Lina cried. She ran to him and seized the cup before he could drink. “Gardener or not, the thought of you trapped here forever breaks my heart!” True love broke the spell for everyone. Together, they returned to the world above and closed the trapdoor, which disappeared forever.

In the Duke of Beloeil’s private quarters, Michel told him everything, and asked for Lina’s hand in marriage. The wedding was the biggest and happiest in the land, and Michel became a prince. He never needed to wish on the two laurels again because he had everything he could ever desire.