I’m surprised there are not more examples of royals in disguise from the Grimm stories. Specifically, I’m talking about royals who dress like commoners for a twist reveal at the end.
Types of royals in disguise:
Enchanted Royal
A witch or a sorceress or a magician—for some unknown reason—enchants a prince or princess, disguising their identity. The royals cannot break the enchantment on their own, but have to find someone to do it for them.
- A. They know exactly how the spell can be broken and relay that oddly specific information to their rescuer, or
- B. They extract promises from a would-be rescuer (as in the Frog King) to get closer to their goal, or
- C. A relative of the enchanted person is the one who has the knowledge about how to break the spell…which often involves remaining silent for several years while they perform a task, like knitting shirts.
Royal In Hiding
This is the type of royalty in disguise that makes for a great twist ending. Surprise! He was the king all along! Two types:
- A. Twist ending; readers don’t know the royal is in hiding, though they may be suspicious
- B. Reader knows more than the characters and the tension comes from watching the interaction of commoner and royal (or other royals thinking they are dealing with a commoner).
In the last two weeks there have been two “prince in disguise” stories and one “princess in disguise” story.
Twist ending (spoilers ahead)
The Boots of Buffalo Leather
This story from last week is the one with the twist ending. Sorry for spoiling it for you, if you have’t read it yet. Two down-and-out travelers meet and join forces, having an exciting, death-defying adventure. One of them is a king in disguise, returning to his home after a long absence.
Reader is in the know
Poverty and Humility Lead to Heaven
A melancholy prince meets a poor old man and asks him how he can get to heaven. The poor old man tells him “by poverty and humility” and outlines a plan for him to wander the earth in disguise for seven years, not taking any money, but only asking for food from people.
Finally, after the seven years and arriving back home, no one believes he is the prince. But the Queen in her compassion allows him to sleep under the stairs and has her servants bring him food twice a day. Unfortunately one of the servants didn’t see why they were feeding a beggar so he kept the money for himself while the prince began to starve to death.
Maid Maleen
In last week’s readings, Maid Maleen is a reader-in-the-know story, where the reader knows more than the characters do. Maleen falls in love with a certain prince, but her father wants her to marry someone else. When she refuses, he locks her and her maid up in a tower with enough supplies to last seven years. When their supplies run out and no one comes for them, they break their way out of the tower and discover their kingdom has been decimated, and they’d been forgotten.
They wander until they find employment as kitchen maids in a royal household….the same household as her former love.
Here is where the “royal in disguise” becomes extra interesting.
The prince is about to get married, but his bride from afar is ugly both inside and out and wants to hide from the prince until they are wed. So she sends the beautiful maid Maleen as a stand-in for her place in the wedding.
The prince is so confused. He thinks this bride looks like his former love, but can’t believe it would be her because she is either locked in a tower or dead. And, since neither says exactly what they are thinking, it takes a while for the truth to come out. All along, the reader is wondering when and how she will reveal herself.
Which kind of royalty in disguise plot do you like the best?
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Here are quotes from the other stories we’ve read this week:
