"King Thrushbeard" () or the haughty princess (German: ''die hochmütige Prinzessin'') is a German

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

collected by the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

(KHM 52). It is of Aarne–Thompson type 900.

Origin

The tale was published by the

in the first edition of ''

Kinder- und Hausmärchen ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (, , commonly abbreviated as ''KHM''), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, first published on 20 December 1812. Vol ...

'' in 1812, and slightly modified in the second edition issued in 1819. Their sources were the Hassenpflug family from

Hanau Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...

, supplemented by Ludowine Haxthausen and by

Wilhelm Grimm Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author, philologist and anthropologist. He was the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm. Life and work Wilhelm was born in February 1 ...

's friend and future wife, Dorothea Wild.

Synopsis

An old

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

has a beautiful daughter who has many suitors. However, the

princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...

is so spoiled and haughty that she ridicules all the men who come asking for her hand in

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

. One night, the king sponsors a

feast A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes inc ...

to which he has invited a number of rich and powerful men for his daughter to choose a husband from. Again, the princess openly mocks her suitors, the last of whom is a young king with such a pointed

chin The chin is the forward pointed part of the anterior mandible (List_of_human_anatomical_regions#Regions, mental region) below the lower lip. A fully developed human skull has a chin of between 0.7 cm and 1.1 cm. Evolution The presence of a we ...

that—to her—looks like a

thrush Thrush may refer to: Birds * Thrush (bird), any of the birds in the family Turdidae ** List of thrush species * Antthrushes, the Formicariidae family of birds * Dohrn's warbler, or Dohrn's thrush-babbler, a species ''Sylvia dohrni'' in the famil ...

's beak, so she cruelly dubs him "King Thrushbeard". Exasperated and angry at how his daughter has scorned all her rich suitors, the king vows that she shall marry the first

beggar Begging (also known in North America as panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars m ...

who comes to the palace. A few days after the feast, a young

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

arrives at the palace and plays music for the king. Pleased with the minstrel's performance, the king has a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

officiate the young man and the princess's

wedding A wedding is a ceremony in which two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicity, ethnicities, Race (human categorization), races, religions, Religious denomination, denominations, Cou ...

that same day. The princess opposes vehemently, but her father has given his word. After the wedding, the king banishes his daughter because she has become a beggar's wife and the minstrel takes her away. As they travel to the minstrel's home, the newlyweds pass by the fine lands and properties that belong to King Thrushbeard, and the princess begins to regret scorning him. The princess and her husband soon arrive at his home, a small house fit only for two. The minstrel treats his wife as though she were a commoner and she is upset that she must work for a living. The princess is tasked with practical chores such as cleaning the house,

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

baskets A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers, and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horse ...

, and

spinning Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

, at which she is completely inept. She is then sent to sell pots in the marketplace and all seems to go well, until a drunken

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

on horseback smashes all the pots to pieces. Thoroughly annoyed at his wife's constant failures, the minstrel tells her the only job left for her is to work as a servant at the nearby castle of King Thrushbeard himself. The princess gets hired as a kitchen maid, taking home the

leftovers Leftovers are surplus foods remaining unconsumed at the end of a meal, which may be put in containers with the intention of eating later. Inedible remains like bones are considered ''waste'', not leftovers. Depending on the situation, the amoun ...

in jars she hides in her apron pockets and sharing the food with her husband. One day, the princess hears that King Thrushbeard is getting married. As she watches the guests having a good time in the ballroom, the princess regrets her haughtiness. Out of the blue, King Thrushbeard forces the princess to dance with him, sending her jars of leftovers spilling all over the floor and making the guests laugh at her. The princess is so upset that she runs off. However, to the princess's surprise, King Thrushbeard follows her and reveals that he and her husband, the minstrel, are the same person. He had fallen in love with her despite her haughtiness and secretly married her through her father's vow. Her ordeals (including his disguise as a drunken soldier) were meant to both humble her and punish her for her cruelty towards him. The princess swears that she has indeed been humbled. The princess and King Thrushbeard have another wedding with her father in attendance and they all live happily ever after.

Cultural legacy

* The story was filmed as ''König Drosselbart'' (1954), directed by Herbert B. Fredersdorf. * The story was adapted in 1969 as the Soviet cartoon ''The Capricious Princess'' ('' Капризная принцесса''). * The tale is retold in an episode of ''

Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics ''Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics'', also known as ''Grimm Masterpiece Theater'' (グリム名作劇場 ''Gurimu meisaku gekijō'') in the original version and ''The Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (in Australia and New Zealand), is a Japanese anime anthol ...

'' under the title ''King Grizzlebeard''. In this version, the princess' name is Elena. In addition, her father decrees that Elena will be married to the man with the lowest standing who comes to the castle the next day. * A version is told in the book ''

Servant of the Dragon A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly de ...

'' by

David Drake David A. Drake (September 24, 1945 – December 10, 2023) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran, he worked as a lawyer before becoming a writer in the military science fiction genre. Biography ...

. * A version of the story also appears in the cartoon series ''

Simsala Grimm ''SimsalaGrimm'' is a German animated children's television series, consisting of stories based on fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and other notable authors. The series was created by André Sikojev, Stefan Beiten and ...

''. In this version, the princess' name is Constance, while King Thrushbeard's name is Conrad. In addition, Constance's father decrees that she will be married to the next minstrel who comes to the castle. * In the comic book series ''

Fables Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse (poetry), verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphized, and that ...

'' by Bill Willingham, Thrushbeard is a fable that resides at Fabletown and first appears in ''Fables'' Vol 4. *

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

stated that Grizzlebeard was one of the 4 main characters in his 1911 book '' The Four Men — a Farrago''.

References

External links

* * *
''King Thrushbeard'' and variants
{{Authority control Grimms' Fairy Tales Thrushbeard Thrushbeard Male characters in fairy tales ATU 850-999 Fairy tales about princesses