Thousandfurs
A princess who fled her father in a coat sewn from every animal's fur, and the king who found her ring in his bread
Page 1
Long ago there was a king who had a wife he loved more than anything in the world. She had golden hair unlike any other, and when she fell gravely ill, she called the king to her bedside. "I am going to die," she told him, "and when I am gone, promise me this: do not marry again unless you find a woman as beautiful as I am, with hair as golden as mine." The king, weeping, promised her everything she asked. Soon after, the queen died, and the king mourned her for a very long time. Years passed. He searched his own kingdom and every kingdom beyond it for a bride who matched her, but he never found one — not one single woman anywhere in the world had hair so golden, or a face so fair, as his lost wife. And all the while, in the nursery tower, his small daughter was growing up.
Page 2
The princess grew up, and as she grew, something strange happened: she came to look exactly like her mother had looked — the very same golden hair, the very same face. One day the king looked at his grown daughter and saw his dead wife standing before him. He announced to his whole court that he would marry his own daughter, since she alone matched the promise he had made. His councillors were horrified and begged him to change his mind, but the king would not be moved. The princess, hearing this, was filled with dread. She could not simply refuse him outright, so she thought of a plan to delay him until he gave up. She went to her father and said she would agree to marry him — but only if he first gave her three dresses no one had ever seen before, and a coat sewn from a piece of every single animal's fur in his kingdom.
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The king, determined to have his way, sent for the finest tailors in the land, and in time they brought the princess everything she had asked for: a dress as golden as the sun, a dress as silver as the moon, a dress that glittered like the stars, each one so finely made it folded down small enough to fit inside a single walnut shell — and a long rough coat sewn from a scrap of the fur of every animal in the kingdom, so many different furs that no one could say what creature it was meant to be. The princess saw that her plan had failed; her father meant to marry her after all. That night, while the whole castle slept, she rubbed soot from the chimney over her face and hands until her skin was dark and strange, hid the three nutshells deep inside the fur coat, put the coat on over everything, and slipped out of the castle alone into the darkness.
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She walked all through the night, deep into a great forest far from her father's castle, her fur coat heavy and strange around her shoulders, the three walnut shells tucked safe inside it. The moon was bright enough to light her way between the black trunks of the trees, but she was tired and frightened and a very long way from anyone who knew her. She did not dare stop near any village, for fear her father's men would be sent after her. On and on she went, deeper into the forest than she had ever been, until her legs ached and she could barely take another step. At last, as the sky began to grow pale with morning, she found an enormous old tree with a hollow large enough for a person to curl up inside, and she climbed in, pulled the fur coat tight around her, and fell into an exhausted sleep.
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She slept in the hollow tree through the whole of that day and into the next. Not far away, a young king was out hunting in that same forest with his hounds and his huntsmen. One of his dogs caught a strange scent near the old hollow tree, ran ahead of the others, and began sniffing and barking at the opening in the trunk. The king, curious, came to see what his dog had found, and there inside the hollow he discovered a strange, sleeping creature wrapped all over in a coat of many different furs, so that at first he could not tell whether it was animal or person. He woke her gently, and she sat up frightened, her sooted face and odd coat making her look like no one he had ever seen before. He asked who she was, and she told him only that she was a poor girl with no home, good for nothing but kitchen work. Taking pity on her, he brought her back to his own castle.
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At the king's castle, no one knew what to make of the strange girl in the coat of furs, so she was sent down to the kitchen to work. The cook put her to scrubbing pots, carrying wood, and raking out the ashes from under the ovens, and because of her odd coat, everyone in the castle took to calling her Thousandfurs. She slept in a dark little den under the stairs, not far from the kitchen, and kept her fur coat on always, and her face always sooted, so that no one would ever guess she was really a king's daughter. She did her work quietly and well, and though the other kitchen servants sometimes teased her for her strange looks, she never once told anyone who she truly was. Deep inside the fur coat, hidden safely, the three walnut shells with their three wonderful dresses stayed with her always, waiting.
Page 7
One evening, word went round the castle that the king was holding a great ball. When all the kitchen work was done and everyone else had gone to watch, Thousandfurs slipped away to her little den, washed the soot from her face, and opened the first walnut shell. Out came the dress like the sun, and when she put it on, she was more beautiful than anyone at the ball. She crept quietly up a back stair and in among the guests, and the young king, struck by her beauty, asked her to dance, never once guessing she was the ragged kitchen girl he had found in the forest. They danced together all evening, but just before the dance ended, she slipped away before he could stop her, hurried back to her den, rubbed the soot back onto her face, and put her fur coat on once more.
Page 8
Not long after, the king held a second ball, this time with dancing out on the castle's great terrace under the stars, lit all around with torches and lanterns strung between the trees. Thousandfurs slipped away again, washed, and this time opened the second walnut shell, putting on the dress as silvery as the moon. She came to the terrace and the young king found her at once, delighted she had returned, and they danced together under the open sky for hours, he asking again and again who she was and where she came from, and she answering nothing at all. But just as before, she slipped away at the last moment before the dance ended, hurried back through the dark gardens to her den beneath the stairs, and by the time anyone thought to look for her, she was Thousandfurs again, sooted and dressed in fur, raking cold ashes as if she had never left the kitchen at all.
Page 9
At the third ball, Thousandfurs wore her last and finest dress, one that glittered all over like the night sky full of stars. This time the young king, determined not to lose her again, slipped a gold ring onto her finger while they danced, without her noticing, and quietly ordered the great doors watched and the stairs guarded so she could not slip away unseen. But when the music paused, she saw the guards and understood at once, and she ran — down the grand staircase two steps at a time, through a side door the guards had missed, and out into the night, her heart pounding. She had no time at all to stop and rub soot over her hands again, and in her hurry she managed to blacken every finger but one, which stayed pale and clean as she pulled her rough fur coat back over the glittering dress and hurried, breathless, back to her den beneath the stairs.
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The next morning, Thousandfurs was told to bake bread for the king, and as she worked, she slipped the gold ring he had given her into the dough without thinking much of it. When the king bit into his bread and found the ring inside, he remembered at once where it had come from, and he called for the cook, who told him only that Thousandfurs had made it. He sent for her, and when she came, he took her sooted hand in his and saw, among the blackened fingers, one that was still pale and clean — the very hand he had placed the ring on at the dance. Gently, he pulled the rough fur coat from her shoulders, and there underneath was the dress that glittered like the stars, and her golden hair, and her true face. He knew her then for the maiden of all three balls, and asked her to marry him. She told him who she truly was, and he loved her all the more for the courage of her long journey. They were married with great joy, and the whole kingdom celebrated.
About this story
- Audience: kids (ages 6–12)
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