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Tale Summary

In this Danish rendition of the Princess in a Coffin tale type, you observe a king and queen that are unable to naturally bear a child, so they must seek the help of a wise old woman to fulfill their desires. The queen becomes pregnant after she fulfills the prophecy and gives birth to a beautiful, perfect princess whose intellect is that of a grown wise man upon her birth. The child, however, is cursed and must not be seen by either parent until after her 14th birthday or else there will be great misfortune brought upon their kingdom. The king cannot wait for such a lengthy amount of time to see his daughter, so on the day before her 14th birthday, he breaks into the room and the princess says he must pick one of three misfortunes. The king picks the lesser evil, and the following day the princess dies and is put into a wooden coffin. Upon her death, the princess insists that her coffin must be guarded by a guard every night until she awakes again, but every guard that is sent to guard the coffin mysteriously disappears and is never found again. Then a man comes along who against all odds agrees to guard the coffin once more. When the next dawn breaks, the people find him alive and well. He then demands an extraordinary amount of pay to proceed to guard the coffin for the next two days. Every night he attempts to escape, but a dwarf forcefully brings him back and gives him advice on how to remain alive. He then discovers that the princess’s ghost exits the coffin every night in an attempt to slay the guard. On the third night, the princess and the guard of the coffin are both alive and well on the next morning, and they get married and live happily ever after.