The Brothers Grimm would have us believe that this folktale teaches a valuable lesson by documenting the fall of a spoiled princess who judges potential suitors by looks alone and is so ill-mannered that she says cruel things about them to their faces. Through her punishment (being married to a beggar street musician), we also learn that she has almost no household or practical skills. I’m not sure though about the central idea that the best way to teach humility is to publicly humiliate a person. Isn’t this what the princess was punished for at the beginning of the story?
Our source for the story was Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm, translated by British writer Margaret Hunt. The book, which was first published in 1884, contains all 200 Grimm folktales plus 10 legends. This is tale No. 52.
Original Text / PDF / Audio (1,641 words)