The princess and the flying slippers

There was once a beautiful princess called Lisa. She was so popular that every prince in the world wanted to marry her. One by one they came riding to the castle, and put up their tents on the far side of the moat. Then they called on the king asking to marry the princess.

Within the castle the king read their offers of proposal. "If I choose one of these princes, the others will be angry and attack me," he complained to Lisa. "Can't I go out to them and put them to a test. If the best one wins me, the others will understand" The king rubbed his knuckles together. "I don't think that's a god idea," he said. "Its better to lock you up in the tower chamber and try to postpone the decision as long as possible."

Lisa went crying up all the stairs and the king locked the door behind her. She stood on the balcony and wept. Her tears splashed in the moat. On the other side the princes stood and waved to her. They wrote love letters, which they fastened to arrows and shot up to her.

While Lisa sat on her bed, reading their poems, shoebox came flying threw the balcony doors. The box landed at her feet and the lid slipped of. A pair of deep blue velvet slippers glittered in front of her. Lisa lifted the slippers out of the box and a pair of white swan wings grew out of the heels, waving at her. She had to rub her eyes to make sure it was true. But the wings continued to wave so Lisa rose from the bed and put the slippers on.

The wings folded out behind her and lifted her up in the air. It felt like butterflies in her tummy, so she closed her eyes while the velvet slippers lifted her out of the balcony doors, over the rail and out over the moat. When the princes saw her they lowered their bows and stood silently waiting. But when Lisa was half way over the moat, she opened her eyes and looked down.

The sight made her so dizzy that she lost her balance. The slippers flapped and fluttered, but couldn't catch the princess. The princes threw themselves out in the water and floundered so badly that Lisa had to swim ashore by herself. They ran after her shouting: "Marry me, no marry me, no, no, marry me instead."

Lisa lifted her arm and pointed at a high tree. "I'll marry the one who can catch the flying slippers," she said. "That's easy," the princes shouted while running to the tree. They climbed up the trunk, treading on each other and shouting so Lisa had to laugh. But one prince was so lazy that he just sat against a pine tree picking his teeth.

"Don't you want to compete for me like the rest of them?" Lisa said disappointedly. "No. I can't be bothered," he said. "Don't you want me then?" she asked. "Oh yes," he said. "More than anything. But I have learned that it's wise to think twice before rushing to solve a problem. That way one often finds a better solution than the one that seems obvious at the start."

The slippers flew from treetop to treetop, leaving all the princes dog-tired. One by one they fell asleep. Finally there was only snoring to be heard from them. "Well? Do you have a plan now?" Lisa asked impatiently. "Yes," the prince said. "But first you have to tell me how the slippers were packed when you got them."

"They came in a flower-patterned shoe box," she said. The prince went to his horse and picked up scissors and glue from the saddlebag. He cut and glued and coloured a beautiful shoebox, and put it by the foot of the tree. But the slippers didn't come down. "What's missing?" the prince asked. "The slippers came in a box that shone more brightly," Lisa replied looking uneasily at the other princes who were about to wake up.

"It must have been gold," the prince said and fetched a bag of gold powder. "Do you have gold?" Lisa said impressed. "Where I come from everything glitters of gold," the prince said. "That's because everybody thinks twice before they do anything important." He sprinkled the gold on the shoebox and put it back on the ground. Then they hid behind a tree and waited. While they stood there the prince hugged her gently.

Just as the other princes stretched and groaned, the slippers came flying and landed beside each other in the shoebox. The prince put the lid on. Then he turned towards Lisa. "Will you marry me now?" "Yes," Lisa said and put her arms around his neck. At the same time the other princes realised what was about to happen and came running towards them.

But the prince lifted Lisa up in the saddle and waved with the shoebox. "I won her with smartness where your strength was defeated," he shouted and took the beautiful princess with him to the land where everything glitters of gold.

© Martin Nygaard