The Wizard King

 This is a French fairy tale by a Chevalier de Mailly, but I read it in Andrew Lang’s Yellow Fairy Book.

We begin with a wizard king, a queen, and a secret fairy godmother. Apparently, wizards and fairies do not get on, prompting the queen to hide her godmother from her husband. But she does introduce her to their son.

The queen dies. The prince remains secretly in touch with his fairy god-grandma. The king, after a period of mourning, decides to travel, which he does in the forms of various animals. One day, as an eagle, he comes across the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.

So naturally, he decides to swoop down and grab her.

The king sets up the kidnapped princess in an enchanted palace, reveals his true form, and refuses to release her. He holds her there in secret, sneaking away to visit whenever he can.

This king may be a great wizard, but he's not very smart, is he?

Like, dude. You’re a handsome, wealthy, powerful, widowed king. Sure, there’s a bit of an age gap, but parents of princesses, arranging political marriages, seldom seem bothered by that. You could have presented yourself properly as a suitor, and you probably would have been able to marry her. Why would you turn into an eagle and kidnap her instead?

The princess continues to refuse the romantic advances of her kidnapper. Good for her. The king, idiot that he is, concludes that the only possible reason for her disinterest is that she’s somehow found out about his son, who is in every way better than him.

So he sends his son to travel in other lands. Except another land is where he kidnapped this girl from in the first place. Our prince soon meets her parents, hears about how she was abducted by an eagle, falls madly in love with her portrait, and vows to find and save her.

The prince’s secret fairy god-grandma tells him that his father is holding her prisoner in an enchanted palace. The prince doesn’t exactly seem surprised when he finds out his father has kidnapped a princess.

There is an enchanted cloud around the palace, too strong for the fairy to penetrate. However, the princess has with her a parrot, which is permitted to fly through the cloud.  The prince collects the parrot the next time it comes through, the fairy turns the prince into a matching parrot, and the prince is then able to fly through the cloud and find the princess.

He resumes his natural form and tells her who he is and that he’s come to save her. The fairy sends through a chariot pulled by eagles—so much for the cloud being impenetrable, I guess. The king realizes what’s happening, and goes to chase them down. The prince and princess have an immediate wedding because the fairy says that will protect them from the king.

The king arrives, attempts to kill them both, and fails. He’s put in prison, but the prince asks for him to be released. He flees immediately, vowing never to forgive his son or the fairy. The prince, princess, and fairy god-grandma live happily ever after.

I don’t actually have a lot to say about this story; I just thought it was fun.

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