The Prince with the Nine Sorrows

Name: The Prince with the Nine Sorrows
Author: Laurence Housman

The Prince with the Nine Sorrows, by Laurence Housman, opens with a King and Queen whose only son is given to a forester's wife to nurse, alongside her own newborn daughter, and the two foster-siblings are raised as twins. On the night of the Prince's birth, the Queen dreams that at twenty her son will lie dead of a wound over his heart, with his foster-sister standing over him wearing a royal crown, his heart bleeding in her hands. The family Fairy declares the dream a warning of real danger and promises to avert it, but insists the foster-sister must be taken away; the Queen forbids that the innocent child be killed, only removed and kept safe. Each year for nine years the same pattern repeats: the forester's wife bears another daughter, the Queen has the identical dream the same night, the Fairy is summoned, and within a year that child vanishes without a trace, leaving the forester's wife and the young Prince grief-stricken each time. By the time nine daughters have been born and spirited away, the Queen, wasted by guilt and illness, dies crying out to the Fairy about the dream. The Prince, now ten, describes carrying "nine sorrows" in his heart and hearing nightly cries of lamentation he cannot place, though he grows into a graceful, tender-hearted youth beloved by all. As the Prince approaches twenty, the aging King, fearing death and the danger still hanging over his son, finally tells him the full story of the dreams and the nine lost foster-sisters. The Prince immediately seeks out his foster-mother, asks for a kiss standing in for each vanished sister, and sets out into the world to find them and rid himself of his sorrows. Guided only by an inward compulsion, he wanders for many days, rebuffing warnings from a peasant and a woodcutter, until he reaches a remote, overgrown valley and a half-ruined grange. On entering, he startles nine white peahens into flight; searching the abandoned house yields nothing but scattered feathers. That evening the peahens gather in the garden and roost together in an elm, crying out in a chorus of grief that stirs something deep in the Prince. Unable to bear the close, dank air inside, he sleeps beneath the tree. At midnight he overhears the birds speaking with human voices: they are his nine foster-sisters, transformed and cursed, able to become human and win permanent freedom only if one of them descends and pecks out the sleeping Prince's heart before midnight ends — otherwise the one who tries and fails will lose her human voice forever. The eldest volunteers, and the Prince, realizing the truth, deliberately bares his breast for her. But recognizing him and remembering their shared infancy, she cannot bring herself to kill him, weeps over him, and returns to the tree mute, having forfeited her voice. The pattern repeats on succeeding nights: the second sister, then each of the others down to the eighth, descend in turn, are moved to pity by his youth and gentleness, and fail, each losing her voice permanently as a result, while during the day the muted sisters follow the Prince affectionately and the still-voiced ones behave like ordinary birds. On the ninth night, only the youngest peahen remains. She recognizes that if she too fails, all nine will be doomed to permanent silence and captivity, since she is their last chance. She descends resolved not to fail, but looking at the sleeping Prince's bared heart she likewise cannot do it. He, aware she is wavering, urges her on, telling her to peck out his heart and reminding her she has sisters and a mother waiting. Torn, she cries out instead in her bird's voice, hoping to wake him and spare him, and her sisters cry with her — but he does not stir. Finally, asking only that her sisters be freed while she herself remain as she is, she shuts her eyes and pecks out his heart. His human heart lies beating on the ground, and all eight sisters instantly regain their human forms and grieve over the "wicked little sister" who has killed him even as she freed them. The heartless Prince's body, though cold, is kept from utter death by the joy of the heart itself, now free of its nine sorrows. The little peahen, wailing over his corpse, pierces her own breast, draws out her own living heart, and places it in the wound where his had been; the wound heals over her heart, and she dies feeling her own heart beating on inside him. Warmth and life return to the Prince, who wakes to find her lying as if dead in his arms. Understanding what she has done, he in turn takes up his own still-beating heart from the ground and places it into her wound; her injury heals, her human form is restored fully alive, and neither of them can afterward say whose heart truly beats in which breast — "Dear heart," he says, and "Dear, dear heart," says she. A joyous reunion follows among the Prince, his nine foster-sisters, and his foster-mother. The old King lives to see his dreaded dream fulfilled harmlessly, exactly as foretold: the forester's daughter wears the royal crown and holds the Prince's heart in her hand — but as the fulfillment of true love rather than tragedy. The tale closes noting that the Prince and his rescuer-bride, together with his foster-sisters, all live on in contented happiness, and "none of them is dead yet."

By Laurence Housman · Genre: Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy · 4,525 words

First lines

_Eight-white peahens went down to the gate: _ _"Wait! " they said, "little sister, wait! "_ _They covered her up with feathers so fine; _ _And none went out, when there went back nine._

A long time ago there lived a King and a Queen, who had an only son. As soon as he was born his mother gave him to the forester's wife to be nursed; for she herself had to wear her crown all day and had no time for nursing. The forester's wife had just given birth to a little daughter of her own; but she loved both children equally and nursed them together like twins.

What this Textopian page supports

The Prince with the Nine Sorrows is listed on Textopian as a short story by Laurence Housman, dated Date unknown.

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Work type: Short story
Author: Laurence Housman
Date: Date unknown
Language: English
Genres: Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Gothic Romance
Length: 4,525 words
Structure: 1 section, 80 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Discussion starters

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How does this short story by Laurence Housman fit its genre, period, or classroom use?
Where does Fairy Tale first become important in the reading?

Genres

Fairy Tale — Exhibits core fairy tale conventions: royal protagonists, a magical threat/curse, a fairy godmother figure, magical transformations, a quest narrative, and a triumph of love and virtue culminating in marriage and happiness.
Fantasy — Central magical elements drive the plot: enchanted humans transformed into peahens, supernatural disappearances, fairy intervention, magical heart exchange, and a fantastical setting where the impossible becomes real.
Romantic Fantasy — Love between the Prince and his youngest foster-sister forms the emotional and narrative climax, with the literal and metaphorical exchange of hearts as the resolution that transforms both characters and fulfills the prophecy.
Dark Fantasy — Beneath the fairy tale surface lies persistent darkness: a curse threatening the Prince's life, nine children spirited away from their mother, death of the Queen, sacrifice, and the nine sorrows that torment the Prince throughout his youth.