The princess and the poacher

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Two Fables , front cover - 1986

The Princess and the Poacher is a short story and an art fairy tale for adults by the British writer Roald Dahl (1916–1990). It was first published in 1986 together with another short story (Princess Mammalia) in the Two Fables collection under the original title The Princess and the Poacher . The German translation was published in 1989 in the collection The Princess and the Poacher , which contains four short stories by Roald Dahl.

action

The 18-year-old stallion has no interest in becoming a basket maker like his father . He's extremely ugly in his appearance: stocky body, crooked legs, overly long arms, wrinkled face. However, he has tremendous physical strength and can bend a five centimeter thick iron bar and lift out a horse that has fallen into a ditch. Hengist desires the girls and longs for them with great passion and desire, but not even the ugly girls want to have anything to do with him because of his terrible looks. He spends a large part of his time in the solitude of the forest and with the animals. Since his family is very poor, he begins to poach in the lands that belong to the king and dukes. Poaching becomes so obsessed with Hengist that even human traps that he has set up and the threat of execution through excruciating drowning in a specially prepared barrel cannot deter him.

One day Hengist sees the 17-year-old princess picking bluebells in the forest near the castle and is overwhelmed by her beauty. He toyed with the idea of ​​confessing his love to her, but knows all too well that she would run away screaming because of his ugliness. He quickly dismisses the idea of ​​making them submissive by force. Suddenly he sees a huge wild boar racing towards the princess. At the very last moment, Hengist manages to pounce on the boar and grab his protruding canine teeth, the tusks, before they pierce the princess. Hengist lifts the boar into the air with his strong arms and breaks his spine . The king stands with his entourage and is overwhelmed by the bravery and strength of the stallion and takes him to the royal court on the spot.

As a reward for saving his only daughter's life, the widowed King Hengist gives over abundant material goods and his own servants. He also gives him the unrestricted right and authority of the king to sexually serve himself with every woman in the kingdom without exception - from maiden and maidservant to countess and duchess and even princess - whenever he wants and as often as he wants. Every woman who Hengist refuses to accept should be punished with death in a drinking barrel. The king's colonels whine and rebel against the king because they fear sexual chaos at the court as well as continuous rape on the corridors and castle walls. They only calm down when the king threatens them with a drinking barrel if they resist further. He pronounces the same death penalty on opposing fathers, husbands and brothers of the women sexually desired by Hengist.

After the king's decree, Hengist is shunned by everyone in the kingdom - from the seediest whores to the dukes - and treated like a leper by all of them. But something strange happened to Hengist. Suddenly he has lost his desire and he no longer desires a woman. After the fulfillment of his sexual desires is no longer prevented and forbidden, the stimulus has been lost.

One day, in the presence of her father Hengist, the princess confesses her love for him, despite his ugly appearance, because he is the only decent man in the whole castle and does not pursue her sexually. All the other men were hideous creeps that she hated, although some were very handsome. “The king withdrew quietly and left the two of them alone. He was extremely satisfied with how things went. ”- The clever king's clever plan to bring Hengist and his daughter together has worked.

See also

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Sturrock, p. 627 and Solomon, p. 217
  2. ↑ The Princess and the Poacher, p. 20