The Light Princess

In Short

This whimsical fairy tale follows a princess cursed with a lack of gravity—both physical and emotional. She cannot walk on the ground and cannot feel the weight of life, laughing at everything from war to her own parents' grief. The story charts her journey toward humanity through the arrival of a prince who is willing to sacrifice everything to help her. It remains a classic of the genre because it balances sharp, ironic wit with a genuine, tender exploration of how sorrow and love finally ground us in the world.

The Story

A king and queen are blessed with a daughter, but their joy is short-lived. Through the oversight of a neglected relative, the spiteful Princess Makemnoit, the child is cursed to be "light." She has no weight, literally drifting toward the ceiling when she laughs or jumps, and figuratively lacking the capacity for seriousness or sorrow. Her parents are distressed by her inability to walk, to mourn, or to care for anything. She spends her youth playing in the palace, often as a human ball for the servants, while her parents desperately seek a cure for her "levity."

The princess eventually discovers a passion for water, finding that while submerged, she feels like other people. She spends her days swimming in the palace lake, which becomes her only source of happiness. Meanwhile, a prince arrives from a distant kingdom, searching for a princess who meets his impossibly high standards. He hears of the "bewitched" girl, but upon meeting her, finds her anger and beauty enchanting. He discovers that she is normal only in the water and becomes determined to help her.

The witch-princess, however, continues her malice from a hidden garret. Using a monstrous, shape-shifting white snake, she drains the lake through a hole in the cave ceiling, intending to dry up the princess’s only joy and drive her to despair. As the lake recedes, the princess grows thin and melancholy, mirroring the dying water. The prince, now working as her shoeblack, deduces the cause of the disaster. He confronts the king and demands the honor of plugging the hole with his own body. The king reluctantly agrees.

The prince sits in the hole at the bottom of the lake, his own body forming the stopper. As the water rises, he begins to drown. The princess arrives, finally realizing what the prince is doing for her. She watches him suffer, and as the water reaches his lips, she experiences the weight of true grief for the first time. The prince dies, and in a moment of pure, desperate love, the princess pulls him from the hole. She manages to drag him to the shore and into her bed, where, through the sudden rush of her own sorrow and love, she revives him. The lake refills, the princess learns to walk—with much difficulty and frequent falls—and they marry, with the princess finally able to feel the gravity that makes life meaningful.

How It Unfolds

The king's blunder The royal couple overlooks an invitation to a christening, accidentally slighting the bitter Princess Makemnoit. This social error results in a curse that robs the infant of her physical weight and emotional depth.

The floating child The household struggles to manage a princess who drifts to the ceiling like a balloon. She grows up laughing at disasters and feeling no connection to her parents or the world around her.

The lake discovery After a clumsy accident casts the princess into the water, she discovers a sanctuary where she can swim like a dolphin. This becomes her obsession, shielding her from the reality of her condition.

The prince intervenes A noble prince arrives and falls in love with her despite her quirk. He learns to swim with her, hoping that their bond can overcome the strangeness of her nature.

The drying basin Makemnoit uses dark magic to drain the lake, causing the princess to wither in sympathy. The prince takes the desperate step of offering his life to seal the leak.

The final sacrifice The prince drowns while the princess watches, her lack of gravity finally shattered by the pain of loss. This grief forces her to save him, grounding her at last.

The People

The Princess is the heart of the story. She begins as a "laughing-cloud," incapable of feeling pain or seriousness. She is initially petulant and detached, but her journey is one of awakening; she must learn to suffer in order to truly live.

The Prince is the catalyst for her change. He is brave and well-behaved, yet he possesses enough wit to see past the princess's strangeness. His willingness to die for her is the only force powerful enough to break the spell of her lightness.

The King and Queen act as the bumbling, often exasperated parents. The King is prone to sudden rages and desperate attempts to fix his daughter with money or steel, while the Queen is the more patient, sorrowful observer of her daughter's plight.

Princess Makemnoit serves as the antagonist. She is the embodiment of spite, living in a garret and nursing her grievances. Her power is rooted in her ability to withhold, eventually trying to starve the princess of her only joy.

In Its Own Voice

"She never could be brought to see the serious side of anything."

The narrator describes the princess’s inability to grasp the gravity of life, including the news of war.

"She seemed altogether more modest and maidenly in the water than out of it."

The prince observes the transformative effect of the lake on the princess’s behavior.

"Love hath made me strong to go, / For thy sake, to realms below."

The prince sings this, reflecting his readiness to sacrifice himself to save the princess and her world.

What It's Really About

At its core, this is a story about the necessity of sorrow. The princess’s lack of gravity is a metaphor for a life without depth; by being unable to suffer, she is also unable to love or connect with others. The book argues that "gravity"—the weight of our burdens, our griefs, and our physical reality—is not a curse but a requirement for human wholeness. The princess must "fall" into the reality of pain before she can truly rise into the fullness of maturity and joy.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy fairy tales that subvert expectation will find much to admire here. The prose is elegant and conversational, blending humor with a deep, almost haunting sense of wonder. It reads like a classic folk tale but feels surprisingly modern in its psychological insights; the princess’s "levity" is a clever way to describe the numbness of those who have never faced hardship.

However, modern readers should be prepared for the Victorian sensibilities of the author. The King’s frequent recourse to drawing his sword or threatening whipping, while intended as a satire of royal "dignity," may strike contemporary readers as harsh. Additionally, the dialect and the occasionally formal sentence structures belong firmly to the nineteenth century. Yet, these elements do not dampen the story's emotional core. If you value literature that treats its younger audience with intellect and treats its older audience with heart, you will likely return to this story. It is a brief, beautiful, and sometimes strange experience that lingers in the mind, specifically the image of the prince singing in the dark as the water rises. It is a quiet meditation on the fact that to be fully alive, we must be willing to be heavy.