The 12 Dancing Princesses by Brother’s Grimm

Book 12: 30 books for 30 days December

The 12 dancing Princesses by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairy tale originating from Germany. It is also known by some as The Worn-out Dancing Shoes or The Shoes that Were Danced to Pieces. 

How old the tale actually is, is rather a mystery, but we know it came from already existing tales surrounding the Grimm brother’s upbringing. 

Summary of the 12 Dancing Princesses

The story begins with a man named Noble who visits a King with 12 beautiful daughters. The King notices that his daughter’s shoes change day to day from their new state into an old and worn appearance; and it only takes one day. The twelve daughters slept in a locked room all together in twelve beds, so the mystery of the worn shoes perplexes and angers the King.

In order to solve the mystery of his daughters’ shoes, the King sends out a decree stating that whoever finds why the shoes are worn out in only a day will be able to wed one of his twelve daughters. Many Princes and men come to solve the mystery but not a single man can solve the mystery. Any who attempt but fail are killed.

A wounded soldier passes through the kingdom of the twelve princesses and, in his curiosity, wants to try and solve the mystery. On his way to the castle, the soldier helps an old woman who warns him about the 12 princesses. She warns him to drink nothing the princesses give him. 

Later, when one of the daughters tries to drug him, he pretends to drink and fall asleep. When the princesses retreat out of the room, he follows them down a trap door hidden in their room. The passage leads to boats and in turn to the twelve princesses in their hideaway where they dance all night long.

As proof of success, the soldier retrieves a branch from each of the three trees he discovers- silver, gold, and diamond trees. He also retrieves a golden cup. 

List of Symbols

Below is a list of symbols I found in The 12 Dancing Princesses which I think pertain well to life and particularly life during Christmas.

Gold Tree

The gold tree represents the sun or the grail. The grail is the cup or platter used in the last supper; therefore, the meaning of the golden tree represents the son of God, Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice for men and the gift of life and truth through repentance on our part because he gave his life to us so we could be like him. The sun or the gold also represents male energy, light, and power.

The Silver Tree

Silver represents the moon. The moon symbolizes femininity, the yin and yang of life, or the balance of good and evil; light and dark. The moon also represents cyclical patterns or eternity. The moon represents the tides, the water and ocean, the emotions of life and the test of the earth world. The phases of the moon and the growth and nurturing of a human. 

In Christianity, the moon represents the symbiotic relationship and nurture of living beings. The children of God, or Birth to Death and resurrection, or a return to a better after life.

The Diamond Tree

The diamond represents the pressures of life or becoming better through pressure (a diamond is a piece of carbon under 725,000-1.3 million pounds per inch and over 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit).

We as humans striving to become and be more like Jesus Christ, the Christmas baby, will need a lot of pressure and refinement in order to become who we need to. The diamond is a symbol of all the worldly pressures and the pains, pressures, and temptations Jesus Christ received in his lifetime. 

The 12 Princes and Princesses 

Each one of the daughters in the story represents the Zodiac constellations or months of the year leading to the year's end. Each of the daughters represents a month, each month, or daughter, has gifts to give and the last month, the month of Christmas, is the most beautiful of all and has Christ in her heart.

The Soldier 

Represents those looking for the answer to the mystery and in the end he chooses the least of the beautiful daughters. 

The old lady 

Represents wisdom of the elders

What Does The 12 Dancing Princesses Have to Do with Christmas?

I have always loved this book as a Christmas read. This is a Christmas story because it shares the Christian based anthology in a deeper sense. The symbols, as previously mentioned, remind me of Christ's birth and those who seek to learn the truth and mysteries of Christmas. This story also illustrated the beauty and celebration of the coming of Christ and the savior into the life above ground. 

Many religions around the world have used fables and fairy tales to interest people into coming to Christ through storytelling for centuries. Not all meaningful stories and principled writings are in the Bible. There is a lot we can learn about Christmas through folktales and fables. They are a remnant of peoples passed and what they knew and understood about humanity and the meaning of life.

A Bit About the Grimm Brothers

The Brothers Grimm were German folklorists and linguists.  According to Maria Tatar, a professor and scholar, the Grimm brothers “sanitized” the old fairy tales. Disney made them G rated from their, in some accounts, R rated origin.

The Grimm Brothers aren’t necessarily the authors of their stories. The 12 Dancing Princesses came from long standing local folklore. The Grimm Brothers are famous for collecting a number of fairytales and rewriting/compiling them into books. All the fairy tales collected by the brothers were tales they heard from friends and neighbors, or stories passed down for centuries with origins quite unclear to everyone around. 

The brothers gathering and rewriting the fairy tales is fascinating because society seems to always want something new. Yet, when looking through history, it’s almost one big rewrite and retelling with the principles and ideas relatively the same (good and bad).