91 pages • 3 hours read
George MacDonaldThe Princess and the Goblin
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1872A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 17-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Springtime”
Spring arrives, and the king comes to visit Irene again. He seldom visits because he is often traveling about the country, getting to know his people and searching for new men to recruit. Irene asks her father about the ring and where she got it, and he answers that it was indeed her mother’s. When he tells Irene that “she’s gone where all those rings are made” (100), he begins to cry, implying that she has died. The king decides to go up the staircase and is gone for a couple of hours; Irene thinks he must have seen Grandmother. The king appoints six more guards to keep watch upon hearing about the goblin creatures but takes comfort in the fact that Irene now wears the ring. Irene spends the next several days admiring the flowers in the garden. Goats wander the mountainside; some belong to miners, but others are wild. The goblins often trap the wild goats at night, presumably to eat.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Curdie’s Clue”
One night while exploring the goblin caves, Curdie’s string seems to lead him in the wrong direction, deeper into the caves and towards the goblin homes. He feels a sudden tugging and follows the string to a hoard of goblin creatures who attack and bite him. Fortunately, the axe is also there, and he uses it to fend them off. Lost and unsure what to do, he sees a far-off light. He discovers it is a piece of mica, glowing with a fiery light behind it. It leads to a chamber where some goblins sitting around a fire. Curdie notices each of them wears shiny stones and realizes he has found the royal family’s quarters.
The prince, named Harelip, starts talking about a girl that he plans to torture by tying her toes together. Curdie attempts to get closer but falls into the goblins’ chambers. He explains that he lost his way and was attacked by some creatures. The goblin king tells Curdie to leave, and when Curdie asks for a guide, the king calls in several goblins. They circle around Curdie, so he begins to sing in verse: “Seventy, eighty, ninety, All your hands so flinty!” (110). The rhyme only seems to work for a moment, and the goblins start attacking. Curdie steps on the king’s feet, and the king lets out “a most unkingly howl” (110). The queen charges at Curdie, grabbing him and throwing him into a hole in the wall. The goblins trap him inside with a slab of rock. Curdie realizes he is in trouble but soon passes out from exhaustion.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Goblin Counsels”
Curdie wakes feeling refreshed. He hears goblin voices, confirming that it must be nighttime again. Harelip talks about how long it will take for Curdie to starve to death; the queen wants to feed him to the pets long before he starves. The king, who will do anything for his wife, agrees to bring Curdie out and “have the pleasure of seeing him torn to pieces by full torchlight in the great hall” (114). The queen ponders why the goblins have not just gotten rid of the humans altogether. She notes that they could use the land for grazing and take all of the humans’ animals. Curdie begins to sing another rhyme: “Why should their shoes have soles, Sir, / When they’ve got no souls?” (116). The queen cannot bear the sound, and the king suggests going to sleep. He decides that he wants the queen to take off her shoes for bed, but the queen denies his request. The goblins go to bed, and Curdie resolves to spend his time creating more rhymes. He plans to pretend to be dead when the goblins return, hoping they will move the stone and give him a chance to escape.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Irene’s Clue”
Irene wakes that morning to the sound of creatures hissing and fighting in her room (they turn out to be house cats). Remembering Grandmother’s advice, she puts the ring under her pillow and instantly feels comforted. She notices a “long cloak of sky blue” that she instinctively knows is meant for her (119). Irene puts it on and begins to follow the thread. It leads her past the kitchen and out into the yard to a door in the side of the mountain. Irene goes through and follows the thread up the mountain. Feeling unafraid, she admires the sun and the flowers as she goes.
The thread eventually leads Irene to a hole in the rock made by a stream, and she goes inside without hesitation. She is plunged into darkness but hangs onto the thread as she trudges along the difficult and steep path, trusting her grandmother’s words. Irene follows the thread straight up a rock face and finds that it goes through a wall. She falls down in frustration upon realizing the thread refuses to lead her back where she came from. She wonders what to do next, unaware that Curdie is on the other side of the wall.
Chapter 21 Summary: “The Escape”
After crying for a while, Irene realizes she can lift the stones away to clear a path. She does just this, overturning so many stones that her hands begin to bleed. Irene’s fear vanishes as she once again feels certain her grandmother sent her here with a purpose. She has cleared about half the stones when she hears Curdie singing and realizes why she is there. Curdie is able to push the slab away and get out of the hole. Irene insists that they follow the thread, even if it does not seem to make sense. Curdie is doubtful but does not want to leave the stubborn princess alone. He is also confused as to how Irene was able to find him, but she refuses to explain until later. Curdie follows Irene through a narrow tunnel and out into a clearing where the goblin king and queen happen to be sleeping. Curdie sees his pickaxe lying next to the queen. He grabs the axe and pushes his luck by trying to remove the queen’s shoes. He gets one off and finds she has six toes, but then both she and the king awaken.
Irene and Curdie narrowly escape through a hole too small for the goblins. On the way out of the caverns, Curdie tells Irene everything he knows about the goblins. Irene in turn explains her grandmother’s magic, but Curdie does not believe her. When Irene tells him to feel the thread, he cannot feel anything. Irene continues following the thread regardless, which eventually takes them through a hole in the ground. Following the underground stream, they reach the open air again. Irene asks Curdie if he now believes in her grandmother’s thread, insisting, “You must believe without seeing” (135), but Curdie remains doubtful. Irene takes Curdie to the farmhouse so he can leave up the mountainside for home, and she notices her thread is leading upstairs; she begs Curdie to come meet Grandmother, and he agrees.
Chapter 22 Summary: “The Old Lady and Curdie”
Irene and Curdie ascend the stairs and meet Grandmother, who welcomes Curdie kindly and tells Irene, “Those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less” when Irene complains that Curdie did not believe her (138). Unfortunately, Curdie still cannot see Grandmother, nor any of her belongings, and becomes frustrated with Irene: He believes she is playing a trick on him. Grandmother tells Irene to be patient with Curdie. In a huff, Curdie leaves, accusing Irene of making a fool of him. Grandmother reasons with Irene, telling her that she must show Curdie the same understanding she expects from him.
Irene is filthy and bruised from her excursion, so Grandmother places her in a magical silver bath that seems to be made of stars and sky. Irene plunges in and loses all sense of the external world, feeling nothing but happiness and a soothing calm. While in the water, she can hear her grandmother “singing a strange sweet song, of which she could distinguish every word; but of the sense she had only a feeling—no understanding” (142). Afterward, Irene is healed, and Grandmother assures Irene that Curdie got home safely. She puts Irene to bed.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Curdie and His Mother”
Curdie walks home in a foul mood, angry at Irene and at himself. He falls asleep for the rest of the day and then tells his parents the story of how he came to be saved by Irene. His mother can sense that something is not right, as he seems gloomy; when Curdie confesses that Irene told him a story about a magic thread and grandmother, his parents wonder if perhaps she was telling the truth. They reason that she could not logically have found her way to Curdie alone, or even known to look for him without something to guide her. Curdie’s mother suggests that Curdie disbelief stems from a lack of understanding and says that it sounds as though Irene was earnest in her claims.
Curdie’s mother decides to tell Curdie a secret that will help him believe Irene. She used to hear her own mother and grandmother talk about Irene’s family, claiming it is of a special bloodline. Curdie’s mother recalls an experience in which she was coming home from the mine after parting from Curdie’s father. A group of goblins and their creatures began attacking her, but a large, moon-like globe appeared overhead, accompanied by a white pigeon. The pigeon flew through the rays of light shining down and scared the goblins away. Afterward, the light disappeared. This was the last time Curdie’s mother was ever bothered by the goblins.
Curdie realizes he has been unkind to Irene and decides to make it up to her. In the meantime, he believes that the goblins are mining towards the farmhouse, and he follows them to map their path along the stream. Curdie also believes that Harelip intends to kidnap and marry Irene by burrowing under the castle and besieging it.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Irene Behaves Like a Princess”
Irene wakes to a slew of servants, including Lootie, who is furious. She yells at Irene, warning her not to tell stories and demanding to know why she continues playing tricks on them. Irene remains calm, telling Lootie that she need not explain anything since Lootie will never believe her anyway. Irene accuses Lootie of being rude and reminds her that the king would not approve of her yelling at Irene. She asks that one of the guards take charge of her instead and calls for the king to come at once. When Lootie breaks down in tears, Irene rescinds her demands and asks Lootie to dress her—a show of her power as a princess and her ability to bend others to her will.
Chapters 17-24 Analysis
MacDonald’s plot structure is of its time, extending the rising action for several chapters and building action, conflict, and tension. The characters’ courage and Faith in the Mystical are tested along the way, and each event prepares them for the next. These incidents build upon one another until the story finally reaches its climax and the goblins attack.
One of the principal ways in which MacDonald extends his story is by incorporating detailed imagery of the weather, the sky, and the atmosphere. There is a constant juxtaposition between light and darkness—between the caves and the surface world, between night and day, and between nights without moonlight and nights in which the moon shines brightly (either through Grandmother’s lamp or the moon itself). The novel is also accented by several black and white drawings that further add to the visual nature of the work. Many of these feature Irene and showcase her long, curly hair and cherub-like face. Others illustrate the goblins and their mangled, angry appearance.
Throughout the rising action, Irene and Curdie have their faith tested multiple times. Grandmother’s thread leads Irene to Curdie, who is trapped in the goblin caves. She follows the thread implicitly up the mountain and through dangerous tunnels, but her faith wavers when she comes across a large heap of stones. Eventually, she realizes that she can move these—faith in a higher power does not mean that one never needs to do anything for oneself—and her trust in the thread is restored. Curdie is less easily persuaded. Despite the fact that Irene could not possibly have known to save Curdie or even where to find him, Curdie does not believe Irene’s claims about being led by a thread. His faith is not as secure as Irene’s, and he has never seen Grandmother or her magic. Irene’s remark that this shouldn’t matter paraphrases John 20:29: “[B]lessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believe.”
Curdie fortunately has faith in Irene herself and follows her out of the tunnels, but even when he accompanies Irene to Grandmother’s room, he cannot see her, the lamp, or any of her belongings. He becomes increasingly frustrated and cross with Irene, accusing her of playing a trick on him. It is not until Curdie hears from his mother, whom he trusts completely, that she too has seen the moon lamp that he begins to realize he was wrong to doubt Irene. Through Curdie’s mother, MacDonald clarifies the nature of faith. Faith is not simply baseless belief: As Curdie’s mother explains Irene has offered an account of how she found him. In the absence of a better explanation, she suggests, it is actually irrational to reject this account simply because it seems fantastical. On the other hand, faith is meaningless if it hinges on absolute proof: “That [Curdie’s disbelief] may be only because you do not understand it. If you did, you would probably find it was an explanation, and believe it thoroughly” (146). Curdie still has doubts after this but feels guilty for berating Irene and resolves to make it up to her.
Meanwhile, Irene is hurt by Curdie’s accusations and seeks her grandmother’s counsel, who reminds her that she must be patient with Curdie: Believing takes time, and not everyone finds it easy. Even Irene, who does believe, does not understand everything. Like the thread, the song Irene hears while in her grandmother’s bath illustrates how (MacDonald maintains) God manifests in human life. The music consistently evades her attempts to grasp it—she cannot make sense of the song in its totality, and she forgets it afterwards—but it speaks to her on a fundamental level and consistently nudges her towards moral behavior. The song is a glimpse into the greater spiritual reality that Irene’s father alludes to when he describes her mother as having “gone where all those rings are made” (100). Though Irene’s ring is uniquely magical, the implication seems to be that it and all other worldly things are echoes of the divine realm.
The novel also continues to develop What It Means to Be a Princess. When Irene is accused of lying once again by Lootie and the other servants, she “behaves like a princess” (155), remaining calm and exercising her power to make demands. However, Curdie’s conversation with his mother again clarifies that it is not Irene’s nobility is more a matter of character than of status. When he observes that princesses can and do lie, his mother tells him that this princess would not because she’s a “good girl,” which means “more” than royalty. Likewise, MacDonald depicts Irene’s father as a wise and kind ruler who mingles with his subjects and cares for their well-being.
The Dual Nature of Humanity is further explored as Curdie discovers more about the humanlike beings who live below the mountain’s surface. Curdie finds out that the goblins have a royal family, much like the humans do, and that their queen even has human lineage. The goblins consider this a shameful and horrible secret, and she keeps her six-toed feet hidden with heavy granite shoes. However, the goblin prince wants to kidnap Irene and marry her, thereby mixing the humans and goblins together again. The goblins are (in their eyes) a subjugated species whose aggression and anger stems from the humans’ views and treatment of them. They reason that by mixing with humans, they can take back the surface world that humans took from them.
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