"Prince Lindworm" (also "King Lindworm"), is a 19th century Scandinavian Fairy Tale, collected in East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North and usually attributed to Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jorgen Moe.
As is common in these tales, the story begins with a husband and wife (in this case, a king and queen) who are unable to conceive a child. In an effort to overcome her childless situation, they follow the advice of an old crone, who tells the queen to eat two onions. She did not peel the first onion, causing the first twin to be a hideous lindworm. The second twin boy is perfect in every way.
When he grows up and sets off to find a bride, the lindworm insists that a bride be found for him before his younger brother can marry. The lindworm sets two conditions for the bride he must marry: she must be a virgin and love him willingly. But none of the chosen maidens fill these conditions, and as a result he kills each new bride they bring him. This creates a slight problem for the kingdom until a shepherd's daughter who spoke to the same crone is brought to marry him.
When the wedding-day arrived, the girl was fetched in the Royal chariot with the six white horses, and taken to the castle to be decked as a bride. And she asked for ten snow-white shifts to be brought her, and the tub of lye, and the tub of milk, and as many whips as a boy could carry in his arms. The ladies and courtiers in the castle thought, of course, that this was some bit of peasant superstition, all rubbish and nonsense. But the King said, "Let her have whatever she asks for." She was then arrayed in the most wonderful robes, and looked the loveliest of brides.
She was led to the hall where the wedding ceremony was to take place, and she saw the Lindworm for the first time as he came in and stood by her side. So they were married, and a great wedding-feast was held, a banquet fit for the son of a king.
When the feast was over, the bridegroom and bride were conducted to their apartment, with music, and torches, and a great procession. Once in the room, the lindworm tells her to take off her dress, but she insists he shed a skin for each dress she removes. And so this went on until nine Lindworm skins were lying on the floor, each of them covered with a snow-white shift. And there was nothing left of the Lindworm but a huge thick mass, most horrible to see. Then the girl seized the whips, dipped them in the lye, and whipped him as hard as ever she could. Next, she bathed him all over in the fresh milk. Lastly, she dragged him on to the bed and put her arms round him. And she fell fast asleep that very moment.
Next morning very early, the King and the courtiers came and peeped in through the keyhole. They wanted to know what had become of the girl, but none of them dared enter the room. However, in the end, growing bolder, they opened the door a tiny bit. And there they saw the girl, all fresh and rosy, and beside her lay the loveliest youth in the world.
It can be read in the Project Gutenberg
, here and here. One variant can be read here.
Some versions of the story include two roses instead of onions, sometimes the peasant girl is a princess, or omit the lindworm's twin, and the gender of the soothsayer varies. The extended Princess variant can be read here.
Some experts argue "Prince Lindworm" is not a Norwegian tale, but it is actually a Danish tale called "Kong Lindorm", "collected by N. Levinsen in 1854 and published in Axel Olrik's Danske Sagn og Æventyr fra Folkemunde (1913).
The tale contains the following tropes:
- Beast and Beauty: The hideous, violent Lindworm and the shepherd's kind, beautiful daughter.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In "The Story of Prince Scursuni", a Sicilian variant, the childless queen prays to God to give her a child, "even if it's a scursuni" (a kind of serpent). God grants her wish as worded.
- Dragons Prefer Princesses: Subverted. The dragon prefers maidens, but not necessarily princesses. Makes a little bit more sense than most versions, considering said dragon is actually a young prince.
- I'm a Humanitarian: In some versions, the Lindworm eats the women offered to him.
- Karma Houdini: The Lindworm never faces any consequence for killing and eating two princesses.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: The King and the Queen were unable to have children until the latter's followed a kind witch's advice. Unfortunately, the Queen disregarded the witch's warnings about following her instructions exactly, and one of her children was born as a snake-like dragon.
- Monster Misogyny: Played with. The Lindworm killed two maidens, but it turns out he wasn't looking for a meal— he was looking for a bride. The final maiden, the one who actually stood up to him, is the one who marries him... and that's only after she discovers that his true form is a gorgeous human man.
- No Name Given: All the characters are nameless, as is common in Fairy Tales.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Lindworm is a giant talking serpent that was born from a human mother that botched a fertility cure and sheds its skin like a snake. In the end, the heroine tricks into shedding so many skins that the draconic body is shed entirely to reveal a human body beneath it.
- Plot Hole: Some versions of the story have the witch instruct the queen to eat one of two magical roses — a white one if she wants a daughter and a red one of she wants a son — but not both. The queen eats the white one first and then finds it so delicious she eats the red one too, which results in her firstborn child being a lindworm and her second child being a human boy. Given she ate the white rose first, her firstborn child should have been a daughter, but both children are male and the fairy tale gives no explanation as to why.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: One Indian version reverses this, though; the prince is cursed to become a monstrous fish and the girl is helped by talking snakes.
- Virgin Power: The miller's/shepherd's daughter has it down, and manages to turn the Lindworm into a beautiful young man.
- Wedlock Block: The Lindworm demands to be wed ahead of his twin brother (with the rallying cry "a bride for me before a bride for you!"). He ensures that he is wed before the other prince by blocking the latter's routes to other kingdoms during his own search for a bridal candidate.
- Wicked Stepmother: In some versions, especially those found in Asia, the heroine is sold to the lindworm by her stepmother, usually in the hope that he will eat her. When she learns that she accidentally married off her stepdaughter to a king, she either kills herself or plots revenge.
