Knitting And Dancing

Flipping through my reading list and my to be reviewed list and realized I had not done a post about Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George yet, which would make it a little awkward to do a post about the sequel when I finish it shortly.  Anyways here we go.

As always SPOILER ALERT SPOILERS AHEAD

I initially picked up this book as it is a retelling of one of my absolute favorite fairy tales Twelve Dancing Princesses  which sounds about perfect.  Our story starts with a creepy prologue with a Queen begging a favor from the inhuman King Under Stone. He agrees to a bargain to grant victory to Westfalin in a war that has been going on for years.  Fast forward several years later and the war is finally over.  A young soldier by the name of Galen is making his way towards Westfalin to hopefully find a job with his Uncle, the head gardener in the Kings gardens.  On his way he encounters an old woman with whom he shares his meager store of food.  He also gives her a scarf he knitted, as all soldiers learn to do.  In return for his unusual

generosity the old woman gives him an old cloak that makes him invisible.  She also hints that the Princesses of Westfalin may be in a bit of trouble.  Galen is taken in by his Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, all of whom see a bit of resemblance to there own son who is presumed dead in the war.  Galen becomes his Uncles assistant in the what is known as the King's Folly, which is the name the towns people give to the elaborate time and money consuming garden that the king had built for his wife, to remind her of home.  After she died he has still maintained the garden in memory of her.  We head to the castle where the eldest Princess Rose and her sisters Lily, Jonquil, Hyacinth, Violet, Daisy, Poppy, Iris, Lilac, Orchid, Pansy and Petunia (there mother was very fond of flowers) are being berated by dear old dad the King for wearing out there dancing slippers yet again.  Everybody is frustrated because the girls, who are normally very good, are unable to tell anybody what is happening.  The King tries every method he can think of, locking them in their rooms, guards at ever door and window, maids sleeping in the same room, but to no avail, every third night the princesses shoes are found worn to shreds.  Back in their rooms we learn that after the death of their mother, the girls have taken on paying for their mothers bargain and are compelled to go dance for King Under Stone.  Rose heads to the garden to try and think and is startled by Galen, she falls into the fountain and as a result of her frigid dunking catches a nasty cold.  This does not prevent the girls from dressing up and dancing, as any deviation from the payment schedule results in sever punishment. The other girls end up sick as well, their immune systems worn down by the constant dancing and worry.  Galen does his best to make them feel better, sending them bouquets of their names sake tied with chains he knitted himself. He has taken to Rose in particular, especially after many conversations in the garden.  He knits her a beautiful shawl as a gift, which she takes to wearing constantly.  

Meanwhile the King is trying to find a way to solve the mystery of his daughters dancing and proposes that he will allow any noble who can find the solution to marry one of his daughters and inherit the kingdom.  This is actually the solution to several problems.  One, he can hopefully solve the mystery, two, it may be a way of re enforcing allies now that the war is over, and three, since he has no sons the husband of one of his daughters will inherit the crown.  King Under Stone is not happy about this, as he intends for the 12 Princess's to become the mortal brides of his creepy half mortal sons.  He ensures that none of the foreign dignitaries ever get a glimpse of what the girls are up to, and even worse, he arranges for a deadly accident to befall them after.  After a couple of the Princes die, the other countries start calling for an investigation, saying that the King and his daughters are using witch craft to kill off all the Princes. The church sends a Bishop to get to the bottom of this problem.  Until the girls are cleared the whole country is placed under an Interdict, which places great strain on the kingdom. Meanwhile Galen, with the help of the mysterious Walter who also works in the gardens has convinced the King to let him try and solve the mystery.  He uses a combination of cunning, knitting and his magic cloak to follow the girls.  He sees them get all dressed up.  After a while an enchantment puts everybody except the Princesses (and Galen who has a sprig of nightshade in his pocket) to sleep.  A rug in their room becomes a staircase and the Princesses descend.  They pass through a gate into a forest of silver trees and into boats rowed by the Princes of Under Stone.  They are then made to dance with their assigned Prince all night and then head back up to the above world.  Galen works out that the King Under Stone is at some point going to keep the Princess's from leaving, forcing them to marry his sons. Galen takes a twig from a tree as proof.  He uses the twig to knit a magic chain that he can use to lock the gate.  Back at the palace the Bishop is busy terrifying the Princess's, locking up their tutor on the charge that she is a witch and threatening excommunication for the whole family. Galen goes back with the girls as they are now required to dance every night and takes a goblet as further proof.   On the third night the King Under Stone senses Galen and decides to keep the Princess's under ground.  Galen awakes above ground to discover along with everyone else that the

Princess's are missing.  The Bishop declares that everybody is guilty of witchcraft and that the King must abdicate.  Galen goes to the Bishop's rooms and finds the Queens diary where she details the deal she made with King Under Stone to have children and a later deal to secure victory for the kingdom.  The Queen did not realize that King Under Stone was using her to produce wives for his sons and that he would eventually ensure the countries victory, but not until most of the world was destroyed by it.  The Queen died before she could fulfill her end of the bargain, leaving it to her daughters to finish out the terms of dancing, just as the evil King wanted.  Despite this proof the Bishop is determined to see the King stripped of his throne and the whole family ex-communicated.  Galen finds a way to the underworld, and helps the Princess's to escape.  He shows the proof to the King and the curse is broken.  The Bishop does not care and still insists on punishment...until the priest of the castle discovers a letter stating that the Bishop was just supposed to assist the castle priest and has no authority.  It turns out that the King Under Stone is actually an ancient foe of the country and many powerful magician's gave up a lot, some even their lives to seal the King Under Stone into his underground kingdom.  Walter and the old lady who gave Galen his cloak are two of the surviving magicians. Galen asks Rose if she will marry him, to which she consents.  They marry and everybody lives happily ever until the next book.

I liked this book, it was a retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales, it combined magic with a more realistic world, it had a variety of believable characters and a knitting soldier which was just cool.  I love books that have an everyday talent, knittitng, cooking, metalsmithing, dancing, painting, writing, sewing, etc. and shows how you can make magic out of it.  I appreciated the fact that the author tried to give every character some sort of distinctive personality.  Obviously the book mostly focused on Rose and Galen, as it would be hard to have decent length book that focused on all 12 girls, but each Princesses still got a personality to set them apart.  I like how magic does not have a huge part in the above ground world, it is there, hidden and known only to a few, but by and large it is a representation of an Elizabethan era Europe, even the names of the countries are variants of real life places.  I like that religion came into play as it would during that time period and I liked that it was represented as both good, and when taken to extremes by certain individuals bad. I thought it was a bit of a risky decision to make their mother an unwitting "bad guy", being the reason the girls were cursed in the first place.  I loved that the author did not go with the perfect mother who the girls had to impossibly live up to. While pieces of this book were very original and fresh, the basic story and pattern were very familiar, not really deviating from the standard YA fairytale story giving a "have I read this before?" feeling on occasion. Overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anybody who likes fairy tales, knitting or a good story.  I give it 9 out of 12 dancing slippers.

What fairytale do you want to be retold?  Do you like it when they mix religion and magic?  What household art do you find magical?

As a bit of an extra, if you want to read the original tale with the most beautiful illustrations try and get your hands on this book

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

It is stunning and detailed and amazing and I love it so much!