The Swineherd

"The Swineherd" (Danish original title Svinedrengen, commonly titled The Swineherd in English) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, first published in Copenhagen on December 20, 1841, in New Fairy Tales, Third Volume. The story tells of a prince who proposes to an emperor's daughter, first sending two of his most sincere gifts: a rose and a nightingale. The princess, however, scorns them for being "real" and less wondrous than artificial trinkets, and flatly refuses. The prince then disguises himself, enters the palace, and takes the post of swineherd, making in a hut beside the pigsty a little pot that plays music and can smell what is cooking in every pot in the city, and a rattle that, when spun, plays waltzes and galops, pricing them at "ten kisses" and "a hundred kisses." The princess gives in again and again for these playthings, and when she is finally caught kissing the "swineherd" by the pigsty, the emperor sees them and drives her out of the palace gates along with her. The prince washes off his disguise, puts on his royal robes, and tells her: you would rather have a plaything than a real rose and a living nightingale; now you cannot even have a real prince. The story ends with the princess singing alone outside the palace gate, cold and unsparing. This edition is a picture book illustrated by Austrian illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger, whose pale watercolors in brown and gray-blue create classical, stage-like images; the Chinese translation is by Xiyan.