The Imp Prince

The Imp Prince (known as Le Prince Lutin in French) is a French fairy tale written by Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy and published in her book Fairy Tales (Les Contes des Fees) in 1697.

The word used, Lutin, in French can have several translations and meanings, in this case and implies: A lutin was like an imp or hobgoblin in the mythology of Normandy, similar to house-spirits of Germany and Scandinavia. Notably, the story gives a description of the Lutin:

The story is about the life of Léandre, a handsome prince who was a human but turned into a lutin (imp) after the ruling prince forced his retreat from court into the countryside.

There was once a king and queen who had a malformed son named Furibon. He was as large as the largest man and small as smallest dwarf, he had an ugly face, deformed body and mean spirit, but the queen was insane and thought Furibon was the most beautiful child in the world. Furibon's governor was a rival prince, who had claims to the throne. This governor (a rival prince) brought with him his own son named prince Léandre.

Léandre was very well liked in court, the ladies loved him, thought him very handsome, and called him the "beautiful indifferent one" (translated). Furibon was hated. Furibon insulted people and reported their secret faults to the King and Queen.

One day, ambassadors came from afar and seeing Léandre with Furibon together, they bowed to Léandre thinking he was the prince, and thinking Furibon was just a dwarf. They teased Furibon and laughed at him. After that, when no one was looking, Furibon angrily took Léandre by the hair and tore out three handfuls. Thus Léandre's father sent Léandre to live in a castle in the countryside, to be safely far away from Furibon. In the countryside, Léandre was free to hunt, fish, walk, paint, read and play musical instruments. Léandre was happy but lonely. While living alone in the country, Léandre almost killed a grass snake, but then brought it home and gave it a room and brought it milk, flowers and food, out of kindness.

One day Furibon came into the woods with assassins to hunt Léandre down and kill him. This convinced Léandre that he must travel the world and away from the kingdom.

Before leaving, Léandre visited the room of the grass snake and found out that it had turned into a beautiful jewel-studded fairy named Gentille. She said she took the form of a grass snake for 8 days every 100 years and could have been killed. Gentille was indebted to Léandre for protecting her life when she was a grass snake and offered him all sorts of rewards: riches, a long life, a kingdom with houses full of gold, the life of an excellent orator, poet, musician, or painter. Finally she suggested he become an "air, water and terrestrial lutin." Gentille described the benefits of being a lutin (imp): "You are invisible when you like it; you cross in one moment the vast space of the universe; you rise without having wings; you go through the ground without dying; you penetrate the abysses of the sea without drowning; you enter everywhere, though the windows and the doors are closed; and, when you decide to, you can let yourself be seen in your natural form."

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