Rosanella facts for kids

Rosanella is a classic French fairy tale. It was written by a French nobleman named the Comte de Caylus. The story's original French title was Rosanie. Later, a famous collector of fairy tales, Andrew Lang, included it in his popular book, The Green Fairy Book.

The Story of Rosanella

This magical tale begins after the Queen of the Fairies passes away. The other fairies needed to choose a new queen. Two powerful fairies, Surcantine and Paridamie, were the main candidates. They decided to have a contest. Whoever could perform the greatest wonder would become queen.

Surcantine's Challenge

Surcantine chose to create a prince. This prince would be perfect in every way. But he would have one big flaw: he could never stay in love with one person. He would always change his mind.

Paridamie's Challenge

Paridamie decided to create a princess. This princess would be so charming that everyone who saw her would instantly fall in love. No one could resist her beauty and kindness.

The Missing Princess

Meanwhile, in a nearby kingdom, King Bardondon and Queen Balanice had a baby daughter. They named her Rosanella. One day, Queen Balanice had a strange dream. She dreamed an eagle flew away with a bouquet of roses from her. When she woke up, baby Rosanella was gone! The queen was heartbroken.

Soon after, some peasant girls brought the queen twelve baskets. Each basket held a beautiful baby girl. The girls told the queen these babies might comfort her. The queen was still sad about Rosanella. But she started caring for the twelve new babies. This helped to distract her from her grief. She gave them names. As they grew, all twelve girls were beautiful and smart. They were also very talented. But their personalities were so clear that people started calling them by their traits. Some were called Sweet, others Grave, or Beautiful.

Prince Mirliflor's Heart

While this was happening, Surcantine was raising Prince Mirliflor. He grew up to be exactly as she planned. He was perfect in every way, except for his changing heart. He would fall in love easily, but then quickly lose interest. He broke many hearts in his father's kingdom.

Prince Mirliflor decided to visit King Bardondon's kingdom. There, he met the twelve maidens. He found himself falling in love with all of them at once! He couldn't choose just one.

A Magical Solution

One day, something terrible happened. Giants suddenly appeared and carried off all twelve maidens! Prince Mirliflor was very sad and felt hopeless. But soon after, Paridamie, the other fairy candidate, appeared. She was with Rosanella. Paridamie told the queen that she would soon forget about the twelve maidens.

Prince Mirliflor did not want to meet Rosanella at first. But he had to. When he saw her, he was amazed. Rosanella seemed to have all the charms of the twelve maidens combined into one person! He was completely captivated. He quickly asked her to marry him.

The Truth Revealed

Then, Paridamie appeared again. She explained a big secret. The twelve maidens had actually all been Rosanella! Paridamie had split Rosanella into twelve parts. This was done so that each part could charm the prince separately. Then, when they were combined back into one, Rosanella would cure Prince Mirliflor of his changing heart.

Surcantine, the other fairy, admitted that Paridamie had won the contest. She was defeated. Surcantine even attended the wedding of Rosanella and Prince Mirliflor. She gave them a special gift to celebrate their union.