“There grew magnificent oaks and beech-trees; and if the bark was split of any of them, long blades of grass grew out of the clefts; there were also large smooth lakes in the wood, on which the swans were swimming about and flapping their wings.”
The Wild Swans
Hans Christian Andersen
Inspired by Jens Jensen, the Prairie School Era landscape architect and conservationist who immigrated to the Midwest from his native Denmark, where Hans Christian Andersen wrote ‘The Princess and the Pea’ as part of his collection of original fairy tales. Andersen often created ornate paper-cuts while telling his fairy tales to children and worked on a scrapbook project for Adolph Drewsen’s granddaughter that featured many illustrations of butterflies. Jensen believed in the power of fairy tales and promoted dramatic masques performed in endangered Midwestern landscapes to help save the environment.
>>Available @ Marigold Games
Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.
The Princess and the Pea
Hans Christian Andersen
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Clockwise: detail from Edmund Dulac’s illustration from The Princess and the Pea; one of Hans Christian Andersen’s paper cuts; Hans Christian Andersen at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen, 1867, Thora Hallager; from Wikimedia Commons.
The water streamed out of her hair and her clothes; it ran in at the top of her shoes and out at the heel, but she said that she was a real princess.
The Princess and the Pea
Hans Christian Andersen
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Players turn over pillows and gather mattresses in Princess on the Prairie, while enjoying macaroons on location at a local treasure–All Chocolate Kitchen in Geneva, Illinois.
Especially Made for 2-4 Players, Ages 5+
Princess on the Prairie is a unique cooperative game experience that encourages social skills filled with moments of joy and wonder born of our own imagination under the magical spell cast by a fairy tale. Counting, speech, memory, creativity and imaginative play are all key elements of the successful game play. Princess on the Prairie is all-inclusive and was made for everyone.
The game set includes: Rules of Play, Lace Trimmed Cotton Play Mat, Drawstring Muslin Game Bag, 21 Royal Cotton Mattresses, and 40 Royal Pillow Cards featuring Shining Stars, Flowering Blossoms, Fluttering Butterflies, Golden Dragonflies, plus a Golden Crown, Golden Fleece, and a Green Pea.
>>Available @ Marigold Games
Scenes from an ‘After School Games Club’ where students collaborated to create their own takeaway games to play with friends and family, inspired by Princess on the Prairie and fairy tales. All game elements were made from recycled watercolor artworks, made by the children.
A 'blue' version of Princess on the Prairie made especially for boys and fans of the color blue: players catch shooting stars and gather mattresses to become either the Royal Prince/Princess in this unique cooperative game experience.
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Slumbering Dreams was played in an After School Games Club with grade school children who enjoyed sharing lively conversations about sleepy time and their dreams while playing this unique game.
“It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a real princess.”
The Princess and the Pea
Hans Christian Andersen
“Towards evening, she heard at the grating the flutter of a swan's wing, it was her youngest brother—he had found his sister, and she sobbed for joy . . .”
The Wild Swans
Hans Christian Andersen