| The Princess Who Would be a Prince | |
|---|---|
| Folk tale | |
| Name | The Princess Who Would be a Prince |
| Also known as | Iliane of the Golden Tresses; Helena Goldengarland; The Girl Who Pretended to be a Boy |
| Aarne–Thompson grouping | ATU 514, "The Shift of Sex" |
| Mythology | Romanian |
| Country | Romania |
Ileana Simziana or Ileana Sînziana (also translated to English as The Princess Who Would be a Prince or Iliane of the Golden Tresses[1][2] and Helena Goldengarland[3]) is a Romanian fairy tale collected and written down by Petre Ispirescu between 1872 and 1886.[1] It tells the story of an unnamed youngest daughter of an emperor, who dresses up as a man, goes to serve another emperor and rescues the titular princess Ileana. During a quest of obtaining the Holy Water she is hit by a curse of a monk that causes her to transform into a man - Făt-Frumos (Prince Charming figure), who marries Ileana in the happy ending.
- ^ a b Ready, Psyche Z. (2016-08-08). "She was really the man she pretended to be": Change of Sex in Folk Narratives (MA thesis). Archived from the original on 2021-11-13. Retrieved 2019-08-20.
- ^ Ispirescu, Petre; Ipcar, Rea; Collier Harris, Julia (1917). The Foundling Prince, & Other Tales: Translated And Adapted From the Roumanian of Petre Inspirescu. Boston: Houghton Mifflin company. pp. 39–284.
- ^ "The Miraculous Tomcat and Other Stories - American Folklore Society". www.afsnet.org. Retrieved 2019-08-20.