Tammy’s Reviews > The Princess and the Goblin > Status Update

He is confused for they are digging in the wrong place for a flood. It must be the other part of the plan. He often has to retreat. He’s not afraid of them. He doesn’t want them to realize they are being watched. He winds it up before going home in a hodge-podge way. While he rests, his mother unwinds it and winds the ball properly. Reminds me of crocheting with little kids. He has no idea what their back-up plan is.

Her rough hands are beautiful because of what she did, which makes Curdie willing to work hard for her in return. Rather than dwell on these things, they just do it. Every night Curdie works for a few hours. Then he climbs through the whole with a ball of string (like fairy tale pebbles or breadcrumbs) to avoid getting lost in the goblin hall. On the third or fourth night, he finally finds goblins hard at work.

Ch. 12 Curdie works many nights in the mines. He tells his mother about the goblins but not the red petticoat. She can keep a secret. This reminds me of my adopted mom: she made a little heaven in that poor cottage on the high hillside for her husband and son to go home to out of the low and rather dreary earth in which they worked. We were poor but she made it a lovely home with simple things.

Her dream has murmuring trees and fragrant wild flower beds. She wakes up in her own bed. Her hand has healed. There is no bandage but there is a sweet order that lingers.

If the lamp goes out, the room looks like an old attic. So, there are two realities exissting at the same time! The soft bed is comfortable. Grandmother has a trial for her: in a week, she must return. Irene is afraid she will forget but the real issue is whether she will believe. She must see her grandmother on the next Friday night. She has a wonderful dream (summer seas, moonlight, mossy springs).

Oh, wow! Here we have more washing! The white stage! She gets a silver basin (moon) and washes Irene’s feet (image of Christ) before they get into bed. Grandmother never turns off her moon lamp to help guide the doves back to her room. Only five people in a hundred years ever notice her lamp. Some rub their eyes and think it’s a meteor. Nobody can find her room unless she calls them (Christ image).

Grandmother takes a silver casket from an odd-looking cabinet. She takes out some ointment with an odor of roses and lilies that fills the room. She rubs the ointment on Irene’s swollen hand, driving away pain and heat. She gets out some gossamer cambric and wraps her hand. She agrees to go to bed with her grandmother who gives her three kisses (forehead, cheek, mouth).

She needs to work another week for it to be ready. The grandmother takes her to her bedroom but grabs the wrong hand. She looks at Irene’s wound GRAVELY. Her room is an image of the heavens: dome-shaped, large, lofty. A spherical lamp shines in the center. A large oval bed has a rose-colored coverlid. The velvet curtains around it are pale blue. The walls are blue spangled with silver stars.

Grandmother is spinning a very thin thread that is a silvery gray color with very mild glitter. Her pigeons bring the strong spider web material from over the sea! What an image!!!!!! Normally, a spider uses the thread to make a web to trap a victim OR to wrap the victim and suck its blood. This thread will be used against the goblins (already given a spidery image)! BOOM! She only spins it with moonlight (runes?).

Iren asks why she couldn’t find her. It’s because she didn’t believe. Even if Lootie saw the grandmother, she would rub her eyes and talk herself out of believing. Irene realizes she’s been acting like Lootie and she’s ashamed. Wait! The first time she visited her grandmother, the lady washed her face and hands. Is that a white stage? If so, then I need to look for black before that. Hmmmm.