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

He asks Irene how she got there and she tells him the truth, but, of course, it makes no sense to him. He’s a miner and he’s lost. He cannot fathom how she found him. He tells her she has only a little way to go before he can push a slab to push the rest of the stones over. After he pushes over the slab, he is worried it will be hard to escape. She has full confidence in her grandmother’s thread.

Thread does not go down into the hole. It zigzags around as if to tell her to remove all the stones, instead of a narrow gap. She does not lose courage because when a pile of stones are pulled, she feels the tug of the thread. She got halfway down the pile and she is startled by Curdie’s rhymes. Then he remembers he needs to be weak. Then he wonders who the girl is because he doesn’t recognize Irene.

Ch. 21 Harrowing of Hell and she’s using Ariadne’s thread. Instead of betraying her country, this Ariadne goes into the labyrinth, guided by good, to free the captive. She stops crying and realizes that she must remove stones one at a time to to find out where the thread goes. She is sure it will bring her to her grandmother. She works diligently to the point of her hands bleeding.

She finally reaches the mica window and the fiery red opals. Then she reaches the pile of stones outside where Curdie is making up rhymes. She does not know what to do because the thread seems to have disappeared. She cries and then decides to return home. The string behind her has vanished and she can only move forward. She cries some more on the pile of stones outside of Curdie’s hole.

In terms of imagery, Curdie is trapped in the land of night which is anti-sun. Irene is in the day which is anti-moon. The creatures were household pets that hit her door and somehow Lootie sleep through it all. The thread takes her up the mountain. It’s a beautiful spring morning. Perfect weather. She can see her thread shining in the sunlight. She is cheerful as she follows the thread with her rosy forefinger.

Ch. 20 Irene dreams about the goblin creatures and waks up in a fright. She remembers what her grandmother told her and she puts the ring under her pillow. She feels a hand take it. Then she sees her grandmother’s sky-blue cloak and puts it on her. She feels for the thread and finds it. she holds it lightly and follows it but it does not take her upstairs. She goes downstairs and goes through a door to the backyard.

She is definitely a bully and threatens him. AFter they leave, Curdie tires to make the hole larger but it is impossible. He decides to preentd to be dying sooner rather than later. He uses this lull to make up more rhymes. I love that RHYMES are a weapon.

The king says she is a positivie genius for conquest. Curdie starts up with one of his new rhymes to their great horror. They trheaten him and he tells them to go for it. He’s trying to lure them before they get to week. They decide to go to bed and Curdie really riles her up with a rhyme about her toes. They have a big argument because the king wants her to go without her shoes when she goes to bed and she refuses.

She wants to let their creatures on him. The king agrees because they do not know how much Curdie learned about their operations. The idea is to tie him up after he is weak and let the animals tuck in. The queen wonders why the goblins don’t just kill off the sun-people since they are so weak. They could us upstairs as an outhouse. They could keep cows so that they wouldn’t have to steal cream and cheese.

Ch. 19 Curdie wakes up after a very long sleep. He can’t tell if it’s day or night. The goblins sleep during the day because they like to avoid the sun-people. Since he hears them talking, Curdie believes it is night. They talk about starving Curdie. Sun people have to eat more often than goblins. The queen says she should have a say because she caught Curdie. She doesn’t want to waste fresh meat.