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

Curdie wishes he could apologize but has no opportunity which makes him more vigilant in his watch. The author even wonders if he is a prince because he has such a strong desire to apologize. One night the goblins move up on an inclined plane and level out. Then they go at a steep angle and at that point he hides in the garden without his miner gear. He does that for several nights.

The guards are shocked to find the creature Curdie killed. They assume a goblin knifed it and it crawled out. Curdie watches the goblines every night. He does nothing because they are going deeper. Irene spends the summer outdoors and playing with miner’s children which horrifies Lootie because she is too ignorant to understand that a real princess loves her people. She also thinks and dreams of her grandmother.

Then she requests the captain of the guard to take charge of her and he agrees. Lootie goes into hysterics (she reminds me of Mrs. Bennet). In a very princess (and Lizzie) like fashion, she does not explain where she was but she says she would not trouble the whole household by hiding.

Ch.24 Irene wakes up and there’s a crowd of people in her room. Lootie chews her out for hiding in her bed all day and causing an uproar. When Irene tells her she did not do that, Lootie screams not to tell stories. She decides to say nothing, which frustrates Lootie even more. Irene says Lootie is rude and Lootie says Irene is rude. She asks the housekeeper to take her. She is afraid of Lootie and refuses.

He kills it with his pen knife. He comes home safely with his drawings. He firmly believes that they are tunneling until they go under the castle and will sneak in from underground.

He thinks the goblins will kidnap her and threaten to kill her unless her father agrees to a marriage to broker peace. They will use her to get what they want. His mother is afraid of how they will torment her. Curdie is determined to protect her. He asks for food, pencil, and paper plus his pickaxe. He plans to go to the castle, climb over the wall, and go into the tunnel. He mets a creature in a narrow passage.

He tells his parents about the activity of the goblins. He has a theory and he’s determined to go back to the mine to prove it. He believes they are digging a passage toward the king’s garden (ahem, The Silver Chair). He wants to go from the king’s garden and follow the stream He has a hunch the goblins will be working in that area. He heard them talking about Harelip marrying a sun-blood and he thinks it’s Irene.

Some goblins tormented her and harassed her. They tore her clothes. A great orb appeared but that did not frighten them. A white pigeon, shining silver in the sun, flew down toward them and that scared them. His mother never had goblin trouble after that. His mother watched Irene talk to primroses one morning and she believes that Irene is not the kid of child to tell lies. He feels bad about not believing her.

Curdie does not have a history with Irene, but he does with his mother and he has every reason to think she is telling the truth. First, there are good, but mysterious families quietly told about the royal family’s ancesters by her ancestors, tales of wonder. Before Curdie was born, she walked with his father to the mine and walked home alone. She reached the spot where Irene and Lootie had run into trouble.

He starts by saying Irene talked a lot of nonsense, but his father said that his mother might give him some insight. He tells them the rest of the story. Curdie is body and cannot understand something outside of his senses. His mother is like Professor Kirke. Belief does not require understanding! I can see the connection between Irene and Lucy and their doubters. Then his mother tells him her unbelievable story.