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　　 27. Geese: Geese are associated with the "earth mother, maternity, fertility, truth, love, constancy, vigilance, providence, silliness, stupidity, female sexuality, wind, innocence, cowardice, and the good housewife" (Olderr 1986, 58)

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　　 28. Curdken: The name is most often translated as Conrad, sometimes Colin, in English versions of the tale.

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　　 29. Assist him in herding geese: From hence we get the story's title and temporary name of the protagonist. The princess has been brought low and made a goose girl.

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　　 30. False bride: The false bride plot device "provides the dominant frame story of Basile's firecracker of a collection of fairy tales, Lo cunto de li cunti [also known as Il Pentamerone], in the seventeenth century. His group of female storytellers exchange many tales of substituted brides and false queens, and at the end actually unmask a similar wicked usurper prospering in their midst (Warner 1994, 127).

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　　 31. Dearest husband: It was appropriate for a betrothed couple to call each other husband and wife although the union was not supposed to be consummated until after a marriage ceremony had taken place. You can read more about betrothals online at the 1911 Edition Encyclopedia entry for Betrothal.

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　　 32. Faithful Falada was doomed to die: Falada, the dear horse, is doomed to die from the princess' inability to assert herself or use her imagination. Her request to have Falada's head nailed above the gate shows little imagination. She uses her gold to keep the head nearby, not to spare the horse's life. Still, even this bribe and saving of Falada's head shows the most initiative she has had in the story so far.

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　　 33. She sat down and unloosed her hair: This scene is the most popular among illustrators of the tale, even over the gorier images of Falada's head. To see many illustrators' visions for this scene, visit the Illustrations of the Goose Girl page.

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　　 34. Pure gold: The Goose Girl is blonde. Golden hair has magical qualities in some cultures while it also represents the illuminated beauty of those it graces. Blonde hair often symbolizes ethical goodness as well as aesthethic appeal (Tatar 2002).

　　 Gold represents virtue, intelligence, superiority, heaven, worldly wealth, idolatry, revealed truth, marriage, and fruitfulness (Olderr 1986).

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　　 35. Wanted much to pull some hair out: Human hair has been valued for centuries. In many European cultures, hair was given as love tokens. It was also used to create jewelry and remembrance tokens of dead loved ones.

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　　 36. Wind, wind, gently sway,

　　 Blow Curdken's hat away;

　　 Let him chase o'er field and wold

　　 Till my locks of ruddy gold,

　　 Now astray and hanging down,

　　 Be combed and plaited in a crown:

　　 The Goose Girl is finally gaining some autonomy. She is able to cast a simple spell, using her own magic, to save her hair from Curdken's attentions. This spell also brings her to the attention of the old king and helps him to recognize that she must be more than she appears. She is gaining some maturity through her adversity.

　　 According to Bettelheim, the golden cup and the golden hair provide the same challenge to the princess. While she allowed her golden cup to be taken away earlier, she is now protecting her golden hair from a similar fate. Her "different reactions to similar situations" show her increasing maturity (Bettelheim 1975, 142-3).

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　　 37. Plaited in a crown: Plaits, also known as braids, can be created in various styles. The most common interweaves three sections of hair into a thicker, stronger rope of hair. In many cultures, young girls would wear their braids down, while women would wear their hair pinned up as a sign of maturity.

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　　 38. Princess fair: While Falada is usually considered an animal helper in this tale, an opposite entity to the false bride, the horse does very little to help the girl besides provide her comfort and inadvertantly identify her as a princess before the hidden king. The horse does not actively connive to help the princess, like the animal helper in Puss in Boots.

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　　 39. As usual next day: Here we have another pattern of three example. While the story implies these activities have been occuring for a while, the tale recounts the same activities--Falada's greeting and the Goose Girl's grooming--three times. The third time provides change with the King's observation of the events.

　　 The number and/or pattern of three oftenappears in fairy tales to provide rhythm and suspense. The pattern adds drama and suspense while making the story easy to remember and follow. The third event often signals a change and/or ending for the listener/reader. A third time also disallows coincidence such as two repetitive events would suggest.

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　　 40. I swore not to by heaven: "Despite great hardship, the princess keeps her promise not to reveal to any human being what has happened to her; thus she proves her moral virtue, which finally brings about retribution and a happy ending. Here the dangers which the heroine must master are inner ones: not to give in to the temptation to reveal the secret" (Bettelheim 1975, 137).

　　 While I admire the Goose Girl's forbearance, I am not sure I agree that keeping the secret was her best choice. She was forced to make this promise under dishonest and possibly violent circumstances entirely against her will. Such a promise should not be kept, especially when it allows an imposter to flourish.

　　 Some modern interpretations of the tale, such as Shannon Hale's excellent novel, explain that the Goose Girl doesn't reveal her true identity because she fears no one will believe her. She awaits the best opportunity to reveal her identity with the least amount of blood shed available.

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　　 41. Iron stove: The iron stove, as an inanimate object, is safe for the Goose Girl to tell her problems to without breaking her vow. If we are really generous, we can imagine she knows that the king will listen, but she will technically not be breaking her promise, so her moral virture will be intact. The iron stove provides a release in an entirely different way in Hansel and Gretel where it becomes the weapon used to destory the wicked witch. Stoves are often consired to be symbolic of the womb and birth.

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　　 42. Learned how good she was: One can imagine, as do many modern authors, a demanding, vicious maid giving headaches to the young king and the royal staff. Perhaps he is relieved to learn that this less demanding princess is his true bride instead of the shrewish harpy he has been living with.

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　　 43. She did not recognize the Princess in her glittering garments: A suspension of belief is required for this frequent fairy tale plot device. The sisters in Cinderella do not recognize their sister in her splendor and now the waiting-maid does not recognize the princess despite having seen her in royal attirepreviously. But then again, no one ever recognizes Superman behind Clark Kent's glasses either.

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　　 44. She deserves to be put stark naked into a barrel lined with sharp nails, which should be dragged by two white horses up and down the street till she is dead: This is an exceptionally cruel punishment and means of death, exemplifying the false bride's vicious nature. It also shows her limited range of imagination. While she can imagine such a horrendous punishment, she cannot imagine it being inflicted upon herself. She has no compassion and only wants to see her competition destroyed. She cannot even recognize her own story as the king recounts it to her. She is a bully, not a cunning villain.

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　　 45. You have passed sentence on yourself; and even so it shall be done to you: Full justice is served by having the maid choose her own punishment. According to Bettelheim, "the message is that evil intentions are the evil person's own undoing" (Bettelheim 1975, 141).

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　　 46. Both reigned over the kingdom in peace and happiness: Thus they are married and live happily ever after in true fairy tale fashion. Note also that they cannot live happily ever after until the villain has been destroyed and removed from their lives.