The Dragon Prince
A legend of love, a forbidden room, and a troubadour with a secret, set at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
In the Middle Ages, the most renowned tournaments of poetry in all of France were held at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Celebrated troubadours gathered there to demonstrate their art, and once a year the winner of this poetic joust was announced.
The Tale
On one occasion, the winner was an unknown and very handsome young man, who refused to give his name or say where he came from, despite the entreaties of Eleanor herself. The aura of mystery surrounding the anonymous troubadour, together with his kindness and beauty, soon made him one of the favorites among the ladies of the court. Griselda, a young and wistful maiden, the youngest daughter of the lord of Foix, fell passionately in love with the knight and declared her love for him. Moved by the maiden's entreaties, the troubadour agreed to marry her in secret and take her to his home, but on condition that Griselda should never try to see him other than when he chose, and that she should never try to discover his secret.
The lovesick lady promised to comply with this strange condition. It seemed little to ask in exchange for being able to remain with her loved one.
One night, the young Griselda had fallen asleep in the arms of her lover in the castle of Eleanor of Aquitaine where she lived, and on opening her eyes she found herself in an unfamiliar room. It was a luxurious place, adorned with silk and precious stones, and beside her lay her husband smiling kindly at her.
"You are in my house, which belongs to you," said the troubadour. "You may give orders to my servants and do whatever you please. There are stables with horses at your disposal, huntsmen and hawks for hunting, and you may go as you wish. You are my lady, and all that is mine is yours. There are maidens ready to serve you and to carry out your every whim, dancers and musicians to entertain you, jewels and silks to adorn you. If you need anything, tell me and I will give it to you."
"I wish only for the love of my lord," replied the young woman, bewildered.
"That is good, my love, but do not forget your promise."
Griselda, full of happiness, showed her agreement by flinging herself into the arms of her beloved husband.
For a while the lady kept her promise and believed she was in paradise. The troubadour knight, who was kind and passionate, spent most of his time with his wife. Occasionally he would disappear into a locked room, and she, faithful to her promise, did not ask him any questions. However, curiosity gradually got the better of her. One day she decided to find out the secret of her knight. She crept up to the door of the forbidden room, which he had left ajar, and spied through the chink.
Horrified, she watched as the troubadour turned into a huge dragon with green scales and powerful wings. She could not stop a cry of horror escaping her lips. The dragon prince wheeled round and saw his terrified wife in the doorway. Deeply hurt by this betrayal, the knight bade his servants remove Griselda immediately to the court of Aquitaine, and never again did he return to see her.
The lady could not forget her beloved, and not a day went by without her recalling the months of happiness beside the gentle dragon. Full of repentance and sadness, she wrote down her adventure; that is how the famous story of the dragon prince has found its way to us.
The Setting: Eleanor's Court and the Troubadours
The story is set in a real place and time. Eleanor of Aquitaine (about 1122–1204) was one of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages. She inherited the great duchy of Aquitaine in southwestern France, was queen of France as the wife of Louis VII, and later queen of England as the wife of Henry II. She was the mother of two English kings, Richard the Lionheart and John.
Eleanor grew up surrounded by poetry. Her grandfather, William IX of Aquitaine, is the earliest troubadour whose songs survive. The troubadours were poet-musicians who composed in Occitan, the language of southern France, and their favorite subject was fin'amor, refined or "courtly" love: a knight's devoted, often secret love for a lady. Eleanor and her daughter Marie de Champagne were important patrons of this poetry.
Medieval writers, and many later ones, described "courts of love" where ladies judged questions of romance. Historians doubt such courts really met as formal tribunals, and the poetry tournament in this tale belongs to the same romantic picture of Eleanor's world rather than to the historical record. Griselda's father, "the lord of Foix," points to the County of Foix, a real territory in the Pyrenees in what is now southern France.
Where the Story Comes From
The tale ends by claiming that Griselda wrote down her own story. That is a classic storyteller's device, not a historical fact. We have not been able to trace this exact story to a specific medieval manuscript or recorded folk tradition, so it is best read as a literary legend in the style of a medieval romance. It closely resembles the tale of Jilocasin, another dragon troubadour of southwestern France, and the two make an interesting pair.
Whatever its exact origin, the story is built from very old parts. Folklorists would recognize it at once as a version of the "search for the lost husband" or "animal bridegroom" family of tales.
The Older Tales Behind It
Cupid and Psyche. The oldest surviving version of this plot is the story of Cupid and Psyche, told by the Roman author Apuleius in his novel The Golden Ass in the second century AD. Psyche is carried off to a magnificent palace by an unseen husband who visits only at night and forbids her to look at him. Urged on by her jealous sisters, she lights a lamp to see him, discovers the god Cupid, and he flies away. The Dragon Prince follows the same pattern: a mysterious husband, a luxurious hidden home, a forbidden sight, and a broken promise that ends the marriage.
Melusine. A medieval French legend, best known from Jean d'Arras's prose romance of 1393, reverses the roles. The fairy Melusine marries a nobleman on the condition that he never see her on Saturdays. When he spies on her in her bath, he discovers that she is a serpent from the waist down. Like the dragon prince, Melusine leaves forever, some say in the form of a winged serpent. The French setting and the spying-through-a-door scene make Melusine an especially close relative of this tale.
Bluebeard's forbidden room. The locked chamber that a wife must not open is another familiar folk motif. In Charles Perrault's Bluebeard (1697) the room holds a murderous secret. Here the secret is sad rather than evil.
Serpent and dragon husbands. Animal husbands who are secretly human (or human husbands who are secretly animals) appear across Europe. Compare the Lithuanian tale of Eglė the Queen of Serpents and the Scandinavian story of the Bride of the Lindorm King.
Themes and Meaning
On the surface, the tale is a warning about curiosity and broken promises. Griselda has everything she could want, but she cannot leave the one forbidden door alone.
It can also be read as a story about acceptance. The dragon prince is kind, generous, and loving, and he never harms anyone. Griselda's horror, not his dragon form, is what ends their happiness. Her lifelong regret suggests that the real loss was her failure to love him as he truly was. That makes a striking contrast with Jilocasin, whose beloved knows he is a dragon from the start and loves him anyway.
Finally, the story gives the dragon a dignity it rarely has in Western legend. Most European dragons are monsters waiting for a hero's sword, like the one slain by Saint George. This one is a poet, a husband, and a prince, and the tragedy belongs to him as much as to Griselda.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Dragon Prince a real medieval legend?
It is set in a real historical court, but we have found no medieval source for this exact story. It borrows its plot from very old tales such as Cupid and Psyche and Melusine.
Who was Eleanor of Aquitaine?
She was a twelfth-century duchess who became queen of France and then queen of England. Her court was a center of troubadour poetry.
Why did the dragon prince leave Griselda?
She broke her promise never to try to discover his secret. When she spied on him and saw him transform, he felt betrayed and sent her away.
Sources and Further Reading
- Apuleius, The Golden Ass, trans. P. G. Walsh (Oxford World's Classics, 1999), the tale of Cupid and Psyche.
- Jean d'Arras, Melusine; or, The Noble History of Lusignan, ed. and trans. Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012).
- Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, FF Communications 284–286 (Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 2004).
- H. J. Chaytor, The Troubadours (Cambridge University Press, 1912). Read at Project Gutenberg.
- Ralph V. Turner, Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England (Yale University Press, 2009).