A is for the Apple Princess

Because, you know, A is for Apple. Even in Hungarian. Duh.

And no, I am not talking about Snow White. She has been told and re-told in so many genius ways. No, the first Weird Princess of the A to Z challenge is brought to you by master writer and storyteller Italo Calvino from Florence, Italy.

The tale is called the Apple Girl, and starts with the usual careless royal wish: A childless queen wishes to be as fertile as an apple tree. And then gives birth to an apple. Don't you just love it when that happens? Still better off than the woman with the hedgehog, though...

Apple Princess lives in her apple. She only comes out once a day to brush her hair and do her make-up. I kind of picture her like a real life Yankee Candle, with golden-red hair, red cheeks, and a strong sweet healthy apple scent.

(Are we craving fruit yet?)

She doesn't do much - it will turn out later that she is under a spell - and she never says a word. Later on in the story we also learn that the apple is not only a home for her; it is part of her body. When the apple is cut, it bleeds, and when the princess is summoned, she will have scars all over her body.  

Apple Princess in one in a long line of fruit-based instant wives in folklore: Similar stories exist with oranges, figs, lemons, citrons, pears, walnuts etc. She is not really an active participant in her own story. She gets engaged, saved, and married. Then again she is, technically... an apple.