A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

The Princess of Harmony travels at midnight by carriage and flagged vessel to a land of giants. Three sentinels admit her with a supposed retinue, puzzling her because she cannot see the soldier following under his stolen invisibility cap. In a palace ballroom she sits beside her giant lover and dances seven times, wearing out a pair of iron slippers after each dance.

The soldier hides beneath their seat, collects the broken footwear and overturns their chairs. Unable to discover the culprit, the assembled giants seek a book of fates describing winds and their auguries. The soldier strikes its reader and steals the volume, then follows the princess home. Showing both shoes and book enables him to prove the secret journey, and he ultimately marries her.

The account does not kill the giant lover or describe his subsequent fate. Neither his name nor a precise height or head count is given. His role is a partner in a concealed courtly gathering, rather than an automatically cannibalistic captor; the surrounding giants share the episode’s divinatory book.

Giant loverSeven ballroom dancesIron slippers worn throughCourtly gatheringShared book of fates
01

Origins & earliest records

Consiglieri Pedroso, Portuguese Folk-Tales, translated from the original manuscript by Henriqueta Monteiro, London: Elliot Stock for the Folk-Lore Society, 1882; tale XXI, pp. 85–90. The selected account does not identify an individual narrator or collecting locality.

02

Records & interpretation

The located 1882 English translation presents this figure within a complete collected narrative. Pedroso’s introductory pp. 1–2 describe the thirty published selections from his larger collection.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Portuguese Folk-Tales XXI: The Seven Iron Slippers, pp. 85–90

    Collected by Consiglieri Pedroso; translated by Henriqueta Monteiro · 1882

    Located complete narrative in the original London edition; Ralston’s comparative introduction is separate commentary.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary textPortuguese Folk-Tales, original 1882 edition scan and transcriptionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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