A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Miranda has lived from birth on a green island with twelve attendant maidens; the narrator says that her parentage and arrival are unknown. Visitors become her subjects and construct a city and white-marble palace. She rejects unwanted suitors and can turn those who attempt to compel marriage, together with their soldiers, into ice by looking at them. She dreams of a golden-helmeted rider with a self-fighting mace before meeting him.
Kosciey’s sleeping breath defeats her army but cannot injure her. Her gaze temporarily freezes him; when he recovers he confines her palace behind an iron wall and a twelve-headed dragon. She seeks news of her dreamed lover by addressing cloud, wind, stars, moon and sun. Only the sun supplies the route to assistance. Hero ultimately defeats the dragon and breaks Kosciey’s life-bearing egg, waking the kingdom. Miranda thanks him and they marry, while the twelve maidens marry twelve officers. Her glance freezes attackers in this selected tale; no serpent hair, divine ancestry or physical identity with Medusa is assigned.
Origins & earliest records
Polish Fairy Tales, translated from A. J. Gliński by Maude Ashurst Biggs (1920), Princess Miranda and Prince Hero, pp. 15–28.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected English narrative through Kosciey’s death, the awakening and joint weddings. Biggs acknowledges shortening her source; no original Polish collation is claimed.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Polish Fairy Tales: Princess Miranda and Prince Hero, pp. 15–28
Complete selected English narrative; title, contents and translator’s preface read. No separately named oral contributor supplied.
Family, evolution & connections
Prince Hero
Miranda and Hero marry after the siege is broken. Kosciey’s repeated demand for her surrender never becomes a marriage. The opening explicitly leaves her parents unknown; her twelve companions are attendants, not stated sisters.
The translator’s rendering of cud-dziewica
Biggs’s note explains the heroine’s Polish name as “Wonder Maiden” and offers Miranda as its rendering. This documents the translated name choice; it does not establish identity with Shakespeare’s character or a proven literary borrowing.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary historical shortened literary translationGliński/Biggs 1920: Miranda and HeroResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
