#adalminan helmi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tuherrus · 19 days

Text

adalminan helmi or adalmina's pearl is a finnish fairytale by zachris topelius about a princess who's given gifts by two fairies as she's born, the first one giving a pearl that will grant her ever-growing beauty, intelligence and wealth, though should she ever lose it then she'll also lose all those things with it until she finds the pearl again the second fairy's gift is that if she does lose the pearl she'll gain a kind and humble heart instead

it's another fairytale illustration and this was the one story out of finnish fairytales that i probably read the most, and it was a favorite of mine as a kid (it still might be, sometimes it's hard to decide) and i wanna summarize a bit more in detail what happens at least in the version i'm most familiar with under the cut, but there's some other variations of it out there too!

so the king and queen deem that the second gift is worthless bc they'll be having servants around adalmina day and night to make sure the pearl, now fashioned into a crown, never disappears or falls off in the first place (and that the first gifts are better suited for a princess regardless)

as she grows older, she does become more beautiful, intelligent and wealthy but also grows selfish, arrogant and even cruel to the people around her

she's resentful of anyone she thinks dares to be more beautiful, intelligent or wealthy compared to her, even stomping on flowers as "she's the only one allowed to be beautiful"

when adalmina turns fifteen she's grown bored of the castle walls and decides to venture out, coming across a pond upon seeing her own reflection she can't help but stop and admire it and do so very closely

of course this is when her crown with the magical pearl tips off of her head and falls into the pond, taking all of her gifts with it and leaving her with amnesia

now appearing as a poor peasant girl and not knowing who she is, a terrified adalmina runs into the forest and comes across a cottage where an old woman lives alone

she takes pity on the lost girl and decides to take adalmina in her care if she helps her with herding goats, and adalmina embraces her in gratitude and promises to help however she can

she's then described to be happier than ever before by living a simple life, now surrounded by a glow that's "not born from shine on the surface, but the kind that comes from the inside of anyone with a good heart"

three years pass by, and a prince comes across the cottage in the forest (i think in some versions he's searching for the missing adalmina specifically) and finds himself falling in love with adalmina as he sees her working from a distance he stops by a pond to have a drink of water and discovers adalmina's pearl in the water, deciding that he'll give the crown to the shepherd girl he saw (again this is different in some other versions where he brings the crown back to the king and queen and it's then tried on all the girls in the kingdom to see who it fits in order to find adalmina as the crown only fits her)

as he places the crown on her head she's revealed to be the lost princess, now restored with all the gifts she had before on top of the kind and humble heart

adalmina returns to the castle to her parents, taking the old woman with her and apologizes to everyone she had hurt

later on she marries the prince and the story ends with "adalmina and her pearl are lovely, but much more lovely is her kind and humble heart, which is more valuable than a pearl"

#finnish folklore #finnish fairytale #adalminan helmi #topelius

324 notes · View notes