An Impossible Enchantment

Andrew Lang (1844 – 1912) was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. Lang was also a prolific author of fiction works; he wrote his own fairy tales such as Prince Prigio (1889) and Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia (1893), and wrote numerous historical texts. Andrew Lang was great friends with Robert Louis Stevenson and H. Rider Haggard, with whom he wrote The World's Desire (1890). Preferring romance over realism, he admired their works as well as those of Alexandre Dumas Père, Henry Fielding, William Makepeace Thackeray, fellow Scot Robert Burns and many others.


An Impossible Enchantment is a brief fairy tale story by Andrew Lang which is the third story in the The Grey Fairy Book series published in 1900. The plot of the story is a little strange and ridiculous but at the same has a kind and humor sense. There once lived a king who was the best governor as compared to other kingdoms. Due to it, all people respected and loved him. But he was still unmarried and most part of his subjects begged him to marry. Despite their wish he remained with his ideas of rejecting all stories of love and happy family life. But someday on his trip he met a young beautiful princess Mutinosa, and in a one instant moment became enchanted by her. One dwarf told him of a legend about impossibility to break this loving enchantment no matter what you do. Read till the end of the story and you will be able to find out what happens next.