George MacDonald 
The Light Princess 
and Other Fairy Stories

A king and queen have a daughter and invite everyone to the christening except the king’s sister Princess Makemnoit, a spiteful and sour woman. She arrives without an invitation and curses the princess to have no gravity. Whenever the princess accidentally moves up in the air, she has to be brought down, and the wind is capable of carrying her off. As she grows, she never cries, and never can be brought to see the serious side of anything. She passionately loves swimming, and when she swims, she regains her gravity. This leads to the proposal that if she could be brought to cry, it might break the curse. But nothing can induce her to cry. This wonderful tale is clearly a precursor to ’Sleeping Beauty.’ Also included in this volume are the stories ’The Giant’s Heart’ and ’The Golden Key.’