The Princess and the Goblin

The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald's fantasy classic, follows a princess and a miner's son standing between their mountain and the goblins below it.

Princess Irene lives high on the mountainside with her nurse, Lootie, while her father the king rules from farther away. She isn't supposed to wander, but one rainy afternoon she climbs a strange staircase in her house and meets an old woman spinning thread in a hidden tower room — a great-great-grandmother no one else seems to see. Down in the mines below the mountain, a miner's son named Curdie overhears something far less comforting: the goblins who live underground are plotting to flood the tunnels and carry Irene off to marry their prince.

Curdie and Irene don't know each other well, and neither fully trusts what the other believes. But as the goblins' plan draws closer, Irene has only her grandmother's gift, an invisible thread tied to a ring, to guide her through the dark, and Curdie has his wits and his knowledge of the tunnels beneath their feet. Together they have to work out who to trust before the mountain itself is turned against them.

This is an early, quietly strange fairy-tale fantasy, full of underground kingdoms, hidden staircases, and a magic that works more like faith than spell-casting. It's a coming-of-age story at heart, and a clear ancestor of the fantasy novels that came after it. Listeners who love old fairy tales, gentle peril, and stories where kindness and courage do the real work will find a lot to like here.

The mountain paths and the goblins' underground halls make an easy, unhurried listen for nighttime. Let them carry you off well before Irene's story is finished.