Yes! It’s so difficult for our modern mindset to imagine “being a queen” as reward enough for putting up with a man who was threatening you with death if you didn’t meet his unreasonable demand (I mean, the miller made the boast; if anyone was to be threatened with death it ought to have been him), and who only married you because you made him wealthy. Because, for us, a non-ruling queen is just as powerless and at the mercy of the greedy king as the simple miller’s daughter. But you’re also right that the child skips over the practical aspect of it and gets to the heart of the story–that the miller’s daughter becomes a queen AND outwits the evil dwarf. (well, she doesn’t outwit him, the messenger does, but she sent the messenger, so technically I guess she wins) I still would like to see her get the best of the king as well, though!
Yes! It’s so difficult for our modern mindset to imagine “being a queen” as reward enough for putting up with a man who was threatening you with death if you didn’t meet his unreasonable demand (I mean, the miller made the boast; if anyone was to be threatened with death it ought to have been him), and who only married you because you made him wealthy. Because, for us, a non-ruling queen is just as powerless and at the mercy of the greedy king as the simple miller’s daughter. But you’re also right that the child skips over the practical aspect of it and gets to the heart of the story–that the miller’s daughter becomes a queen AND outwits the evil dwarf. (well, she doesn’t outwit him, the messenger does, but she sent the messenger, so technically I guess she wins) I still would like to see her get the best of the king as well, though!