Alphege, or the Green Monkey

Looks about right....

This week's story comes from England. Alphege, or the Green Monkey is a tale of love, loss, and a monkey. You can have this particular tale read to you, if you want. Isn't it lovely what technology can do these days?

We have all of the usual ingredients for a fairy tale here: the stepmother who is jealous of her step-child, the clueless father who doesn't know how evil his second wife is, and the noble prince just trying to survive. As a bonus, we also have a fairy godmother, of sorts. The prince also has a loving set of parents in his governess and tutor, which is a relief knowing his father and stepmother can't have been that attentive.

One aspect I was surprised by, but really like, is that the new queen's son is actually a good person. He is a good ruler while his older half-brother is away on monkey business, and when the older prince is restored to himself, the stepbrother immediately offers to give up the throne. I think the older prince made a great call in ruling jointly with his stepbrother, especially since that prince would know far more of what was going on in the kingdom than the older prince, at least until the monkey prince got caught up on current affairs.

We need to talk about the "fairy godmother" for a moment. I'm a little confused by her. When the prince turns into a monkey, she comes to the desert with him to relieve his suffering, which is great, but she didn't cure him and it was a long time until he found his way back home. If she's so powerful and loves him so much, why didn't she change him back sooner? I feel like this "Good Queen" had been wanting to meet her godson again for a long time, remember he never left his kingdom, and now that she had a chance to spend time with him, she kept him for as long as she could. It's definitely not the best motivation, but it's understandable. However, even after she decides to let him go back home, she doesn't change him back into a man. She leaves him as a monkey for awhile longer before finally telling the prince's old governess in a dream how to change him back. I'm not sure this is the kind of godmother I would want.

The moral of this story should be, "If you get into trouble, you have to be very patient for someone else to get you out of it, even if you have a fairy godmother." It's a good thing the old governess recognized the monkey as the prince, or he might never have been changed back.