Königsbraut

A satirical fairy tale from the master of German Romantic fantasy. When the garden-loving Ännchen discovers a magical ring in her carrot field, she becomes engaged to a prince she never expected: the Gnome King of the Vegetable Kingdom, Daucus Carota himself. Her occult-scholar father is initially thrilled by the mysterious Porphyrio von Ockerodastes, until the suitor's true identity as a gnome king emerges. But here is where Hoffmann's delicious inversion begins: while her father recoils in horror, Ännchen enthusiastically embraces her fate as future Vegetable Queen. Written with the same dark wit that fuels Hoffmann's masterpieces like The Sandman, this is a comic fairy tale that deconstructs romantic conventions and the absurdities of arranged marriage, asking what really matters in love: the title, the treasury, or something far stranger.