Following the Thread

In George MacDonald's 1872 fantasy The Princess and the Goblin, young Princess Irene receives an extraordinary gift from her mysterious great-great-grandmother: a thin, silken thread attached to a ring on her finger. The grandmother gives her one instruction — follow the thread wherever it leads, no matter what.

One night, the thread begins to pull through the darkness. Irene follows it without knowing where it goes. It draws her down into narrow, twisting passages deep underground — goblin country. Everything inside her urges her to turn back. The destination makes no sense. The path feels dangerous.

But she keeps following.

The thread leads her to Curdie, a young miner boy trapped in the goblin tunnels. Her blind obedience becomes his rescue.