whats the point of view of the princess in the princess and the goblin

Question

In a mountainous kingdom, the widowed King leaves to attend affairs of state, leaving his beloved daughter, the sweet Princess Irene, alone with her nursemaid, Lootie. When Irene is on an outing with Lootie, she runs away on purpose, and Lootie cannot find her. When sun sets, Irene is lost in a sinister forest, and is attacked when clawed hands bursts through the earth and attempts to seize her kitten, Turnip. Several deformed animals corner the frightened Princess, until a strange singing sounds through the trees, driving them into a crazed and frightened fit, and they flee. The singing is revealed to be a young boy, Curdie, the son of a miner. He discovers Irene is lost, and leads her back to the castle. He informs her that the monsters were goblins and their "pets", and that they are driven away by singing. Curdie says that everyone except the King and his family know of the goblins, and Irene reveals she is a Princess.

The next day, Irene goes exploring in the castle after discovering a magical secret door in her bedroom. She ventures into a tower and meets the spirit of her Great Great Grandmother, also called Irene. Grandmother informs the young princess that she will be there to help her, for Irene will soon be in grave danger. The same day, Curdie and his father are underground in the mines, and Curdie falls through a pothole and into the realm of the goblins. Hidden, he follows the goblins to a vast cavern where the sniveling Goblin King and the malevolent Goblin Queen are holding an audience, announcing their scheme to flood the mines and drown the "Sun People"... humans. Suddenly, Prince Froglip, the feared, yet spoiled and infantile, heir to the goblin throne, announces drowning them is "Not enough!" and states he shall abduct the Princess of the Sun People and marry her, thereby forcing the humans to accept the goblins as their rulers. He claims that this is revenge for the humans exiling the goblins underground centuries beforehand. Before Curdie can run and tell the others, the goblins find him and put him away in a dungeon. Luckily, Irene and Turnip have snuck out of the castle again, following a magic thread given to her by her grandmother, invisible to everyone else. The thread leads Irene to Curdie and working together, Curdie is released from his improvised cell. The two children are chased by the goblins but luckily escape. The miners are warned of the flooding plan in time to begin erecting supports to keep most of the tunnels free of water and the castle is also put on guard. The goblins do attack and Curdie must show all the castle people how to fight - namely, to jump on the goblins' feet and sing. Curdie also realizes if the miners are successful, the water will have nowhere to go but up and will end up flooding the castle. He tries to get everyone to leave and he and the king realize Irene is missing. Curdie finds Irene being held captive by the evil Froglip. All three are knocked down by the arrival of the flood waters and Curdie tries to rescue the princess and not get thrown over the battlement edges by the goblin prince. With some help from Irene, Froglip is flung away and everyone is saved.

Answer 1

Great question! I love The Princess and the Goblin. Published in 1872, it was, to be sure, one of the first fantasy novels of the English language.

Look at the first two paragraphs of the first chapter ("Why the Princess Has a Story about Her") of the novel I quoted below. Who is telling the story? A narrator. Is the narrator and the princess Irene the same person?

"There was once a little princess whose father was king over a great country full of mountains and valleys. His palace was built upon one of the mountains and was very grand and beautiful. The princess, whose name was Irene, was born there, but she was sent soon after her birth, because her mother was not very strong, to be brought up by country people in a large house, half castle, half farmhouse, on the side of another mountain, about halfway between its base and its peak.

The princess was a sweet little creature and at the time my story begins was about eight years old, I think, but she got older very fast. Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue. Those eyes, you would have thought, must have known they came from there, so often were they turned up in that direction. The ceiling of her nursery was blue with stars in it, as like the sky as they could make it. But I doubt if ever she saw the real sky with the stars in it, for a reason, which I had better mention at once."

(Source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/105044/the-princess-and-the-goblin-by-george-macdonald/9780679428107/excerpt)

You can tell the POV of a story by looking at the pronouns that refer to the main character (Irene). The same goes for find the POV of a character.

1. If the story is told in the first person ("I") and the "I" refers to Irene, then Irene's POV is "1st person."
2. If, on the other hand, the story is told in the third person, and pronouns like "he" or "she" or even "they" are used by the narrator to refer to the main character—in this instance, Irene—then Irene's POV is 3rd person.
3. Note that if the narrator only tells us what Irene is thinking, and doesn't tell us what other characters are thinking, then the story is told in a POV called "3rd person limited," because it's limited in focus to one character (and Irene's POV is 3rd person). If, however, the narrator tells us what other characters are thinking too, and not just what Irene is thinking, then it could potentially be a "third person omniscient" narration—but regardless, Irene's POV would still be 3rd person.

Conclusion:

If you look at the first two paragraphs of the first chapter in the novel, what pronouns are used to refer to Irene? "She" and "her," right? This means that the princess Irene's POV is "third person."

I hope this helps!

Anna