# The Princess and Curdie — Character guide

> Key figures in The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald.

- [Curdie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/curdie.md): Curdie arrives in Gwyntystorm with no instructions beyond the gift of reading hands, and finds a palace where servants steal, a doctor's flesh feels like a creeping thing, and the king lies poisoned by his own wine. His 
- [Lina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/lina.md): Lina belongs to Curdie alone, and her loyalty is total, silent, and slightly terrifying to anyone who does not know her. She sleeps coiled and springs to her feet the instant he speaks, then flies out of Gwyntystorm's ga
- [Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/peter.md): Peter is a working man whose honesty is so plain that a princess takes his horny hand and calls him friend. When she asks him to give up Curdie for a while, he answers only that it will not matter much so long as the boy
- [Princess Irene](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/princess_irene.md): Irene has become her father's only nurse, sitting under the lamp to mark every change in his sleeping face and refusing to leave him even to greet the friend her grandmother sent. She is brave but young, and the news tha
- [The Doctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/the_doctor.md): Dr. Kelman arrives tumbling through the king's door, all apology and soft palms, and the princess cannot believe ill of him. But Curdie, whose gift tests hands, finds no foot in his grasp, only the body of a serpent coil
- [Old Mother Wotherwop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/mother_wotherwop.md): The men of the mine trade foolish tales about Old Mother Wotherwop without knowing she hears every word, because she is present wherever she is spoken of. She is one of the grandmother's many shapes, and her role is to t
- [Derba](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/derba.md): Derba belongs to the ordinary folk of Gwyntystorm, the kind of woman whose love and womanly tenderness go straight to Curdie's heart as she tends the ailing king with peacock fans and whispered comfort. Her devotion stan
- [The Servants](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/the_servants.md): The palace servants who are complicit in the corruption and mistreatment of the king.
- [Dr. Kelman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/dr_kelman.md): Dr. Kelman moves through the palace as the trusted doctor attending the ailing king, his face and tongue both false according to Curdie's testing hands, which feel not a foot but the belly of a creeping thing. He embodie
- [The Colonel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/the_colonel.md): The poor colonel, hardly able to stand, belongs to the dwindling company of men in Gwyntystorm who remain true to their sovereign despite the court's rot. His physical frailty mirrors the kingdom's condition — wounded, n
- [Barbara](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/barbara.md): Little Barbara is one of the few people in Gwyntystorm who seems to know, when no one else has a notion, whither the mysterious old princess has vanished — a sign of her quiet attunement to hidden things. She shows kindn
- [A Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/a_stranger.md): A mysterious figure who appears briefly and interacts with Curdie.
- [Queen Irene](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/queen_irene.md): Queen Irene — once the old princess — is the mystical thread binding MacDonald's two Curdie books, a gray-haired woman who keeps a room of burning roses, sends white-winged pigeons with messages, and knows of goings-on t
- [Ballbody](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/ballbody.md): A strange creature encountered by Curdie during his journey.
- [Her Master](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/her_master.md): The master of one of the creatures, mentioned in passing.
- [Sir Bronzebeard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/sir_bronzebeard.md): A legendary knight mentioned in the story, possibly a historical figure.
- [Joan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/joan.md): A minor character mentioned in the narrative.
- [The White Pigeon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/the_white_pigeon.md): A mystical bird that appears to guide or symbolize the princess.
- [Gwyntystorm](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters/gwyntystorm.md): The city where much of the later action takes place, personified in the chapter title.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_princess_and_curdie_se/characters