And the I'm going to be. Welcome to Souscastast the podcast designed to help you fall asleep.

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Tonight, by listener request,

we'll be reading the third part to the Princess and the Goblin,

a children's fantasy novel published in 1872.

One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales,

George McDonald's The Princess and the Goblin tells the story of young princess Irene and her friend

Kirti who must outwet the threatening goblins who live in the caves beneath her mountain home.

When we left off, the princess had met a mysterious old woman

introduced to her as her grandmother.

The grandmother keeps magical pigeons and eats their eggs.

When the princess goes back downstairs to her nursemaid, she doesn't believe the princess's tale to be true.

We'll start again at the beginning of chapter 5. Let's get cozy.

get cozy.

close your eyes.

Relax your body into the softness of your bed.

Now. Now take a few deep breaths. Chapter 5, the Princess, let's well alone.

When she woke the next morning, the first thing she heard was the rain still falling.

Indeed, this day was so like the last that it would have been difficult to tell where was the use of it.

The first thing she thought of, however, was not the rain, but the lady in the tower.

...