[[quoteright:301:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/glasshill_4056.png]]
[[caption-width-right:301:But how did ''she'' ever get up?]]

''The Princess On The Glass Hill'' is a Norwegian FairyTale collected by [[Creator/AsbjornsenAndMoe Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jorgen Moe]]. Creator/AndrewLang included it in ''The Blue Fairy Book.''

A farm had a field that would have been good for hay except that every St. John's night, all the grass was eaten. For two years, the farmer's oldest two sons stayed up on that night to guard the field, but they were frightened off by an earthquake. The youngest (Boots or Cinderlad, depending on the version), waited through three earthquakes, and found the grass was eaten by a splendid horse, and by it was a brass suit of shining armor. He threw steel over the horse, which gave him power over it, so he rode it away to somewhere secret and told his brothers that nothing had happened to him. The next year, he did it again, though the armor was silver, and the next, when the suit was gold.

The king had his daughter sit on a glass mountain, and whoever could climb it and get the golden apples out of her lap would marry her. All the men who came to try it slipped and slid about, but a knight in a suit of brass armor rode up a third of the way, and then rode back. The princess threw him one of the apples to encourage him, but he still rode off. The next day it happened again, except that a knight in silver armor rode two-thirds of the way up the hill, and the princess liked him better than the other. The third day, a knight in gold armor rode all the way up and took the apple, but rode off again immediately after.

When the king summoned all the nobles and knights, and none of them had the golden apples, he summoned everyone in the kingdom. No one had the apples, and the king demanded whether everyone had come. The older brothers admitted that their brother had not, and so he was fetched, produced the apples, and married the princess.

Full text [[https://web.archive.org/web/20200105030105/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com:80/authors/asbjornsenmoe/princessglasshill.html here]], [[https://fairytalez.com/princess-glass-hill/ here]], [[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30973/30973-h/30973-h.htm#THE_PRINCESS_ON_THE_GLASS_HILL here]] and [[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8933/8933-h/8933-h.htm#chap13 here]]. To read Andrew Lang's version, go [[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/293.htm here]].

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!!Tropes:
* BlatantLies: Neither of Boots' brothers believe him when he says he did not see or hear anything unusual while watching the meadow.
* BringingBackProof: Boots succeeds in the king's EngagementChallenge of riding up the glass hill to retrieve the golden apples -- but then chooses to disappear rather than immediately claim the princess' hand. It's only later, when he's fetched from home, that he admits he has the apples, and thus is able to marry the princess.
* CainAndAbel: Downplayed. Boots' brothers are constantly mocking him, but Boots couldn't care less for their bullying.
* CoolHorse: Boots finds and tames three beautiful, large horses which are able to ride up the glass hill.
* EngagementChallenge: The king will only give his daughter to the man who is able to ride up over the hill of glass.
* KnightInShiningArmor: Boots wears three different sets of armor while riding up the hill.
* LoveAtFirstSight: The princess falls in love with the armor-clad knight who manages to ride up the hill.
* RagsToRoyalty: Boots, the son of a farmer, marries the king's daughter.
* RuleOfThree: Three brothers, three horses and sets of armor, three golden apples, three days of the test.
* SpearCounterpart: To "Literature/{{Cinderella}}". The protagonist's two older siblings mock them for lying in the cinders and prevent them from attending a royal gathering to determine who will marry the king's child, the protagonist completes unrewarded labor, and gains a magical disguise to obtain the favor of the beautiful heir, the king declares a search of the land to discover who holds his heir's favor. Also, in the Lang version, Boots is named Cinderlad.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After ordering Boots to watch the meadow, his father disappears from the history.
* WhiteStallion: In many of the variants, one of the horses the humble hero rides to the Glass Mountain is described as white, or of a silver colour.
* YoungestChildWins: The youngest brother gets married to the princess.

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