Princess Academy Study Guide

Miri Larendaughter

Miri is a fourteen-year-old girl and a resident of Mount Eskel, where she lives with her father Laren and her older sister Marda. As a child, her father forbade her from setting foot in the quarries where the villagers work daily. As a result, she feels unwanted and assumes her small stature prevents her from being useful to her community. When the chief delegate of Danland announces that Mount Eskel would be the home of the future princess, Miri is chosen, along with other eligible girls, to attend the princess academy. At the academy, she discovers a passion for reading and manages to stand out among her peers due to her intelligence, critical thinking and leadership skills, and willingness to help her classmates despite bitter competition. Her exam scores eventually earn her the title of academy princess. In the end, she returns to her home with dreams of starting a village school.

Britta Paweldaughter

A lowlander by birth, Britta is initially presented as an orphan who moved to Mount Eskel to live with her only remaining relatives. She has a difficult time fitting into the local culture, and her silence is often misinterpreted by her peers as typical lowlander arrogance. At the princess academy, she befriends Miri and several other girls, although she never manages to hear the unique "quarry-speech" that unites all residents of the mountain. Britta starts out as the only girl who could read, although she tries to hide the fact in the hopes of blending in. It is later revealed that Prince Steffan had been Britta's childhood playmate and later love interest. Her father is a nobleman and has deliberately sent her to Mount Eskel under a false pretense so that she could wed the prince. In the end, Britta is selected by Steffan as his chosen princess and leaves to prepare for a future with the man of her dreams.

Katar Jinsdaughter

A brusque older girl at the Princess Academy, Katar becomes Miri's rival as the top student and is determined to be chosen as the future princess. Deliberately setting herself apart from other girls, Katar comes across as snobbish and does not hesitate to demonstrate the extent of her learning as much as possible to the academy tutor, Olana Mansdaughter. However, she reluctantly joins the other girls when they oppose Olana's unfair treatment, though she points out how they have broken the rules of the academy and the resulting consequences. It is eventually revealed that Katar had lost her mother shortly after she was born, but unlike Miri, she felt unloved by her father. As a result, she wishes to leave Mount Eskel no matter what, even if it means marrying the prince despite her lack of interest in him. When Miri turns down Britta's offer to become the delegate for the newly designated province of Mount Eskel, Miri suggests Katar instead, believing her qualifications as the highest scoring graduate of the Princess Academy and her wish to leave Mount Eskel make her the most suitable candidate for the position.

Peder Doterson

Peder is a fifteen-year-old boy and a resident of Mount Eskel who works in the quarries with the rest of the villagers. He is described as tall and lean with a head of tawny curls. Peder and Miri grew up as childhood playmates, and as they hit puberty, their affection for each other blossomed into romantic love, a fact that they both feared to reveal. Whereas Miri considers herself scrawny, useless, and undesirable compared to other village girls, Peder is discouraged by his belief that Miri desires to marry the prince. Throughout the novel, Peder seems to have a special connection to Miri, as he is able to hear her pleas for help (when bandits held the academy girls) when even her own father could not. In addition, Peder has considerable artistic talent and finds a passion in carving linder, a hobby that is discouraged due to the need for extra hands to help with mining. However, as conditions improve due to Miri's skills in commerce, Peder is able to spend time on his hobby and looks forward to the day when he can formally study from a skilled artisan.