Kings (The StoryTeller)

Kings are historically the male rulers of monarchies, often hereditary, or the sovereign of any unspecified vaguely medieval land in fairytales and folklore. Kings are frequent supporting players in Jim Henson's The Storyteller, figuring in six out of nine episodes. Of the remaining three, "The Soldier and Death" compensates by including a Tzar.

The kings in The Storyteller often appear to typify the phrase "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." As a class, these monarchs suffer an endless array of calamity; they might be compelled to wed their daughters to a beast ("Hans My Hedgehog"), find their reign threatened by an unusually lucky foundling ("The Luck Child"), their kingdom ravaged by a giant ("The Heartless Giant"), or even compelled by an obscure law to mary their own daughter ("Sapsorrow"). The few who live to the end of the story and not doomed by some curse are fortunate indeed.