Prince Wilbur

**Prince Wilbur** is Harriet Hamsterbone's best friend. He is the prince of a poor kingdom and the only son of Queen Hazel.

## History

### Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible

Wilbur was born the prince of a poor kingdom. His family was so poor that he had to wear a pink christening gown that used to belong to his cousin Matilda at his christening. When the wicked fairy showed up, she thought Wilbur was a princess and cursed him so that he would be stuck on a glass mountain guarded by a fearsome hydra. He befriended the hydra and named it Heady.

Wilbur was playing cards with Heady when Harriet Hamsterbone arrived and tried to rescue Wilbur from Heady, but it turned out that Wilbur didn't need rescuing. Harriet managed to convince Wilbur to help her break the curse Ratshade put on her that backfired and made Harriet's kingdom and Ratshade fall asleep instead. Wilbur was initially reluctant, as breaking the curse required him to kiss everybody under the sleeping spell. However, after Harriet pled for his help and revealed her identity, Wilbur agreed to help, admitting that he'd heard of Harriet and was impressed by her adventures.

The pair made their way back to the Hamster Kingdom, with Wilbur suffering due to having never been adventuring before, instead working as a paper boy to help pay for repairs to his mother's rundown castle. After getting through the wall of thorns around the castle, Wilbur was forced to begin the arduous task of kissing every sleeping inhabitant, a process that he found disturbing and eventually tried to get through as rapidly as possible. Ultimately, he was forced to complete the process by kissing Ratshade, who proved so terrifying that Wilbur cried out for his mother upon being confronted by her. As she prepared to destroy him, Wilbur wisely grabbed ahold of Harriet's discarded sword and, using his paper-throwing aim, tossed it to Harriet.

Wilbur's action and the advice of the Crone of the Blighted Waste enabled Harriet to defeat Ratshade; once sure they were safe, Wilbur promptly fainted. King Hamsterbone thanked Wilbur with a cash reward that he sent home to his mother, while Queen Hamsterbone promptly began seeing Wilbur as a potential future husband for Harriet. Both youngsters, being only twelve years old, were opposed to this, and made their way out of the castle in secret. Despite his difficulties, Wilbur asked if he could accompany Harriet on her next adventure, to which she agreed after some debate.

### Hamster Princess: Of Mice and Magic

With his kingdom's finances still in shambles, not least because Heady had recently laid an egg and his castle's basement had flooded, Wilbur got a job in the Mouse Kingdom as a stableboy in the Mouse King's castle. This made him something of an oddity, as many princes-and indeed stableboys-had flocked to the kingdom hoping to win the hand of one of the Mouse King's daughters. This job enabled Wilbur to observe the Mouse King's daughter August and her riding quail Hyacinth, with Wilbur noting that August seemed both angry and sad, presumably due to the situation she and her sisters found themselves in.

Wilbur was surprised when, as he came to attend to a new arrival to the castle, it proved to be none other than Harriet and Mumfrey, who were themselves looking to break the curse the mouse princesses were under. The two hamsters discussed their reasons for being at the castle, with Wilbur giving Harriet some info about the state of the castle and what he had observed. As they discussed the warning of a threat to the future of the Hamster Kingdom by a shrew fairy, Wilbur suggested a scenario in which Harriet's great-grandson would be sickly, which she took offense to. As her plan to break the curse unfolded, Harriet approached Wilbur and asked him to pick up some items for her from a nearby hardware store, giving him some money to pay for it. Later, she asked Wilbur to deliver her purchases to the throne room the following morning, and to have Mumfrey and Hyacinth beneath the window of the princesses' bedroom.

Doing as instructed, Wilbur passed Harriet a bag of supplies before going out to the quail, whom he urged into pulling the bars out of the princesses' window. He then helped August up onto Hyacinth, during which Harriet introduced the pair to each other. Though accepting of Wilbur's help, August informed him that she had no intention of marrying him, something that Wilbur was completely fine with. As a result of Harriet's plans to free the princesses from both their father's tyranny and Molezelda's magic, Wilbur was fired from his position as a stableboy.

August, having taken up a career as a florist, made Wilbur a gift of Hyacinth, which helped soften the blow from being fired and not being paid for the work he had done before helping Harriet. Unbeknownst to Wilbur, Harriet had also arranged for Molezelda's son Gemini to look into repairing the basement of Wilbur's castle.

### Hamster Princess: Ratpunzel

When Heady's egg was stolen from his castle, Wilbur rushed to the Hamster Kingdom atop Hyacinth in order to get Harriet's help. The pair met on the way, Harriet having fled her mother's most recent tirade, and quickly made their way back to Wilbur's castle. Harriet briefly investigated the scene of the crime and discovered signs that a gerbil was responsible for the theft. After learning that Queen Hazel had a gerbil pen pal whom she had written to about the egg, Harriet suggested that she and Wilbur pay her a visit.

The young hamsters and their quail made their way to the Kingdom of Sunshine, whose inhabitants displayed a positivity that Wilbur initially defended but soon began to find annoying as Harriet did. Eventually, they arrived at the Forest of Misery, where they were attacked by a pack of Weasel-wolves, whom Harriet quickly beat off. The group also encountered a number of bizarre trees that seemed to have been carved into unnervingly lifelike figures. They then ran into Dame Gothel, who denied having any knowledge of the egg or remembering anything about Wilbur's mother mentioning it in a letter.

Dame Gothel claimed that her home, Deadly Tower, was miles away from where the group met; however, both Harriet and Wilbur sensed that she was lying, though Wilbur did suggest that Gothel might have forgotten his mother mentioning the egg in her letters. This was soon disproven, as Wilbur and Harriet saw Gothel approach the tower carrying the egg. Wilbur was furious at this development, and for once it was Harriet who had to urge him to act with caution. After witnessing Gothel's obvious magical ability, the pair also come to the conclusion that the various "sculptures" they've spotted are, in fact, creatures that Gothel has trapped within trees.

After spying on the tower and waiting for Gothel to leave again, Harriet and Wilbur managed to enter by the same means Gothel did: calling upon her young cook Ratpunzel, who has an extremely long and apparently magical tail. The two soon befriended the odd young rat and learned about her passion for cooking bizarre recipes and her history of having her few visitors disappear. The latter bit of information allowed the pair to silently agree that their suspicions about the trees around Gothel's tower were correct. After convincing Ratpunzel that they were paying Gothel a surprise visit so she would't tell on them, they left the tower.

Agreeing that they need to rescue both the egg and Ratpunzel, Harriet and Wilbur returned to the tower the next day. Wilbur talked to Ratpunzel while Harriet scoped out the tower, particularly Gothel's room. In the process, Wilbur learned that Ratpunzel was regularly subjected to "Sad Story Time", with Gothel telling her stories to make her cry and then harvesting the tears. Before he could learn more, Gothel returned, and he was forced to hide in Ratpunzel's bedroom under a stack of cookbooks. Harriet soon joined him, and once Gothel had gone to sleep the pair slipped out of the tower once again.

As the pair brainstormed means to rescue both the egg and Ratpunzel, Harriet noted that there must be a way in and out of the tower besides Ratpunzel's tail and the window and became determined to find it. Once again, Wilbur found himself being sent out shopping, and made his way to the local hardware store to pick up Harriet's supplies. These included an ax-which Harriet informed Wilbur she had taken a safety class in order to learn to use properly-which they used to chop through the barrier of thorns surrounding part of the tower's base. Harriet then used chalk to uncover the secret door into the tower, and then rediscovered a vial of Ratpunzel's tears she discovered while snooping around the tower. She explained to Wilbur that Gothel uses them for magic, shortly before Wilbur was able to find the means to open the door.

Much to the pair's horror, Heady's egg showed signs of being about to hatch, and Wilbur helped Harriet strap it to her back using bungee cords. Hearing Gothel approach her bedroom, Wilbur took cover under her bed while Harriet headed down the secret staircase, forgetting until too late that the egg's absence would be obvious. As Harriet raced down to the bottom of the tower with Gothel in hot pursuit, Wilbur went to Ratpunzel and persuaded her to leave the tower using her tail. The two arrived at the base to find Harriet holding the secret door shut against Gothel, and Ratpunzel realized that Gothel had been lying to her for years.

Wilbur wedged the door shut with the ax, and then helped Harriet and Ratpunzel towards where Mumfrey and Hyacinth were waiting. At this point, the egg began cracking, and Heady's Child began emerging, which fill Wilbur with both fear and happiness. Unfortunately, Gothel succeeded in breaking out of the tower, and Wilbur was forced to take charge of the egg and Ratpunzel while Harriet confronted the gerbil witch. In the ensuing scuffle, Gothel recovered the vial of tears Harriet had pilfered, and prepared to use it to seal Harriet inside of a tree. Wilbur dove in, knocking Harriet safely aside but ending up being trapped inside a tree himself.

Ratpunzel succeeded in knocking Gothel out after this, before coming to the realization that all the carved trees contained captive creatures like Wilbur. Harriet, who blamed herself for bringing Wilbur into danger, did her best to honor his sacrifice by not snapping at Ratpunzel for not seeing this previously. Fortunately, Ratpunzel's weeping over Wilbur's apparent fate provided more tears, the one substance capable of releasing him from his prison. To Harriet's relief, Wilbur emerged from the tree, tumbling into her arms shortly after Ratpunzel announced her intention to marry him.

After turning Gothel over to the authorities, the friends set about freeing her other tree captives, concluding with Ratpunzel's beloved Rat Prince. There was a brief awkward moment over Ratpunzel's previous declaration, but Wilbur-with Harriet's help-convinced the pair of rats that he was already under an arranged bethrothal to a warrior queen from another kingdom. This left Ratpunzel free to marry the Rat Prince, though Harriet suggested-and the prince agreed-that she should take some time to get to know the outside world better first. With this settled, Wilbur and Harriet set out to return to Wilbur's castle with Ratpunzel and the baby hydra.

### Hamster Princess: Giant Trouble

> He fell off your beanstalk and hurt his back! It’s your fault! He could sue you! You should have put warning labels on these beanstalks!
>
> Wilbur, to a chipmunk salesman in Hamster Princess: Giant Trouble

During a conversation with Strings, Harriet declares that she is "very brave" before noting that Wilbur's comment would have been "and not always bright". Later, while composing a letter to her parents, she tries reading it as though she were Wilbur in order to make it less distressing. She is surprised when Wilbur and Hyacinth later arrive in the giant's cabin. Wilbur explains that he was on his way to see her when he came across the giant beanstalk, which he quickly deduced Harriet would be involved with, especially after finding signs of her presence.

Wilbur joins in the effort to rescue Strings, Mumfrey, and the goose, with Harriet tasking him with getting Strings to safety while she confronts the giant. Much to her shock, Wilbur later returns to confront the giant, and claims to be a giant-slayer in a bid to help Harriet. The two attempt to fool the enormous rabbit but fail, though they are able to get the goose to follow them outside where Strings had prepared a trap for the giant. The hamsters, quail, harpster, and goose then flee the enraged giant, and begin traveling down the beanstalk in an effort to escape him.

As Harriet is plummeting from the beanstalk, among her regrets are the "sarcastic comments [she hasn't] made to Wilbur"; fortunately, her cliff-diving charm enables her to survive the fall. The six friends then go to investigate the downed giant, whom Wilbur worries over upon learning that he's thrown out his back. When the magician responsible for the beanstalk appears, Wilbur persuades him to resolve the various problems by threatening legal action, something he picked up from an angry coworker in the Mouse King's stables. As the friends head off, he warns Strings, whom he has bonded with, that the tour schedule of her dream band will probably be quite irregular if she insists on recruiting Harriet as the drummer.

### Hamster Princess: Whiskerella

Wilbur escorts Ratpunzel to a masquerade ball at Harriet's palace, wearing a rather worn-out mask. He and Harriet easily recognize each other, and Wilbur explains that he came with Ratpunzel who wanted to see the Rat Prince. Like the other ball goers, he is stunned by the appearance of a magically beautiful hamster and remains speechless when Harriet brings her over to meet him. After the ball, he joins Harriet and Ratpunzel in the quail stable to discuss the mysterious guest. At his suggestion, they approach Ralph the groom to ask him about the mystery hamster and her quail, and are surprised when they learn that the driver stayed on the coach all night.

The three friends later reconvene in Harriet's room on the day of another masquerade ball, wondering if the mystery hamster will make a return appearance. Both Wilbur and Ratpunzel are more understanding of a person wanting to attend a ball than Harriet. Wilbur remains by the punch bowl once again while Harriet enacts her plan to learn more about the mystery hamster. Wilbur later comes out to the stables to alert Harriet that the mystery hamster is leaving the ball, only to learn that her coachmouse has transformed into a lizard. Thinking quickly, Wilbur takes his place, and drives the coach back to her surprisingly simple home.

At midnight, Wilbur is unpleasantly surprised when the mystery hamster's carriage turns back into a pumpkin while he's still sitting on it. The pair then knock on the mystery hamster's door, and Harriet reacts with surprise-and rudeness-when she turns out to be a rather ordinary-looking hamster named Ella. Wilbur attempts to make up for Harriet's lapse by being complimentary, and the pair are then introduced to Misty, Ella's "wicked" stepsister. They then learn that Ella is the victim of a fairy godmouse intent on her living "happily ever after", despite the fact that Ella has quickly lost her taste for the whole situation.

Wilbur briefly speaks up in defense of princes in general when both Ella and Harriet prove disparaging and warns Ella that her fairy godmouse's efforts could lead to her being forced to attend balls and even being granted an extended lifespan so she can continue to do so. He and Harriet are both surprised when Ella mentions Ralph as the only person she met at the ball who seemed genuinely nice, though Wilbur is skeptical regarding Harriet's idea of matching the pair. When Harriet notes that the only way she can think to fulfill the fairy godmouse's requirement that Ella meet a prince would be to have either her parents or Wilbur's mother adopt Ralph, Wilbur is quick to note that he wouldn't want Ralph to be burdened with his run-down castle. The pair then run into the bat ambassador, who offers to help with their situation, beginning by tracking down Misty's lizard-turned-coachmouse-turned-lizard-again, Stinky.

After failing repeatedly to capture the reptile, Wilbur goes to bed, and later joins Harriet in going to Ella's house after the ambassador throws *another* masquerade ball at their request. Together with Misty, the hamsters attempt to persuade the fairy godmouse to leave Ella alone, having taken the precaution of hiding the newts she previously turned into quail to pull Ella's carriage. However, the godmouse refuses to take no for an answer, and forces Misty into the role of coachmouse before turning Wilbur and Harriet into quail. As an added precaution, her spell prevents anyone but actual quail from being able to understand them, and they are forced to pull the carriage to the castle.

The pair are left in the stables as the godmouse accompanies Ella into the ball, with Misty bidding them farewell silently before going inside with Ralph. Fortunately, Mumfrey is able to understand the pair, and helps them to make their way inside the castle in an attempt to help Ella. Wilbur, unused to his transformed body, crashes repeatedly and proves to be of little help during the confrontation with the fairy godmouse. However, various circumstances come together to fulfill the fairy godmouse's spell while allowing Ella to be with Ralph, and Harriet and Wilbur are restored to their hamster forms. In the aftermath of the disastrous evening, Wilbur takes Mumfrey back to the stables.

## Trivia

* Wilbur’s backstory is based on a European fairytale with several versions involving a Princess atop a glass hill or mountain.
* Aside from Harriet herself and Mumfrey, Wilbur is the only character to appear in every book in the series.