On his way back from the war, a soldier stumbles upon
a witch who suggests an opportunity for him to gain riches. She asks him to
climb down into a hollow tree stump and retrieve her tinderbox. Within this
place lies chests carrying copper, silver and gold in separate chambers. Each
of these are guarded by three dogs with large eyes. To subdue the dogs, the
soldier was given an apron to put them on from the witch.
When he had filled his boots, hat, clothing, knapsack and
everything he could fit a single gold coin in, he ventured back to the witch. However,
he forgot the tinderbox and when the witch reminded him about it, he went back
for it. The witch was very eager to retrieve the tinderbox when he returned. But
before the Soldier gave her the tinderbox, he became very curious in this
little thing and asked her why she wanted it so much; why all those gold coins
he have gathered is less worth to her than this Tinderbox. The Witch refused to
share what value this tinderbox had and this made the Soldier very angry. As a
result he struck her down and separated her head from her body.
With his newfound wealth, the Soldier continued on
with his journey with the closest town being his new goal. Upon reaching the
town, the soldier quickly started to spend his riches. He stayed at the best
inn and ordered his favourite dishes and the day after, bought himself a set of
proper clothing and he would soon become known as a fine gentleman. The people
that came to visit him started sharing tales about the wonderful town and more
importantly, about the king's beautiful daughter, the Princess.
The Soldier became very interested in the Princess and
wished more than anything to see her. There was just one problem, the king have
locked her inside a copper tower and no one is allowed to visit her except the
King. The soldier tried to get to see the princess but he could not obtain
permission to do so. The Soldier was not pleased with this but nevertheless he
continued to live the in the town and spend his wealth. As he spent and gave
away his riches to poor people without any income, he found himself eventually
with only 2 shillings left. This forced him to leave his fancy life behind him
and with the few shillings he had left he bought a little shack, where none of
his old friends would visit him.
One day when it was dark outside and he had become so
poor that he couldn't even afford a candle, he remembered that there was a
candle inside the tinderbox. When he struck the flint and steel to create a
spark, the door flew open and inside came a dog with large eyes. It was one of
the dogs from the tree stump. The Soldier came to realise that the power of the
Tinderbox was to summon the three dogs from the tree stump which were there to
abide to his commands.
With the help of the tinderbox the Soldier first ordered
the dogs to retrieve the riches from the chests and thus getting his wealth
back. Secondly, he asked the dogs to get him the Princess. He asked them to do
this at midnight so the princess would be asleep and thus she wouldn't notice a
thing and expect it to be a dream. The princess told her parents about the odd
dreams but the queen suspected it to be more than just a dream. The queen tried
different methods to figure out where the dogs came from. Eventually she bound
a bag of flour to the princess's neck and cut a small hole in the bag so that
flour would scatter on the floor and reveal that path to the Soldiers house.
And so it did. The next day, the king and queen
gathered their soldiers and followed the flour trail that led them to the
Soldier and sentenced him to death by the noose.
The Soldier was now in prison waiting to get hanged. However,
a shoemaker boy came by his cell and the soldier offered him four shillings if
the boy went and got him his Tinderbox that the soldier left in his shed when
he got captured by the king and queen. The shoemaker boy complied as soon as he
heard four shillings and got him the Tinderbox.
The day arrived for the Soldier to be hanged. He was
led up to the noose, but as they were about to place the rope around his neck
the soldier asked for a last request; to smoke his pipe a last time. The king
granted his request and the soldier picked up the tinderbox and used it to
summon all three dogs and commanded them to attack all the surrounding soldiers
and the king and queen.
With the king and queen dead, all the remaining
soldiers got petrified and declared the Soldier to become their new king and to
marry the princess that was locked away in the copper tower.
And so, the Soldier became king and finally could
spend the rest of his life with the Princess.
No comments:
Post a Comment