I have another fairy tale for you this week. This one was requested by another reader (and my mom); since I adore the tale, I was happy to get to write about it! Finding pictures to add to the blog made it even better. I highly recommend Google-ing "The Tinderbox Illustrations" if you're interested. I chose my favorites to include here, but there were a ton of great ones!
This week's story is called The Tinderbox. It was written in the 1830’s by Hans Christian Andersen, who also wrote The Snow Queen, amongst other tales. Andersen loosely based The Tinderbox on a Scandinavian folk tale called The Spirit in the Candle, but he also incorporated elements from other fairy tales. With that out of the way, let’s jump into the tale!
Once upon a time there was a poor soldier returning home from a war. Along the way he happened to meet an ugly witch. She told him what a fine looking soldier he was, and that he ought to have money. The soldier rather agreed with her - who wouldn't? The witch then told him that the tree she was standing in front of was hollow inside. If he would agree to go down into it, he would become rich beyond his wildest dreams.
When the soldier asked how that was possible, the witch explained. Below the tree there are three rooms. In the first waits a dog with eyes as large as saucers. The witch said she would give the soldier her checkered apron; if he spread it out and placed the dog upon it, it would remain docile. A chest within the first room was filled with copper, and the soldier could take as much as he liked.
In the second room a dog with eyes as large as wheel mills sits. The same trick with the apron will work on him, says the witch, but the chest that he guards is full of silver. Once again, the soldier can take as much as he likes.
The third room has yet another dog - this one with eyes as large as the Round Tower of Copenhagen. He won’t attack if the soldier puts him on the apron, and the chest that he guards is full of gold. The soldier is welcome to take as much as he can carry, and then return to the witch.
Of course, the soldier is not a stupid man. He asks the witch what she wants in return for this information. She smiles and replies that she wants none of the money. However...in the rooms is a tinderbox that her grandmother dropped when she was there. The witch would like the soldier to retrieve it for her while he is down the tree. He may have all of the riches of the rooms, but he must return the tinderbox to her (a la Aladdin?).
The soldier agrees, climbs the tree, and is lowered inside by the witch and a rope. Within the first room he sees the dog with eyes as large as saucers. The soldier spreads out the witch’s apron and carries the dog onto it. He then opens the chest the dog was guarding - sure enough, it is full of copper! The soldier fills a bag, takes the apron, and moves on to the next room.
Within is the dog with eyes as big as wheel mills. Though a little horrified, the soldier once again spreads out the apron and moves the dog. The chest in this room is full of silver, so the soldier dumps out all of the copper he had grabbed and fills his bag with silver instead.
Inside the last room is the dog with eyes as big as the Round Tower (those rooms must have really high ceilings!). The soldier stares at him for a while before moving the dog onto the apron. To his joy, the chest is filled with gold, just as the witch said. He dumps out his silver, loads the bag with gold, and then proceeds to stuff his boots, pockets, and hat with it as well.
The soldier heads back to the entrance and asks the witch to pull him out. She asks if he has the tinderbox - with the thrill of wealth, the soldier had quite forgotten! He searches through the rooms and eventually finds it. When he returns, the witch hauls him out of the tree.
The witch immediately asks for the tinderbox. Suspicious (after all, it is more valuable to her than wealth), the soldier asks her why she wants it. The witch refuses to tell him, so he threatens to chop off her head if she doesn’t come clean. At this the witch screams and tells him it’s none of his business - so, naturally, the soldier chops off her head.
He then continues on his way into town. Once there, the soldier goes to the finest inn and orders their best room. He has his favorite meal, and goes out shopping for new clothes the next day. The soldier quickly makes his name known around town, and begins to be invited into the high circles of society. While there he hears rumors of the princess - a beautiful woman who is kept locked inside a castle. Only her father can enter or leave; the king keeps her locked up because of a prophecy that she will marry a common soldier.
The soldier is understandably intrigued by this, but no amount of gold can get him inside that castle. Giving up, the soldier continues to live the high life. He also makes sure to give lots to the poor, having been one of them not so long ago.
Unfortunately, the soldier soon blows through all of his money. He is forced to move out of his expensive rooms and rent a dark attic instead. All of his rich friends forget about him, and the soldier is left by himself.
The night is dark (and full of terrors?), and the soldier wishes he had a light. It is only then that he remembers the tinderbox. He digs it out of his pack and strikes a light. To his shock, the dog with eyes the size of saucers appears before him! He is even more surprised when it speaks, asking what its lord commands.
The soldier's shock soon wears off, and he tells the dog to go and get him money. It disappears, and quickly returns with a sack of gold in its mouth!
Now the soldier can have as much money as he desires. He returns to his high life and is welcomed once more by his friends.
One night the soldier remembers the stories of the princess. He strikes the tinderbox and tells the dog that he wishes to see her. The loyal hound heads off to the castle, enters the room of the princess, and carries her away on its back.
When it brings her before the soldier he is so overcome by her beauty that he kisses her. The dog then returns her to her room at the castle.
The next day the princess is having tea with the king and queen. She tells them of a strange dream she had - of being carried off by a dog, and being kissed by a soldier.
A lady-in-waiting is assigned to sleep with the princess, and to see if her dream is reality. That night the soldier sends the dog to bring the princess to him again. The lady follows her, and sees the house she is taken to. Thinking quickly, she marks it with a chalk X and leaves.
The dog returns the princess to her room, and then heads back to the soldier. Along the way he spies the X on the door. Realizing what it means, the dog proves himself smarter than the lady-in-waiting - he makes chalk X’s on all of the doors in town.
When the king and queen go out the next day with their guards, they see that all of the houses have been marked. Unable to determine who keeps kidnapping the princess, they return to the castle. The queen, who is quite clever, makes a small bag out of silk and fills it with fine grain. She then cuts a tiny hole in it and gives it to the princess to wear as a necklace.
When the dog carries the princess away that night, it fails to notice the tiny trail of grain being left in her wake. The next day the king and queen follow it to the soldier’s house. He is arrested and sentenced to be executed the next day.
In all of the confusion of being arrested, the soldier forgot his tinderbox at home. Stuck in prison, he has no way of escape. In the morning he is waiting to be hung when a young boy walks by his jail cell’s window. He tells the boy that he will pay him if he will run and get the soldier’s tinderbox. The boy complies, and manages to get it back to him before he is led to the gallows.
The whole court has gathered to see the soldier executed. Just before the noose is put around his neck, he asks the king for one final request - a pipe of tobacco. Seeing no harm in this, the king agrees. A pipe is given to the soldier, and he pulls out his tinderbox to light it. The soldier strikes the tinderbox three times -
- and all three of the dogs appear!
The soldier asks the dogs to not let him be hanged, so they fall upon the court and fling them into the air. When the people hit the ground they break into pieces. Not even the king and queen are spared!
The commoners are so terrified by this that they beg the soldier to stop the dogs, promising to make him king if he does so. The dogs stop at his immediate command, and the soldier is crowned. The princess is brought out of her castle and married to him. The deaths of her parents don’t seem to distress her - but, then again, they did keep her locked up all her life. She becomes queen, and the dogs sit at the front table of the wedding feast.
The Tinderbox is such a strange and wonderful tale! I love the blending of multiple fairy tale elements. The witch at the beginning is quite similar to Jafar from Aladdin; the princess being kept locked up is rather a lot like Rapunzel. The dogs and their eyes, though...I have no idea where such an idea came from! Maybe they were the inspiration for the TY Beanie Boos?
I hope that you enjoyed the story! Please feel free to comment below or email me with any questions, comments, or pictures of dogs with ridiculously big eyes! I’ll be back next week with The Little Green Frog - it’s sort of like The Princess and the Frog, only in reverse. See you then!
No comments:
Post a Comment