Kabanata Kabanata 15 · THE TINDER-BOX

. THE TINDER-BOX

A soldier came marching along the high road--left, right! A left, right!

He had his knapsack on his back and a sword by his side, for he had been

to the wars and was now returning home.

An old Witch met him on the road. She was very ugly to look at: her

under-lip hung down to her breast.

‘Good evening, Soldier!’ she said. ‘What a fine sword and knapsack you

have! You are something like a soldier! You ought to have as much money

as you would like to carry!’

‘Thank you, old Witch,’ said the Soldier.

‘Do you see that great tree there?’ said the Witch, pointing to a tree

beside them. ‘It is hollow within. You must climb up to the top, and

then you will see a hole through which you can let yourself down into

the tree. I will tie a rope round your waist, so that I may be able to

pull you up again when you call.’

‘What shall I do down there?’ asked the Soldier.

‘Get money!’ answered the Witch. ‘Listen! When you reach the bottom of

the tree you will find yourself in a large hall; it is light there, for

there are more than three hundred lamps burning. Then you will see three

doors, which you can open--the keys are in the locks. If you go into the

first room, you will see a great chest in the middle of the floor with

a dog sitting upon it; he has eyes as large as saucers, but you needn’t

trouble about him. I will give you my blue-check apron, which you must

spread out on the floor, and then go back quickly and fetch the dog and

set him upon it; open the chest and take as much money as you like. It

is copper there. If you would rather have silver, you must go into the

next room, where there is a dog with eyes as large as mill-wheels.

But don’t take any notice of him; just set him upon my apron, and help

yourself to the money. If you prefer gold, you can get that too, if you

go into the third room, and as much as you like to carry. But the dog

that guards the chest there has eyes as large as the Round Tower at

Copenhagen! He is a savage dog, I can tell you; but you needn’t be

afraid of him either. Only, put him on my apron and he won’t touch you,

and you can take out of the chest as much gold as you like!’

‘Come, this is not bad!’ said the Soldier. ‘But what am I to give you,

old Witch; for surely you are not going to do this for nothing?’

‘Yes, I am!’ replied the Witch. ‘Not a single farthing will I take! For

me you shall bring nothing but an old tinder-box which my grandmother

forgot last time she was down there.’

‘Well, tie the rope round my waist! ‘said the Soldier.

‘Here it is,’ said the Witch, ‘and here is my blue-check apron.’

Then the Soldier climbed up the tree, let himself down through the hole,

and found himself standing, as the Witch had said, underground in the

large hall, where the three hundred lamps were burning.

Well, he opened the first door. Ugh! there sat the dog with eyes as big

as saucers glaring at him.

‘You are a fine fellow!’ said the Soldier, and put him on the Witch’s

apron, took as much copper as his pockets could hold; then he shut the

chest, put the dog on it again, and went into the second room. Sure

enough there sat the dog with eyes as large as mill-wheels.

‘You had better not look at me so hard!’ said the Soldier. ‘Your eyes

will come out of their sockets!’

And then he set the dog on the apron. When he saw all the silver in the

chest, he threw away the copper he had taken, and filled his pockets and

knapsack with nothing but silver.

Then he went into the third room. Horrors! the dog there had two eyes,

each as large as the Round Tower at Copenhagen, spinning round in his

head like wheels.

‘Good evening!’ said the Soldier and saluted, for he had never seen

a dog like this before. But when he had examined him more closely, he

thought to himself: ‘Now then, I’ve had enough of this!’ and put him

down on the floor, and opened the chest. Heavens! what a heap of gold

there was! With all that he could buy up the whole town, and all the

sugar pigs, all the tin soldiers, whips and rocking-horses in the whole

world. Now he threw away all the silver with which he had filled his

pockets and knapsack, and filled them with gold instead--yes, all his

pockets, his knapsack, cap and boots even, so that he could hardly walk.

Now he was rich indeed. He put the dog back upon the chest, shut the

door, and then called up through the tree:

‘Now pull me up again, old Witch!’

‘Have you got the tinder-box also?’ asked the Witch.

‘Botheration!’ said the Soldier, ‘I had clean forgotten it!’ And then he

went back and fetched it.

The Witch pulled him up, and there he stood again on the high road, with

pockets, knapsack, cap and boots filled with gold.

‘What do you want to do with the tinder-box?’ asked the Soldier.

‘That doesn’t matter to you,’ replied the Witch. ‘You have got your

money, give me my tinder-box.’

‘We’ll see!’ said the Soldier. ‘Tell me at once what you want to do with

it, or I will draw my sword, and cut off your head!’

‘No!’ screamed the Witch.

The Soldier immediately cut off her head. That was the end of her! But

he tied up all his gold in her apron, slung it like a bundle over his

shoulder, put the tinder-box in his pocket, and set out towards the

town.

It was a splendid town! He turned into the finest inn, ordered the best

chamber and his favourite dinner; for now that he had so much money he

was really rich.

It certainly occurred to the servant who had to clean his boots that

they were astonishingly old boots for such a rich lord. But that

was because he had not yet bought new ones; next day he appeared in

respectable boots and fine clothes. Now, instead of a common soldier

he had become a noble lord, and the people told him about all the grand

doings of the town and the King, and what a beautiful Princess his

daughter was.

‘How can one get to see her?’ asked the Soldier.

‘She is never to be seen at all!’ they told him; ‘she lives in a great

copper castle, surrounded by many walls and towers! No one except the

King may go in or out, for it is prophesied that she will marry a common

soldier, and the King cannot submit to that.’

‘I should very much like to see her,’ thought the Soldier; but he could

not get permission.

Now he lived very gaily, went to the theatre, drove in the King’s

garden, and gave the poor a great deal of money, which was very nice

of him; he had experienced in former times how hard it is not to have a

farthing in the world. Now he was rich, wore fine clothes, and made many

friends, who all said that he was an excellent man, a real nobleman. And

the Soldier liked that. But as he was always spending money, and never

made any more, at last the day came when he had nothing left but two

shillings, and he had to leave the beautiful rooms in which he had been

living, and go into a little attic under the roof, and clean his own

boots, and mend them with a darning-needle. None of his friends came to

visit him there, for there were too many stairs to climb.

It was a dark evening, and he could not even buy a light. But all at

once it flashed across him that there was a little end of tinder in the

tinder-box, which he had taken from the hollow tree into which the Witch

had helped him down. He found the box with the tinder in it; but just as

he was kindling a light, and had struck a spark out of the tinder-box,

the door burst open, and the dog with eyes as large as saucers, which he

had seen down in the tree, stood before him and said:

‘What does my lord command?’

‘What’s the meaning of this?’ exclaimed the Soldier. ‘This is a pretty

kind of tinder-box, if I can get whatever I want like this. Get me

money!’ he cried to the dog, and hey, presto! he was off and back again,

holding a great purse full of money in his mouth.

Now the Soldier knew what a capital tinder-box this was. If he rubbed

once, the dog that sat on the chest of copper appeared; if he rubbed

twice, there came the dog that watched over the silver chest; and if

he rubbed three times, the one that guarded the gold appeared. Now, the

Soldier went down again to his beautiful rooms, and appeared once more

in splendid clothes. All his friends immediately recognised him again,

and paid him great court.

One day he thought to himself: ‘It is very strange that no one can get

to see the Princess. They all say she is very pretty, but what’s the use

of that if she has to sit for ever in the great copper castle with

all the towers? Can I not manage to see her somehow? Where is my

tinder-box?’ and so he struck a spark, and, presto! there came the dog

with eyes as large as saucers.

‘It is the middle of the night, I know,’ said the Soldier; ‘but I should

very much like to see the Princess for a moment.’

The dog was already outside the door, and before the Soldier could look

round, in he came with the Princess. She was lying asleep on the

dog’s back, and was so beautiful that anyone could see she was a real

Princess. The Soldier really could not refrain from kissing her--he was

such a thorough Soldier. Then the dog ran back with the Princess. But

when it was morning, and the King and Queen were drinking tea, the

Princess said that the night before she had had such a strange dream

about a dog and a Soldier: she had ridden on the dog’s back, and the

Soldier had kissed her.

‘That is certainly a fine story,’ said the Queen. But the next night one

of the ladies-in-waiting was to watch at the Princess’s bed, to see if

it was only a dream, or if it had actually happened.

The Soldier had an overpowering longing to see the Princess again, and

so the dog came in the middle of the night and fetched her, running as

fast as he could. But the lady-in-waiting slipped on india-rubber shoes

and followed them. When she saw them disappear into a large house, she

thought to herself: ‘Now I know where it is; ‘and made a great cross on

the door with a piece of chalk. Then she went home and lay down, and the

dog came back also, with the Princess. But when he saw that a cross had

been made on the door of the house where the Soldier lived, he took a

piece of chalk also, and made crosses on all the doors in the town; and

that was very clever, for now the lady-in-waiting could not find the

right house, as there were crosses on all the doors.

Early next morning the King, Queen, ladies-in-waiting, and officers came

out to see where the Princess had been.

‘There it is!’ said the King, when he saw the first door with a cross on

it.

‘No, there it is, my dear!’ said the Queen, when she likewise saw a door

with a cross.

‘But here is one, and there is another!’ they all exclaimed; wherever

they looked there was a cross on the door. Then they realised that the

sign would not help them at all.

But the Queen was an extremely clever woman, who could do a great deal

more than just drive in a coach. She took her great golden scissors, cut

up a piece of silk, and made a pretty little bag of it. This she filled

with the finest buckwheat grains, and tied it round the Princess’ neck;

this done, she cut a little hole in the bag, so that the grains would

strew the whole road wherever the Princess went.

In the night the dog came again, took the Princess on his back and ran

away with her to the Soldier, who was very much in love with her, and

would have liked to have been a Prince, so that he might have had her

for his wife.

The dog did not notice how the grains were strewn right from the castle

to the Soldier’s window, where he ran up the wall with the Princess.

In the morning the King and the Queen saw plainly where their daughter

had been, and they took the Soldier and put him into prison.

There he sat. Oh, how dark and dull it was there! And they told him:

‘To-morrow you are to be hanged.’ Hearing that did not exactly cheer

him, and he had left his tinder-box in the inn.

Next morning he could see through the iron grating in front of his

little window how the people were hurrying out of the town to see him

hanged. He heard the drums and saw the soldiers marching; all the

people were running to and fro. Just below his window was a shoemaker’s

apprentice, with leather apron and shoes; he was skipping along so

merrily that one of his shoes flew off and fell against the wall, just

where the Soldier was sitting peeping through the iron grating.

‘Oh, shoemaker’s boy, you needn’t be in such a hurry!’ said the Soldier

to him. ‘There’s nothing going on till I arrive. But if you will run

back to the house where I lived, and fetch me my tinder-box, I will give

you four shillings. But you must put your best foot foremost.’

The shoemaker’s boy was very willing to earn four shillings, and fetched

the tinder-box, gave it to the Soldier, and--yes--now you shall hear.

Outside the town a great scaffold had been erected, and all round were

standing the soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of people. The King and

Queen were sitting on a magnificent throne opposite the judges and the

whole council.

The Soldier was already standing on the top of the ladder; but when they

wanted to put the rope round his neck, he said that the fulfilment of

one innocent request was always granted to a poor criminal before he

underwent his punishment. He would so much like to smoke a small pipe of

tobacco; it would be his last pipe in this world.

The King could not refuse him this, and so he took out his tinder-box,

and rubbed it once, twice, three times. And lo, and behold I there stood

all three dogs--the one with eyes as large as saucers, the second with

eyes as large as mill-wheels, and the third with eyes each as large as

the Round Tower of Copenhagen.

‘Help me now, so that I may not be hanged!’ cried the Soldier. And

thereupon the dogs fell upon the judges and the whole council, seized

some by the legs, others by the nose, and threw them so high into the

air that they fell and were smashed into pieces.

‘I won’t stand this!’ said the King; but the largest dog seized him

too, and the Queen as well, and threw them up after the others. This

frightened the soldiers, and all the people cried: ‘Good Soldier, you

shall be our King, and marry the beautiful Princess!’

Then they put the Soldier into the King’s coach, and the three dogs

danced in front, crying ‘Hurrah!’ And the boys whistled and the soldiers

presented arms.

The Princess came out of the copper castle, and became Queen; and that

pleased her very much.

The wedding festivities lasted for eight days, and the dogs sat at table

and made eyes at everyone.

THE WITCH IN THE STONE BOAT(31)

(31) From the Icelandic.

There were once a King and a Queen, and they had a son called Sigurd,

who was very strong and active, and good-looking. When the King came

to be bowed down with the weight of years he spoke to his son, and

said that now it was time for him to look out for a fitting match for

himself, for he did not know how long he might last now, and he would

like to see him married before he died.

Sigurd was not averse to this, and asked his father where he thought

it best to look for a wife. The King answered that in a certain country

there was a King who had a beautiful daughter, and he thought it would

be most desirable if Sigurd could get her. So the two parted, and Sigurd

prepared for the journey, and went to where his father had directed him.

He came to the King and asked his daughter’s hand, which he readily

granted him, but only on the condition that he should remain there as

long as he could, for the King himself was not strong and not very able

to govern his kingdom. Sigurd accepted this condition, but added that

he would have to get leave to go home again to his own country when

he heard news of his father’s death. After that Sigurd married the

Princess, and helped his father-in-law to govern the kingdom. He and the

Princess loved each other dearly, and after a year a son came to them,

who was two years old when word came to Sigurd that his father was dead.

Sigurd now prepared to return home with his wife and child, and went on

board ship to go by sea.

They had sailed for several days, when the breeze suddenly fell, and

there came a dead calm, at a time when they needed only one day’s voyage

to reach home. Sigurd and his Queen were one day on deck, when most of

the others on the ship had fallen asleep. There they sat and talked for

a while, and had their little son along with them. After a time Sigurd

became so heavy with sleep that he could no longer keep awake, so he

went below and lay down, leaving the Queen alone on the deck, playing

with her son.

A good while after Sigurd had gone below the Queen saw something black

on the sea, which seemed to be coming nearer. As it approached she

could make out that it was a boat, and could see the figure of some one

sitting in it and rowing it. At last the boat came alongside the ship,

and now the Queen saw that it was a stone boat, out of which there

came up on board the ship a fearfully ugly Witch. The Queen was more

frightened than words can describe, and could neither speak a word nor

move from the place so as to awaken the King or the sailors. The Witch

came right up to the Queen, took the child from her and laid it on the

deck; then she took the Queen, and stripped her of all her fine clothes,

which she proceeded to put on herself, and looked then like a human

being. Last of all she took the Queen, put her into the boat, and said--

‘This spell I lay upon you, that you slacken not your course until you

come to my brother in the Underworld.’

The Queen sat stunned and motionless, but the boat at once shot away

from the ship with her, and before long she was out of sight.

When the boat could no longer be seen the child began to cry, and though

the Witch tried to quiet it she could not manage it; so she went below

to where the King was sleeping with the child on her arm, and awakened

him, scolding him for leaving them alone on deck, while he and all the

crew were asleep. It was great carelessness of him, she said, to leave

no one to watch the ship with her.

Sigurd was greatly surprised to hear his Queen scold him so much, for

she had never said an angry word to him before; but he thought it was

quite excusable in this case, and tried to quiet the child along with

her, but it was no use. Then he went and wakened the sailors, and

bade them hoist the sails, for a breeze had sprung up and was blowing

straight towards the harbour.

They soon reached the land which Sigurd was to rule over, and found all

the people sorrowful for the old King’s death, but they became glad when

they got Sigurd back to the Court, and made him King over them.

The King’s son, however, hardly ever stopped crying from the time he

had been taken from his mother on the deck of the ship, although he had

always been such a good child before, so that at last the King had to

get a nurse for him--one of the maids of the Court. As soon as the child

got into her charge he stopped crying, and behaved well as before.

After the sea-voyage it seemed to the King that the Queen had altered

very much in many ways, and not for the better. He thought her much more

haughty and stubborn and difficult to deal with than she used to be.

Before long others began to notice this as well as the King. In the

Court there were two young fellows, one of eighteen years old, the other

of nineteen, who were very fond of playing chess, and often sat long

inside playing at it. Their room was next the Queen’s, and often during

the day they heard the Queen talking.

One day they paid more attention than usual when they heard her talk,

and put their ears close to a crack in the wall between the rooms, and

heard the Queen say quite plainly, ‘When I yawn a little, then I am a

nice little maiden; when I yawn half-way, then I am half a troll; and

when I yawn fully, then I am a troll altogether.’

As she said this she yawned tremendously, and in a moment had put on

the appearance of a fearfully ugly troll. Then there came up through the

floor of the room a three-headed Giant with a trough full of meat, who

saluted her as his sister and set down the trough before her. She began

to eat out of it, and never stopped till she had finished it. The young

fellows saw all this going on, but did not hear the two of them say

anything to each other. They were astonished though at how greedily the

Queen devoured the meat, and how much she ate of it, and were no longer

surprised that she took so little when she sat at table with the King.

As soon as she had finished it the Giant disappeared with the trough by

the same way as he had come, and the Queen returned to her human shape.

Now we must go back to the King’s son after he had been put in charge of

the nurse. One evening, after she had lit a candle and was holding the

child, several planks sprang up in the floor of the room, and out at the

opening came a beautiful woman dressed in white, with an iron belt round

her waist, to which was fastened an iron chain that went down into the

ground. The woman came up to the nurse, took the child from her,

and pressed it to her breast; then she gave it back to the nurse and

returned by the same way as she had come, and the floor closed over her

again. Although the woman had not spoken a single word to her, the nurse

was very much frightened, but told no one about it.

Next evening the same thing happened again, just as before, but as the

woman was going away she said in a sad tone, ‘Two are gone, and one

only is left,’ and then disappeared as before. The nurse was still more

frightened when she heard the woman say this, and thought that perhaps

some danger was hanging over the child, though she had no ill-opinion of

the unknown woman, who, indeed, had behaved towards the child as if it

were her own. The most mysterious thing was the woman saying ‘and only

one is left;’ but the nurse guessed that this must mean that only one

day was left, since she had come for two days already.

At last the nurse made up her mind to go to the King, and told him the

whole story, and asked him to be present in person next day about the

time when the woman usually came. The King promised to do so, and came

to the nurse’s room a little before the time, and sat down on a chair

with his drawn sword in his hand. Soon after the planks in the floor

sprang up as before, and the woman came up, dressed in white, with the

iron belt and chain. The King saw at once that it was his own Queen, and

immediately hewed asunder the iron chain that was fastened to the belt.

This was followed by such noises and crashings down in the earth that

all the King’s Palace shook, so that no one expected anything else than

to see every bit of it shaken to pieces. At last, however, the noises

and shaking stopped, and they began to come to themselves again.

The King and Queen embraced each other, and she told him the whole

story--how the Witch came to the ship when they were all asleep and sent

her off in the boat. After she had gone so far that she could not see

the ship, she sailed on through darkness until she landed beside a

three-headed Giant. The Giant wished her to marry him, but she refused;

whereupon he shut her up by herself, and told her she would never get

free until she consented. After a time she began to plan how to get her

freedom, and at last told him that she would consent if he would allow

her to visit her son on earth three days on end. This he agreed to, but

put on her this iron belt and chain, the other end of which he fastened

round his own waist, and the great noises that were heard when the King

cut the chain must have been caused by the Giant’s falling down the

underground passage when the chain gave way so suddenly. The Giant’s

dwelling, indeed, was right under the Palace, and the terrible shakings

must have been caused by him in his death-throes.

The King now understood how the Queen he had had for some time past had

been so ill-tempered. He at once had a sack drawn over her head and made

her be stoned to death, and after that torn in pieces by untamed horses.

The two young fellows also told now what they had heard and seen in the

Queen’s room, for before this they had been afraid to say anything about

it, on account of the Queen’s power.

The real Queen was now restored to all her dignity, and was beloved by

all. The nurse was married to a nobleman, and the King and Queen gave

her splendid presents.