The Tinder-box

THE TINDER-BOX

A Soldier came marching along the high road—left, right! 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.

[Illustration: The Soldier Fills his Knapsack with Money]

‘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.

[Illustration: The Dog Brings in The Princess]

‘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 indiarubber 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.

[Illustration: ‘He was skipping along so merrily’]

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! 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]

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.

[Footnote 31: From the Icelandic.]

[Illustration: The Witch Comes on Board]

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 someone

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 Under-world.’

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.

[Illustration: Sigurd Hews the Chain Asunder.]

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.