Once upon a time in an age of iron a Warrior came marching down from the hills;
returning from the wars he carried nothing but a pelt on his back and a spear
in his hand. As he walked on, he met a very frightful-looking old witch beneath
a large tree. The witch saw that he was a brave warrior returning home
victorious and so offered him immeasurable riches. However to gain them the
soldier must enter the tree from above, as deep down beneath the tree was a
large hall built by the folk of old. Within the hall glowed three hundred
unnatural lamps leading to three thick doors. Behind each waited vast wealth
with only a wolf in-between. Once men these wolves; three brothers were enchanted long ago to guard the chests. The eldest guarding the chest of gold,
and the youngest the chest of bronze. All the witch wanted in return was a tinderbox her grandmother had left inside, the warrior agreed to help as
the witch had donned him with an apron enchanted to tame the three brothers
within.
The warrior entered
the bronze room first shooing the pup away and filling his pelt and apron with
bronze. Within the second chamber was a large grey wolf which paced the room
angrily unable to do anything as the soldier replaced all the bronze in his
pelt with silver. However in the third chamber the soldiers greed was nearly
equal to his fear as the golden chest sat in-between the front paws of an enormous
wolf and beneath two large golden orbs. The shine of the chest was too much to
ignore the Soldier entered the room and slowly emptied his pelt, and filled it
with Golden coins. All the while the Wolf stared. The warrior left the chamber
thinking of all he could buy with this gold, eager to spend it on every luxury.
The tinderbox was just outside the third door left open on the floor, the
warrior picked it up and all though it was only a simple box it seemed to
radiate some type of power, magic to be sure. Once out the soldier asked the
witch “What are you going to do with the tinder-box?” The witch refused to
share her intentions, so saturated with greed was the warrior he lopped of her
head in order to posses the tinderbox and whatever powers it possessed.
With so much money
the warrior bought nothing but the best. He felt he deserved it, the best room,
the best food, shoes, clothes, women. His wealth attracted people, leeches. One
of whom mentioned the King’s beautiful daughter, the princess. The legend of
her beauty was well known, and thus the soldier wanted her for his own. However
she was imprisoned within a copper tower which only her dad entered. Before he
knew it he was down to his last coin. Gone went all of his luxuries leaving him
in the dark where he used the tinderbox.
No sooner had he
struck the flint, than the door flew open and the wolf pup, whom he had seen
while down in the tree, sat before him, and said, “What orders, master?”. He
found If he struck the flint once, the pup who sat on the chest of copper money
made his appearance; if twice, the wolf came from the chest of silver; and if
three times, the dog who watched over the gold. The soldier soon retrieved his
reputation. Wishing to see the princess the dog disappeared instantly, and
before the warrior could even look round, he returned with her. She was lying
on the silver wolfs back asleep, she looked so lovely, that he could not help
kissing her. She believed that she had dreamt of a kiss that night, but the Queen had her
doubts fearing the prophecy coming true.
The warrior longed
very much to see the princess once more, so again the dog went into the night
to fetch her but this time a guard followed the wolf back to the warriors house
where he marked it with a cross to find in the morning. However the wolf
noticed this and made crosses on all the doors in the town, so that the guard,
King and Queen could not find the house. Cunningly the Queen attached a small
bag of flour around the sleeping Princess, a small hole meant a trail of flour
would be left as the Princess went along. Again the wolf came and carried the Princess
to the soldier, who loved her very much. The wolf did not observe the flour trail
left behind . In the morning the King and Queen found out where their daughter
had been, and the warrior was taken and put in prison.
He was to be hung on
the morrow as he had left the tinder-box at the inn. The warrior managed to get
the attention of a passing peasant boy from his small cell window, and offered
him four shillings if he were to fetch his tinder-box from his house as fast as
possible. The peasant boy ran fast to fetch the tinder-box, and gave it to the warrior
just in the nick of time. The noose was ready and the King, Queen and quite a
crowd were waiting to see him drop. Just before placing the rope around his
neck, he innocently asked for one last smoke, as a last request. The King could
not refuse, so the soldier took his tinder-box, and struck fire, once, twice,
thrice, and there in a moment stood all three wolves. “Help me now, that I may
not be hanged,” cried the warrior. And thus the wolves fell upon the judges and councilors tearing of legs and arms and tossing them many feet high in the air.
“I will not be touched,” declared the king. But the largest wolf snapped up him
and the queen leaving naught but their feet. The towns people were afraid, and
cried, “Good soldier, you shall be our King, and you shall marry the beautiful
Princess.” So they placed the warrior upon the throne and the Princess came out
of the copper castle, and became Queen, which was very pleasing to her. The
wedding festivities lasted a whole week, and the wolves sat at the table as men
of the royal guard.
