A soldier returning from war meets a wicked witch on his path. She promises him great riches if he will dive to the bottom of a hollow tree for her. In this tree, there are three chambers, each with a chest full of silver. All that the witch wants in return is for him to retrieve her old lighter as well…-
‘The Tinderbox’ is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a soldier who acquires a magic tinderbox capable of summoning three powerful dogs to do his bidding. When the soldier has one of the dogs transport a sleeping princess to his room, he is sentenced to death but cunningly summons the dogs to save his life.
Over de auteur
Hans Christian Andersen; 2 April 1805 4 August 1875 was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen’s popularity is not limited to children; his stories, called eventyr in Danish or ‘fairy-tales’ in English, express themes that transcend age and nationality.Andersen’s fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West’s collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘The Nightingale’, ‘The Snow Queen’, ‘The Ugly Duckling’, and many more.