THE BELL

                                  1872

                 FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

                                THE BELL

                       by Hans Christian Andersen



IN the narrow streets of a large town people often heard in the

evening, when the sun was setting, and his last rays gave a golden

tint to the chimney-pots, a strange noise which resembled the sound of

a church bell; it only lasted an instant, for it was lost in the

continual roar of traffic and hum of voices which rose from the

town. "The evening bell is ringing," people used to say; "the sun is

setting!" Those who walked outside the town, where the houses were

less crowded and interspersed by gardens and little fields, saw the

evening sky much better, and heard the sound of the bell much more

clearly. It seemed as though the sound came from a church, deep in the

calm, fragrant wood, and thither people looked with devout feelings.

A considerable time elapsed: one said to the other, "I really

wonder if there is a church out in the wood. The bell has indeed a

strange sweet sound! Shall we go there and see what the cause of it

is?" The rich drove, the poor walked, but the way seemed to them

extraordinarily long, and when they arrived at a number of willow

trees on the border of the wood they sat down, looked up into the

great branches and thought they were now really in the wood. A

confectioner from the town also came out and put up a stall there;

then came another confectioner who hung a bell over his stall, which

was covered with pitch to protect it from the rain, but the clapper

was wanting.

When people came home they used to say that it had been very

romantic, and that really means something else than merely taking tea.

Three persons declared that they had gone as far as the end of the

wood; they had always heard the strange sound, but there it seemed

to them as if it came from the town. One of them wrote verses about

the bell, and said that it was like the voice of a mother speaking

to an intelligent and beloved child; no tune, he said, was sweeter

than the sound of the bell.

The emperor of the country heard of it, and declared that he who

would really find out where the sound came from should receive the

title of "Bellringer to the World," even if there was no bell at all.

Now many went out into the wood for the sake of this splendid

berth; but only one of them came back with some sort of explanation.

None of them had gone far enough, nor had he, and yet he said that the

sound of the bell came from a large owl in a hollow tree. It was a

wisdom owl, which continually knocked its head against the tree, but

he was unable to say with certainty whether its head or the hollow

trunk of the tree was the cause of the noise.

He was appointed "Bellringer to the World," and wrote every year a

short dissertation on the owl, but by this means people did not become

any wiser than they had been before.

It was just confirmation-day. The clergyman had delivered a

beautiful and touching sermon, the candidates were deeply moved by it;

it was indeed a very important day for them; they were all at once

transformed from mere children to grown-up people; the childish soul

was to fly over, as it were, into a more reasonable being.

The sun shone most brightly; and the sound of the great unknown

bell was heard more distinctly than ever. They had a mind to go

thither, all except three. One of them wished to go home and try on

her ball dress, for this very dress and the ball were the cause of her

being confirmed this time, otherwise she would not have been allowed

to go. The second, a poor boy, had borrowed a coat and a pair of boots

from the son of his landlord to be confirmed in, and he had to

return them at a certain time. The third said that he never went

into strange places if his parents were not with him; he had always

been a good child, and wished to remain so, even after being

confirmed, and they ought not to tease him for this; they, however,

did it all the same. These three, therefore did not go; the others

went on. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the

confirmed children sang too, holding each other by the hand, for

they had no position yet, and they were all equal in the eyes of

God. Two of the smallest soon became tired and returned to the town;

two little girls sat down and made garlands of flowers, they,

therefore, did not go on. When the others arrived at the willow trees,

where the confectioner had put up his stall, they said: "Now we are

out here; the bell does not in reality exist- it is only something

that people imagine!"

Then suddenly the sound of the bell was heard so beautifully and

solemnly from the wood that four or five made up their minds to go

still further on. The wood was very thickly grown. It was difficult to

advance: wood lilies and anemones grew almost too high; flowering

convolvuli and brambles were hanging like garlands from tree to

tree; while the nightingales were singing and the sunbeams played.

That was very beautiful! But the way was unfit for the girls; they

would have torn their dresses. Large rocks, covered with moss of

various hues, were lying about; the fresh spring water rippled forth

with a peculiar sound. "I don't think that can be the bell," said

one of the confirmed children, and then he lay down and listened.

"We must try to find out if it is!" And there he remained, and let the

others walk on.

They came to a hut built of the bark of trees and branches; a

large crab-apple tree spread its branches over it, as if it intended

to pour all its fruit on the roof, upon which roses were blooming; the

long boughs covered the gable, where a little bell was hanging. Was

this the one they had heard? All agreed that it must be so, except one

who said that the bell was too small and too thin to be heard at

such a distance, and that it had quite a different sound to that which

had so touched men's hearts.

He who spoke was a king's son, and therefore the others said

that such a one always wishes to be cleverer than other people.

Therefore they let him go alone; and as he walked on, the solitude

of the wood produced a feeling of reverence in his breast; but still

he heard the little bell about which the others rejoiced, and

sometimes, when the wind blew in that direction, he could hear the

sounds from the confectioner's stall, where the others were singing at

tea. But the deep sounds of the bell were much stronger; soon it

seemed to him as if an organ played an accompaniment- the sound came

from the left, from the side where the heart is. Now something rustled

among the bushes, and a little boy stood before the king's son, in

wooden shoes and such a short jacket that the sleeves did not reach to

his wrists. They knew each other: the boy was the one who had not been

able to go with them because he had to take the coat and boots back to

his landlord's son. That he had done, and had started again in his

wooden shoes and old clothes, for the sound of the bell was too

enticing- he felt he must go on.

"We might go together," said the king's son. But the poor boy with

the wooden shoes was quite ashamed; he pulled at the short sleeves

of his jacket, and said that he was afraid he could not walk so

fast; besides, he was of opinion that the bell ought to be sought at

the right, for there was all that was grand and magnificent.

"Then we shall not meet," said the king's son, nodding to the poor

boy, who went into the deepest part of the wood, where the thorns tore

his shabby clothes and scratched his hands, face, and feet until

they bled. The king's son also received several good scratches, but

the sun was shining on his way, and it is he whom we will now

follow, for he was a quick fellow. "I will and must find the bell," he

said, "if I have to go to the end of the world."

Ugly monkeys sat high in the branches and clenched their teeth.

"Shall we beat him?" they said. "Shall we thrash him? He is a king's

son!"

But he walked on undaunted, deeper and deeper into the wood, where

the most wonderful flowers were growing; there were standing white

star lilies with blood-red stamens, sky-blue tulips shining when the

wind moved them; apple-trees covered with apples like large glittering

soap bubbles: only think how resplendent these trees were in the

sunshine! All around were beautiful green meadows, where hart and hind

played in the grass. There grew magnificent oaks and beech-trees;

and if the bark was split of any of them, long blades of grass grew

out of the clefts; there were also large smooth lakes in the wood,

on which the swans were swimming about and flapping their wings. The

king's son often stood still and listened; sometimes he thought that

the sound of the bell rose up to him out of one of these deep lakes,

but soon he found that this was a mistake, and that the bell was

ringing still farther in the wood. Then the sun set, the clouds were

as red as fire; it became quiet in the wood; he sank down on his

knees, sang an evening hymn and said: "I shall never find what I am

looking for! Now the sun is setting, and the night, the dark night, is

approaching. Yet I may perhaps see the round sun once more before he

disappears beneath the horizon. I will climb up these rocks, they

are as high as the highest trees!" And then, taking hold of the

creepers and roots, he climbed up on the wet stones, where

water-snakes were wriggling and the toads, as it were, barked at

him: he reached the top before the sun, seen from such a height, had

quite set. "Oh, what a splendour!" The sea, the great majestic sea,

which was rolling its long waves against the shore, stretched out

before him, and the sun was standing like a large bright altar and

there where sea and heaven met- all melted together in the most

glowing colours; the wood was singing, and his heart too. The whole of

nature was one large holy church, in which the trees and hovering

clouds formed the pillars, the flowers and grass the woven velvet

carpet, and heaven itself was the great cupola; up there the flame

colour vanished as soon as the sun disappeared, but millions of

stars were lighted; diamond lamps were shining, and the king's son

stretched his arms out towards heaven, towards the sea, and towards

the wood. Then suddenly the poor boy with the short-sleeved jacket and

the wooden shoes appeared; he had arrived just as quickly on the

road he had chosen. And they ran towards each other and took one

another's hand, in the great cathedral of nature and poesy, and

above them sounded the invisible holy bell; happy spirits surrounded

them, singing hallelujahs and rejoicing.

                        THE END

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