THE STORY OF THE WIND

                                  1872

                 FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

                         THE STORY OF THE WIND

                       by Hans Christian Andersen



"NEAR the shores of the great Belt, which is one of the straits

that connect the Cattegat with the Baltic, stands an old mansion

with thick red walls. I know every stone of it," says the Wind. "I saw

it when it was part of the castle of Marck Stig on the promontory. But

the castle was obliged to be pulled down, and the stone was used again

for the walls of a new mansion on another spot- the baronial residence

of Borreby, which still stands near the coast. I knew them well, those

noble lords and ladies, the successive generations that dwelt there;

and now I'm going to tell you of Waldemar Daa and his daughters. How

proud was his bearing, for he was of royal blood, and could boast of

more noble deeds than merely hunting the stag and emptying the

wine-cup. His rule was despotic: 'It shall be,' he was accustomed to

say. His wife, in garments embroidered with gold, stepped proudly over

the polished marble floors. The tapestries were gorgeous, and the

furniture of costly and artistic taste. She had brought gold and plate

with her into the house. The cellars were full of wine. Black, fiery

horses, neighed in the stables. There was a look of wealth about the

house of Borreby at that time. They had three children, daughters,

fair and delicate maidens- Ida, Joanna, and Anna Dorothea; I have

never forgotten their names. They were a rich, noble family, born in

affluence and nurtured in luxury.

"Whir-r-r, whir-r-r!" roared the Wind, and went on, "I did not see

in this house, as in other great houses, the high-born lady sitting

among her women, turning the spinning-wheel. She could sweep the

sounding chords of the guitar, and sing to the music, not always

Danish melodies, but the songs of a strange land. It was 'Live and let

live,' here. Stranger guests came from far and near, music sounded,

goblets clashed, and I," said the Wind, "was not able to drown the

noise. Ostentation, pride, splendor, and display ruled, but not the

fear of the Lord.

"It was on the evening of the first day of May," the Wind

continued, "I came from the west, and had seen the ships overpowered

with the waves, when all on board persisted or were cast shipwrecked

on the coast of Jutland. I had hurried across the heath and over

Jutland's wood-girt eastern coast, and over the island of Funen, and

then I drove across the great belt, sighing and moaning. At length I

lay down to rest on the shores of Zeeland, near to the great house

of Borreby, where the splendid forest of oaks still flourished. The

young men of the neighborhood were collecting branches and brushwood

under the oak-trees. The largest and dryest they could find they

carried into the village, and piled them up in a heap and set them

on fire. Then the men and maidens danced, and sung in a circle round

the blazing pile. I lay quite quiet," said the Wind, "but I silently

touched a branch which had been brought by one of the handsomest of

the young men, and the wood blazed up brightly, blazed brighter than

all the rest. Then he was chosen as the chief, and received the name

of the Shepherd; and might choose his lamb from among the maidens.

There was greater mirth and rejoicing than I had ever heard in the

halls of the rich baronial house. Then the noble lady drove by towards

the baron's mansion with her three daughters, in a gilded carriage

drawn by six horses. The daughters were young and beautiful- three

charming blossoms- a rose, a lily, and a white hyacinth. The mother

was a proud tulip, and never acknowledged the salutations of any of

the men or maidens who paused in their sport to do her honor. The

gracious lady seemed like a flower that was rather stiff in the stalk.

Rose, lily, and hyacinth- yes, I saw them all three. Whose little

lambs will they one day become? thought I; their shepherd will be a

gallant knight, perhaps a prince. The carriage rolled on, and the

peasants resumed their dancing. They drove about the summer through

all the villages near. But one night, when I rose again, the high-born

lady lay down to rise again no more; that thing came to her which

comes to us all, in which there is nothing new. Waldemar Daa

remained for a time silent and thoughtful. 'The loftiest tree may be

bowed without being broken,' said a voice within him. His daughters

wept; all the people in the mansion wiped their eyes, but Lady Daa had

driven away, and I drove away too," said the Wind. "Whir-r-r,

whir-r-r-!

"I returned again; I often returned and passed over the island

of Funen and the shores of the Belt. Then I rested by Borreby, near

the glorious wood, where the heron made his nest, the haunt of the

wood-pigeons, the blue-birds, and the black stork. It was yet

spring, some were sitting on their eggs, others had already hatched

their young broods; but how they fluttered about and cried out when

the axe sounded through the forest, blow upon blow! The trees of the

forest were doomed. Waldemar Daa wanted to build a noble ship, a

man-of-war, a three-decker, which the king would be sure to buy; and

these, the trees of the wood, the landmark of the seamen, the refuge

of the birds, must be felled. The hawk started up and flew away, for

its nest was destroyed; the heron and all the birds of the forest

became homeless, and flew about in fear and anger. I could well

understand how they felt. Crows and ravens croaked, as if in scorn,

while the trees were cracking and falling around them. Far in the

interior of the wood, where a noisy swarm of laborers were working,

stood Waldemar Daa and his three daughters, and all were laughing at

the wild cries of the birds, excepting one, the youngest, Anna

Dorothea, who felt grieved to the heart; and when they made

preparations to fell a tree that was almost dead, and on whose naked

branches the black stork had built her nest, she saw the poor little

things stretching out their necks, and she begged for mercy for

them, with the tears in her eyes. So the tree with the black stork's

nest was left standing; the tree itself, however, was not worth much

to speak of. Then there was a great deal of hewing and sawing, and

at last the three-decker was built. The builder was a man of low

origin, but possessing great pride; his eyes and forehead spoke of

large intellect, and Waldemar Daa was fond of listening to him, and so

was Waldemar's daughter Ida, the eldest, now about fifteen years

old; and while he was building the ship for the father, he was

building for himself a castle in the air, in which he and Ida were

to live when they were married. This might have happened, indeed, if

there had been a real castle, with stone walls, ramparts, and a

moat. But in spite of his clever head, the builder was still but a

poor, inferior bird; and how can a sparrow expect to be admitted

into the society of peacocks?

"I passed on in my course," said the Wind, "and he passed away

also. He was not allowed to remain, and little Ida got over it,

because she was obliged to do so. Proud, black horses, worth looking

at, were neighing in the stable. And they were locked up; for the

admiral, who had been sent by the king to inspect the new ship, and

make arrangements for its purchase, was loud in admiration of these

beautiful horses. I heard it all," said the Wind, "for I accompanied

the gentlemen through the open door of the stable, and strewed

stalks of straw, like bars of gold, at their feet. Waldemar Daa wanted

gold, and the admiral wished for the proud black horses; therefore

he praised them so much. But the hint was not taken, and

consequently the ship was not bought. It remained on the shore covered

with boards,- a Noah's ark that never got to the water- Whir-r-r-r-

and that was a pity.

"In the winter, when the fields were covered with snow, and the

water filled with large blocks of ice which I had blown up to the

coast," continued the Wind, "great flocks of crows and ravens, dark

and black as they usually are, came and alighted on the lonely,

deserted ship. Then they croaked in harsh accents of the forest that

now existed no more, of the many pretty birds' nests destroyed and the

little ones left without a home; and all for the sake of that great

bit of lumber, that proud ship, that never sailed forth. I made the

snowflakes whirl till the snow lay like a great lake round the ship,

and drifted over it. I let it hear my voice, that it might know what

the storm has to say. Certainly I did my part towards teaching it

seamanship.

"That winter passed away, and another winter and summer both

passed, as they are still passing away, even as I pass away. The

snow drifts onwards, the apple-blossoms are scattered, the leaves

fall,- everything passes away, and men are passing away too. But the

great man's daughters are still young, and little Ida is a rose as

fair to look upon as on the day when the shipbuilder first saw her.

I often tumbled her long, brown hair, while she stood in the garden by

the apple-tree, musing, and not heeding how I strewed the blossoms

on her hair, and dishevelled it; or sometimes, while she stood

gazing at the red sun and the golden sky through the opening

branches of the dark, thick foliage of the garden trees. Her sister

Joanna was bright and slender as a lily; she had a tall and lofty

carriage and figure, though, like her mother, rather stiff in back.

She was very fond of walking through the great hall, where hung the

portraits of her ancestors. The women were represented in dresses of

velvet and silk, with tiny little hats, embroidered with pearls, on

their braided hair. They were all handsome women. The gentlemen

appeared clad in steel, or in rich cloaks lined with squirrel's fur;

they wore little ruffs, and swords at their sides. Where would

Joanna's place be on that wall some day? and how would he look,- her

noble lord and husband? This is what she thought of, and often spoke

of in a low voice to herself. I heard it as I swept into the long

hall, and turned round to come out again. Anna Dorothea, the pale

hyacinth, a child of fourteen, was quiet and thoughtful; her large,

deep, blue eyes had a dreamy look, but a childlike smile still

played round her mouth. I was not able to blow it away, neither did

I wish to do so. We have met in the garden, in the hollow lane, in the

field and meadow, where she gathered herbs and flowers which she

knew would be useful to her father in preparing the drugs and mixtures

he was always concocting. Waldemar Daa was arrogant and proud, but

he was also a learned man, and knew a great deal. It was no secret,

and many opinions were expressed on what he did. In his fireplace

there was a fire, even in summer time. He would lock himself in his

room, and for days the fire would be kept burning; but he did not talk

much of what he was doing. The secret powers of nature are generally

discovered in solitude, and did he not soon expect to find out the art

of making the greatest of all good things- the art of making gold?

So he fondly hoped; therefore the chimney smoked and the fire crackled

so constantly. Yes, I was there too," said the Wind. "'Leave it

alone,' I sang down the chimney; 'leave it alone, it will all end in

smoke, air, coals, and ashes, and you will burn your fingers.' But

Waldemar Daa did not leave it alone, and all he possessed vanished

like smoke blown by me. The splendid black horses, where are they?

What became of the cows in the field, the old gold and silver

vessels in cupboards and chests, and even the house and home itself?

It was easy to melt all these away in the gold-making crucible, and

yet obtain no gold. And so it was. Empty are the barns and

store-rooms, the cellars and cupboards; the servants decreased in

number, and the mice multiplied. First one window became broken, and

then another, so that I could get in at other places besides the door.

'Where the chimney smokes, the meal is being cooked,' says the

proverb; but here a chimney smoked that devoured all the meals for the

sake of gold. I blew round the courtyard," said the Wind, "like a

watchman blowing his home, but no watchman was there. I twirled the

weather-cock round on the summit of the tower, and it creaked like the

snoring of a warder, but no warder was there; nothing but mice and

rats. Poverty laid the table-cloth; poverty sat in the wardrobe and in

the larder. The door fell off its hinges, cracks and fissures made

their appearance everywhere; so that I could go in and out at

pleasure, and that is how I know all about it. Amid smoke and ashes,

sorrow, and sleepless nights, the hair and beard of the master of

the house turned gray, and deep furrows showed themselves around his

temples; his skin turned pale and yellow, while his eyes still

looked eagerly for gold, the longed-for gold, and the result of his

labor was debt instead of gain. I blew the smoke and ashes into his

face and beard; I moaned through the broken window-panes, and the

yawning clefts in the walls; I blew into the chests and drawers

belonging to his daughters, wherein lay the clothes that had become

faded and threadbare, from being worn over and over again. Such a song

had not been sung, at the children's cradle as I sung now. The

lordly life had changed to a life of penury. I was the only one who

rejoiced aloud in that castle," said the Wind. "At last I snowed

them up, and they say snow keeps people warm. It was good for them,

for they had no wood, and the forest, from which they might have

obtained it, had been cut down. The frost was very bitter, and I

rushed through loop-holes and passages, over gables and roofs with

keen and cutting swiftness. The three high-born daughters were lying

in bed because of the cold, and their father crouching beneath his

leather coverlet. Nothing to eat, nothing to burn, no fire on the

hearth! Here was a life for high-born people! 'Give it up, give it

up!' But my Lord Daa would not do that. 'After winter, spring will

come,' he said, 'after want, good times. We must not lose patience, we

must learn to wait. Now my horses and lands are all mortgaged, it is

indeed high time; but gold will come at last- at Easter.'

"I heard him as he thus spoke; he was looking at a spider's web,

and he continued, 'Thou cunning little weaver, thou dost teach me

perseverance. Let any one tear thy web, and thou wilt begin again

and repair it. Let it be entirely destroyed, thou wilt resolutely

begin to make another till it is completed. So ought we to do, if we

wish to succeed at last.'

"It was the morning of Easter-day. The bells sounded from the

neighboring church, and the sun seemed to rejoice in the sky. The

master of the castle had watched through the night, in feverish

excitement, and had been melting and cooling, distilling and mixing. I

heard him sighing like a soul in despair; I heard him praying, and I

noticed how he held his breath. The lamp burnt out, but he did not

observe it. I blew up the fire in the coals on the hearth, and it

threw a red glow on his ghastly white face, lighting it up with a

glare, while his sunken eyes looked out wildly from their cavernous

depths, and appeared to grow larger and more prominent, as if they

would burst from their sockets. 'Look at the alchymic glass,' he

cried; 'something glows in the crucible, pure and heavy.' He lifted it

with a trembling hand, and exclaimed in a voice of agitation, 'Gold!

gold!' He was quite giddy, I could have blown him down," said the

Wind; "but I only fanned the glowing coals, and accompanied him

through the door to the room where his daughter sat shivering. His

coat was powdered with ashes, and there were ashes in his beard and in

his tangled hair. He stood erect, and held high in the air the brittle

glass that contained his costly treasure. 'Found! found! Gold!

gold!' he shouted, again holding the glass aloft, that it might

flash in the sunshine; but his hand trembled, and the alchymic glass

fell from it, clattering to the ground, and brake in a thousand

pieces. The last bubble of his happiness had burst, with a whiz and

a whir, and I rushed away from the gold-maker's house.

"Late in the autumn, when the days were short, and the mist

sprinkled cold drops on the berries and the leafless branches, I

came back in fresh spirits, rushed through the air, swept the sky

clear, and snapped off the dry twigs, which is certainly no great

labor to do, yet it must be done. There was another kind of sweeping

taking place at Waldemar Daa's, in the castle of Borreby. His enemy,

Owe Ramel, of Basnas, was there, with the mortgage of the house and

everything it contained, in his pocket. I rattled the broken

windows, beat against the old rotten doors, and whistled through

cracks and crevices, so that Mr. Owe Ramel did not much like to remain

there. Ida and Anna Dorothea wept bitterly, Joanna stood, pale and

proud, biting her lips till the blood came; but what could that avail?

Owe Ramel offered Waldemar Daa permission to remain in the house

till the end of his life. No one thanked him for the offer, and I

saw the ruined old gentleman lift his head, and throw it back more

proudly than ever. Then I rushed against the house and the old

lime-trees with such force, that one of the thickest branches, a

decayed one, was broken off, and the branch fell at the entrance,

and remained there. It might have been used as a broom, if any one had

wanted to sweep the place out, and a grand sweeping-out there really

was; I thought it would be so. It was hard for any one to preserve

composure on such a day; but these people had strong wills, as

unbending as their hard fortune. There was nothing they could call

their own, excepting the clothes they wore. Yes, there was one thing

more, an alchymist's glass, a new one, which had been lately bought,

and filled with what could be gathered from the ground of the treasure

which had promised so much but failed in keeping its promise. Waldemar

Daa hid the glass in his bosom, and, taking his stick in his hand, the

once rich gentleman passed with his daughters out of the house of

Borreby. I blew coldly upon his flustered cheeks, I stroked his gray

beard and his long white hair, and I sang as well as I was able,

'Whir-r-r, whir-r-r. Gone away! Gone away!' Ida walked on one side

of the old man, and Anna Dorothea on the other; Joanna turned round,

as they left the entrance. Why? Fortune would not turn because she

turned. She looked at the stone in the walls which had once formed

part of the castle of Marck Stig, and perhaps she thought of his

daughters and of the old song,-

       "The eldest and youngest, hand-in-hand,

        Went forth alone to a distant land."

These were only two; here there were three, and their father with them

also. They walked along the high-road, where once they had driven in

their splendid carriage; they went forth with their father as beggars.

They wandered across an open field to a mud hut, which they rented for

a dollar and a half a year, a new home, with bare walls and empty

cupboards. Crows and magpies fluttered about them, and cried, as if in

contempt, 'Caw, caw, turned out of our nest- caw, caw,' as they had

done in the wood at Borreby, when the trees were felled. Daa and his

daughters could not help hearing it, so I blew about their ears to

drown the noise; what use was it that they should listen? So they went

to live in the mud hut in the open field, and I wandered away, over

moor and meadow, through bare bushes and leafless forests, to the open

sea, to the broad shores in other lands, 'Whir-r-r, whir-r-r! Away,

away!' year after year."

And what became of Waldemar Daa and his daughters? Listen; the

Wind will tell us:

"The last I saw of them was the pale hyacinth, Anna Dorothea. She

was old and bent then; for fifty years had passed and she had outlived

them all. She could relate the history. Yonder, on the heath, near the

town of Wiborg, in Jutland, stood the fine new house of the canon. It

was built of red brick, with projecting gables. It was inhabited, for

the smoke curled up thickly from the chimneys. The canon's gentle lady

and her beautiful daughters sat in the bay-window, and looked over the

hawthorn hedge of the garden towards the brown heath. What were they

looking at? Their glances fell upon a stork's nest, which was built

upon an old tumbledown hut. The roof, as far as one existed at all,

was covered with moss and lichen. The stork's nest covered the greater

part of it, and that alone was in a good condition; for it was kept in

order by the stork himself. That is a house to be looked at, and not

to be touched," said the Wind. "For the sake of the stork's nest it

had been allowed to remain, although it is a blot on the landscape.

They did not like to drive the stork away; therefore the old shed was

left standing, and the poor woman who dwelt in it allowed to stay. She

had the Egyptian bird to thank for that; or was it perchance her

reward for having once interceded for the preservation of the nest of

its black brother in the forest of Borreby? At that time she, the

poor woman, was a young child, a white hyacinth in a rich garden. She

remembered that time well; for it was Anna Dorothea.

"'O-h, o-h,' she sighed; for people can sigh like the moaning of

the wind among the reeds and rushes. 'O-h, o-h,' she would say, 'no

bell sounded at thy burial, Waldemar Daa. The poor school-boys did not

even sing a psalm when the former lord of Borreby was laid in the

earth to rest. O-h, everything has an end, even misery. Sister Ida

became the wife of a peasant; that was the hardest trial which

befell our father, that the husband of his own daughter should be a

miserable serf, whom his owner could place for punishment on the

wooden horse. I suppose he is under the ground now; and Ida- alas!

alas! it is not ended yet; miserable that I am! Kind Heaven, grant

me that I may die.'

"That was Anna Dorothea's prayer in the wretched hut that was left

standing for the sake of the stork. I took pity on the proudest of the

sisters," said the Wind. "Her courage was like that of a man; and in

man's clothes she served as a sailor on board ship. She was of few

words, and of a dark countenance; but she did not know how to climb,

so I blew her overboard before any one found out that she was a woman;

and, in my opinion, that was well done," said the Wind.

On such another Easter morning as that on which Waldemar Daa

imagined he had discovered the art of making gold, I heard the tones

of a psalm under the stork's nest, and within the crumbling walls.

It was Anna Dorothea's last song. There was no window in the hut, only

a hole in the wall; and the sun rose like a globe of burnished gold,

and looked through. With what splendor he filled that dismal dwelling!

Her eyes were glazing, and her heart breaking; but so it would have

been, even had the sun not shone that morning on Anna Dorothea. The

stork's nest had secured her a home till her death. I sung over her

grave; I sung at her father's grave. I know where it lies, and where

her grave is too, but nobody else knows it.

"New times now; all is changed. The old high-road is lost amid

cultivated fields; the new one now winds along over covered graves;

and soon the railway will come, with its train of carriages, and

rush over graves where lie those whose very names are forgoten. All

passed away, passed away!

"This is the story of Waldemar Daa and his daughters. Tell it

better, any of you, if you know how," said the Wind; and he rushed

away, and was gone.

                        THE END

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