THE WICKED PRINCE

                                  1872

                 FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

                           THE WICKED PRINCE

                       by Hans Christian Andersen



THERE lived once upon a time a wicked prince whose heart and

mind were set upon conquering all the countries of the world, and on

frightening the people; he devastated their countries with fire and

sword, and his soldiers trod down the crops in the fields and

destroyed the peasants' huts by fire, so that the flames licked the

green leaves off the branches, and the fruit hung dried up on the

singed black trees. Many a poor mother fled, her naked baby in her

arms, behind the still smoking walls of her cottage; but also there

the soldiers followed her, and when they found her, she served as

new nourishment to their diabolical enjoyments; demons could not

possibly have done worse things than these soldiers! The prince was of

opinion that all this was right, and that it was only the natural

course which things ought to take. His power increased day by day, his

name was feared by all, and fortune favoured his deeds.

He brought enormous wealth home from the conquered towns, and

gradually accumulated in his residence riches which could nowhere be

equalled. He erected magnificent palaces, churches, and halls, and all

who saw these splendid buildings and great treasures exclaimed

admiringly: "What a mighty prince!" But they did not know what endless

misery he had brought upon other countries, nor did they hear the

sighs and lamentations which rose up from the debris of the

destroyed cities.

The prince often looked with delight upon his gold and his

magnificent edifices, and thought, like the crowd: "What a mighty

prince! But I must have more- much more. No power on earth must

equal mine, far less exceed it."

He made war with all his neighbours, and defeated them. The

conquered kings were chained up with golden fetters to his chariot

when he drove through the streets of his city. These kings had to

kneel at his and his courtiers' feet when they sat at table, and

live on the morsels which they left. At last the prince had his own

statue erected on the public places and fixed on the royal palaces;

nay, he even wished it to be placed in the churches, on the altars,

but in this the priests opposed him, saying: "Prince, you are mighty

indeed, but God's power is much greater than yours; we dare not obey

your orders."

"Well," said the prince. "Then I will conquer God too." And in his

haughtiness and foolish presumption he ordered a magnificent ship to

be constructed, with which he could sail through the air; it was

gorgeously fitted out and of many colours; like the tail of a peacock,

it was covered with thousands of eyes, but each eye was the barrel

of a gun. The prince sat in the centre of the ship, and had only to

touch a spring in order to make thousands of bullets fly out in all

directions, while the guns were at once loaded again. Hundreds of

eagles were attached to this ship, and it rose with the swiftness of

an arrow up towards the sun. The earth was soon left far below, and

looked, with its mountains and woods, like a cornfield where the

plough had made furrows which separated green meadows; soon it

looked only like a map with indistinct lines upon it; and at last it

entirely disappeared in mist and clouds. Higher and higher rose the

eagles up into the air; then God sent one of his numberless angels

against the ship. The wicked prince showered thousands of bullets upon

him, but they rebounded from his shining wings and fell down like

ordinary hailstones. One drop of blood, one single drop, came out of

the white feathers of the angel's wings and fell upon the ship in

which the prince sat, burnt into it, and weighed upon it like

thousands of hundredweights, dragging it rapidly down to the earth

again; the strong wings of the eagles gave way, the wind roared

round the prince's head, and the clouds around- were they formed by

the smoke rising up from the burnt cities?- took strange shapes,

like crabs many, many miles long, which stretched their claws out

after him, and rose up like enormous rocks, from which rolling

masses dashed down, and became fire-spitting dragons.

The prince was lying half-dead in his ship, when it sank at last

with a terrible shock into the branches of a large tree in the wood.

"I will conquer God!" said the prince. "I have sworn it: my will

must be done!"

And he spent seven years in the construction of wonderful ships to

sail through the air, and had darts cast from the hardest steel to

break the walls of heaven with. He gathered warriors from all

countries, so many that when they were placed side by side they

covered the space of several miles. They entered the ships and the

prince was approaching his own, when God sent a swarm of gnats- one

swarm of little gnats. They buzzed round the prince and stung his face

and hands; angrily he drew his sword and brandished it, but he only

touched the air and did not hit the gnats. Then he ordered his

servants to bring costly coverings and wrap him in them, that the

gnats might no longer be able to reach him. The servants carried out

his orders, but one single gnat had placed itself inside one of the

coverings, crept into the prince's ear and stung him. The place

burnt like fire, and the poison entered into his blood. Mad with pain,

he tore off the coverings and his clothes too, flinging them far away,

and danced about before the eyes of his ferocious soldiers, who now

mocked at him, the mad prince, who wished to make war with God, and

was overcome by a single little gnat.

                        THE END

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