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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 Wicked Prince
A Classic Children's Short Story
by
Hans Christian Andersen |
