The Wicked Prince

Fairy Tales of 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.

[courtesy of Aesopfables.com]