Prevod

A soldier came marching down the high road: one, two! One, two! He had his knapsack on his back and a sabre at his side, for he had been away at war, and now he was going home. Then he met an old witch on the road; she was so hideous that her lower lip hung right down to her chest. She said, “Good evening, soldier! What a fine sabre and a big knapsack you have! You are a proper soldier! Now you shall have as much money as you could wish for!”

“Thank you, you old witch!” said the soldier. “Do you see that great tree?” said the witch, pointing to a tree beside them. “It is quite hollow inside! You must climb up to the top, and there you will see a hole you can slide through, deep down into the tree! I shall tie a rope round your waist so I can haul you up again when you call!”

“And what am I to do down in the tree?” asked the soldier. “Fetch money!” said the witch. “You see, when you reach the bottom of the tree, you will find yourself in a great passage, all brightly lit, for more than a hundred lamps are burning there. Then you will see three doors; you can open them, for the keys are in the locks. If you go into the first chamber, you will see a great chest in the middle of the floor, with a dog sitting on top of it. He has a pair of eyes as big as teacups, but never mind that! I shall give you my blue-checked apron, which you can spread out on the floor. Then go straight up to the dog, pick him up, put him on my apron, open the chest, and take as many shillings as you like. They are all copper, but if you would rather have silver, you must go into the next room. There sits a dog with eyes as big as mill wheels, but never mind that; put him on my apron and help yourself to the money! If, on the other hand, you want gold, you can have that too, as much as you can carry, if you go into the third chamber. But the dog sitting on the money chest there has two eyes, each as big as the Round Tower. Now that is a dog, I can tell you! But do not let it trouble you! Just put him on my apron, and he will do you no harm, and take as much gold from the chest as you please!”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” said the soldier. “But what am I to give you, you old witch? I suppose you will want something out of it!” “No,” said the witch, “I don’t want a single shilling! You need only bring me an old tinderbox that my grandmother forgot the last time she was down there!”

“Well then! Tie the rope round my waist!” said the soldier. “Here it is!” said the witch, “and here is my blue-checked apron.” So the soldier climbed up the tree, dropped down through the hole, and found himself, just as the witch had said, in the great passage where the many hundreds of lamps were burning.

Now he opened the first door. Oh! There sat the dog with eyes as big as teacups, staring at him. “You’re a fine fellow!” said the soldier, and he put him on the witch’s apron and took as many copper shillings as he could fit into his pocket. Then he shut the chest, put the dog back on top, and went into the second room. My word! There sat the dog with eyes as big as mill wheels.

“You shouldn’t stare at me so much!” said the soldier. “You’ll hurt your eyes!” Then he put the dog on the witch’s apron, but when he saw all the silver coins in the chest, he threw away every copper coin he had and filled his pocket and his knapsack with nothing but silver. Now he went into the third chamber! Oh, what a dreadful sight! The dog in there really did have two eyes as big as the Round Tower! And they spun round in his head like wheels!

“Good evening!” said the soldier, touching his cap, for he had never seen a dog like that before. But after looking at him for a little while, he thought, That will do now, lifted him down onto the floor, and opened the chest. Good heavens! What a lot of gold there was! With it he could buy all Copenhagen, and all the sugar pigs on the cake-women’s stalls, all the tin soldiers, whips, and rocking horses in the world! Yes, there was money indeed! Now the soldier threw away all the silver shillings he had filled his pockets and knapsack with, and took gold instead. Why, every pocket, his knapsack, his cap, and his boots were so full that he could scarcely walk! Now he had money! He put the dog back on the chest, slammed the door, and called up through the tree, “Haul me up now, you old witch!”

“Have you got the tinderbox?” asked the witch. “Oh, that’s right!” said the soldier. “I had quite forgotten it.” So he went and fetched it. The witch hauled him up, and there he stood on the high road again, with his pockets, boots, knapsack, and cap full of money.

“Now what do you want with that tinderbox?” asked the soldier. “That is no business of yours!” said the witch. “You have your money now! Just give me the tinderbox!”

“Nonsense!” said the soldier. “Tell me at once what you want with it, or I’ll draw my sabre and cut off your head!” “No,” said the witch.

So the soldier cut off her head. There she lay! But he tied up all his money in her apron, slung the bundle on his back, put the tinderbox in his pocket, and went straight into town.

It was a splendid town, and he put up at the finest inn, asked for the very best rooms and all his favourite food, for now that he had so much money, he was rich.

The servant who was to polish his boots thought they were certainly a queer old pair for such a rich gentleman to wear, but he had not yet bought himself new ones. The next day he had new boots to walk in and fine clothes to wear! Now the soldier had become a grand gentleman, and they told him about all the splendid sights in their town, and about their king, and what a lovely princess his daughter was.

“Where can one see her?” asked the soldier. “You cannot see her at all!” they all said. “She lives in a great copper castle, with ever so many walls and towers round it! No one but the king is allowed to visit her, because it has been foretold that she will marry a common soldier, and the king does not like that!”

“I should very much like to see her!” thought the soldier, but of course he could not get permission! Now he lived very merrily, went to the theatre, drove in the King’s Garden, and gave a great deal of money to the poor, which was a kind thing to do! He remembered well enough from the old days how dreadful it was not to have a shilling! Now he was rich, wore fine clothes, and made so many friends, who all said he was a splendid fellow, a true gentleman, and the soldier liked that very much! But as he spent money every day and never took any in, at last he had only two shillings left. He had to leave the beautiful rooms where he had been living and move into a tiny little room right under the roof, brush his own boots and mend them with a darning needle, and none of his friends came to see him, for there were so many stairs to climb.

It was quite dark one evening, and he could not even afford a candle, but then he remembered that there was a little candle-end in the tinderbox he had taken from the hollow tree where the witch had helped him down. He brought out the tinderbox and the candle-end, but just as he struck a light and the sparks flew from the flint, the door burst open, and the dog with eyes as big as teacups, whom he had seen down beneath the tree, stood before him and said, “What does my master command?”

“What’s this!” said the soldier. “Why, what a wonderful tinderbox! Can I really have whatever I want? Get me some money,” he said to the dog, and in a flash it was gone! In a flash it was back again, holding a great bag full of shillings in its mouth.

Now the soldier knew what a splendid tinderbox it was! If he struck once, the dog that sat on the chest of copper money came; if he struck twice, the one with the silver came; and if he struck three times, the one with the gold came. Now the soldier moved back down into his beautiful rooms, put on his fine clothes, and at once all his friends knew him again and were very fond of him.

Then one day he thought, It is a very strange thing that no one is allowed to see the princess! Everyone says she is so beautiful! But what good is that if she must always sit inside that great copper castle with all its towers? Can I not see her at all? Now where is my tinderbox! And he struck a light, and in a flash the dog with eyes as big as teacups appeared.

“It is the middle of the night, I know,” said the soldier, “but I should so dearly like to see the princess, just for a moment!” The dog was out of the door at once, and before the soldier knew it, he was back again with the princess. She sat asleep on the dog’s back and was so beautiful that anyone could see she was a real princess. The soldier simply could not help himself: he had to kiss her, for he was a true soldier.

Then the dog ran back with the princess, but when morning came and the king and queen were pouring tea, the princess said she had had such a strange dream in the night, about a dog and a soldier. She had ridden on the dog, and the soldier had kissed her.

“A fine story indeed!” said the queen. Now one of the old ladies-in-waiting was to keep watch beside the princess’s bed the next night, to see whether it really was a dream, or what it could be.

The soldier longed so terribly to see the lovely princess again, and so the dog came that night, took her, and ran as fast as he could. But the old lady-in-waiting put on her waterproof boots and ran just as fast after them. When she saw them disappear into a large house, she thought, Now I know where it is, and with a piece of chalk she marked a great cross on the gate. Then she went home and went to bed, and the dog came back with the princess too. But when he saw that a cross had been marked on the gate where the soldier lived, he also took a piece of chalk and marked crosses on every gate in the whole town. That was a clever thing to do, for now the lady-in-waiting could not find the right gate, since there were crosses on them all.

Early in the morning, the king and queen, the old lady-in-waiting, and all the officers came to see where the princess had been! “There it is!” said the king when he saw the first gate with a cross on it.

“No, there it is, my dear husband!” said the queen, who had spotted the second gate with a cross on it. “But there is one there, and another there!” they all said. Wherever they looked, there were crosses on the gates. So they could see well enough that there was no use searching.

But the queen was a very clever woman, who could do more than ride in a carriage. She took her great gold scissors, cut up a large piece of silk, and sewed a neat little bag. She filled it with small, fine buckwheat groats and tied it to the princess’s back. When that was done, she snipped a little hole in the bag so that the grains would trickle out all along the way wherever the princess went.

That night the dog came again, took the princess on his back, and ran with her to the soldier, who was so fond of her and wished so much that he were a prince, so he could have her for his wife.

The dog never noticed how the grains trickled out all the way from the castle to the soldier’s window, where he ran up the wall with the princess. In the morning, the king and queen could see quite clearly where their daughter had been, and so they seized the soldier and put him in prison.

There he sat. Oh, how dark and dreary it was! And then they told him, “Tomorrow you will be hanged.” That was not a pleasant thing to hear, and he had left his tinderbox at the inn. In the morning, through the iron bars of the little window, he could see people hurrying out of town to watch him being hanged. He heard the drums and saw the soldiers marching. Everyone was running off; among them was a shoemaker’s apprentice in a leather apron and slippers. He was galloping along so fast that one of his slippers flew off and landed right beside the wall where the soldier sat looking out through the iron bars.

“Hey, you shoemaker’s boy! There’s no need to be in such a hurry,” the soldier said to him. “Nothing will happen until I get there! But if you run to where I was staying and fetch my tinderbox, I’ll give you four shillings! Only you must be quick about it!” The shoemaker’s boy was eager to have the four shillings and dashed off to fetch the tinderbox. He gave it to the soldier, and now just listen to what happened!

Outside the town a great gallows had been built, and all round it stood the soldiers and many hundreds of thousands of people. The king and queen sat on a splendid throne, directly opposite the judge and the whole council.

The soldier was already standing on the ladder, but when they were about to put the rope round his neck, he said that a condemned man was always allowed one innocent wish before he suffered his punishment. He would so much like to smoke a pipe of tobacco, for it would be his last pipe in this world.

The king would not refuse him that, so the soldier took out his tinderbox and struck a light: one, two, three! And there stood all the dogs: the one with eyes as big as teacups, the one with eyes like mill wheels, and the one with eyes as big as the Round Tower!

“Now help me, so I won’t be hanged!” said the soldier, and the dogs rushed at the judges and the whole council, seized one by the legs and another by the nose, and tossed them many fathoms into the air, so that they fell down and were smashed to pieces.

“I will not have it!” said the king, but the biggest dog seized both him and the queen and tossed them after all the others. Then the soldiers were frightened, and all the people cried, “Dear soldier, you shall be our king and have the lovely princess!”

So they put the soldier into the king’s carriage, and all three dogs danced in front and shouted, “Hurrah!” The boys whistled through their fingers, and the soldiers presented arms. The princess came out of the copper castle and became queen, and she was very pleased with that! The wedding lasted eight days, and the dogs sat at the table too, with their eyes wide open.