The Tinder Box

by Hans Christian Andersen

A soldier is marching home from war when he meets a witch who says, "What a fine sword you have, and what a big knapsack! Now I'll show you how to fill your knapsack with as much money as you want." Fortune is fleeting for the soldier until he learns the secret of the witch's tinderbox and her three peculiar dogs, each with eyes bigger than the last. With each strike of the flint, a dog appears to grant him his wish, and the soldier doesn't hesitate to take advantage of this gift - at a high cost to the kingdom. Beautifully illustrated, this comic graphic fairy tale captures the imagination of readers of all ages and inspires a love of reading. A must-have classic for your digital library!

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Childrens, Picture Books

48 pages, ebook

First published May 8, 1835

About the author

Hans Christian Andersen (often referred to in Scandinavia as H.C. Andersen) was a Danish author and poet. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories — called eventyr, or "fairy-tales" — express themes that transcend age and nationality.

Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Nightingale", "The Emperor's New Clothes" and many more. His stories have inspired plays, ballets, and both live-action and animated films.

Reviews

[Melissa (Always Behind) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting short fairy tale-esqe story. It is reminiscent of Aladdin/Ali Baba tales, but it is also unique in that it is mostly full of grey areas, rather than being the black/white or good/evil of most fairy tales. It's a bit creepy, and as I read a review of it earlier today I decided to check it out.

I really loved the ambiguousness of the tale, not knowing whether I should like the soldier or not. Overall this is a thought-provoking story that I've been thinking about for a couple of hours since completing it.

[Rosh · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: A classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Hasn’t aged well, though the comic edition I read resolves many of the issues in the original story. I read this for nostalgia and came away questioning my younger self’s reading choices. 🤭

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reading ‘Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil’ reminded me of the existence of this story that I had read in my childhood. I didn’t recollect anything about the plot except that it had three dogs with huge eyes. So I decided to reread it again after all these years.

Oh boy!

Present-me is convinced that Past-me was so fascinated by the dogs that she ignored all the other red flags. 😏

This is the first story published by Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen in 1835, and it has some elements in common with Aladdin. Reading this tale made me realise why it is not more popular. It is not at all a happy story for anyone except the lead character, nor does it have any good morals worth following. Perhaps it suited its time, but it doesn’t fit the ethos of the present century.

The lead character is a soldier with no morals. He has no hesitation killing someone who didn’t harm him or kidnapping a young woman without her awareness and even kissing her when she isn’t awake. He spends money without restraint, and doesn’t even learn a lesson when he loses all his wealth midway the story, because the minute he regains access to riches, he turns into the same old spendthrift. In other words, he isn't a character worth being a lead and has no redeeming qualities.

None of the other characters in the story get much attention. Most don’t even get a lengthy active role, ending up with blink-and-you-miss appearances and fates they don’t deserve. There is a princess in this story, and as is the case with almost all fairy tales, she has no independent agency. We don’t even get to hear a word from her; all she needs to do is be pretty and marry the self-serving soldier when he wishes for her hand.

The dogs are amazing though. I can see why my childhood self was so in awe of them and their gigantic eyes.

As this story is in the public domain, I first accessed it in its original textual version using this link:
https://www.storynory.com/the-tinderbox/
I honestly didn’t expect it to go so poorly for me. But I hated almost everything about it. When I found the comic adaptation of the same in my library, I decided to read it as well just to see how a children’s comic would handle the more heinous aspects of the story. Surprisingly, this version (against which I have posted my GR review) does a great job. It sanitises much of the problematic content, culling out all the scenes of killing and brutality present in the original. It also gives the princess a voice, thereby giving us the fake satisfaction of learning that she wanted to marry the handsome soldier. (The comic does retain the consent-less kissing, but at least it is a chaste peck on the cheek rather than anything more intimate.) I liked the comic version of the story much better than the original, even though it wasn’t perfect.

Overall, this is one of those short classics that are better read keeping in mind the year they were written in. It is a fairytale without a likeable hero or a moral, so the only reason you might pick this up could be to learn all the things you aren’t supposed to do in life.

Definitely not recommended to children except in the comic book version.

2 stars, both for the comic book adaptation.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I follow the Goodreads rating policy:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Lifelong favourite!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I loved the book.
⭐⭐⭐ - I liked the book.
⭐⭐ - I found the book average.
⭐ - I hated the book.
The decimals indicate the degree of the in-between feelings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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[فؤاد · Rating 3 out of 5]

تصور کنید وقتی دارید از جنگ بر می گردید، یه پیرزن توی جاده بهتون میگه: برو توی این گودال، هر چی خواستی طلا بردار، ولی یه قوطی فندک جادویی اونجاست، اون رو برام بیار.
شما میرید هر چی می خواید طلا بر می دارید، قوطی فندک رو هم بر میدارید و میاید بیرون. با خودتون میگید: چرا بدمش به پیرزنه؟ پس می زنید پیرزن رو می کشید و خودتون فندک رو بر می دارید.
بعد می رید به شهر، عاشق شاهزاده می شید. با استفاده از قوطی فندک جادویی، شاه و ملکه و درباری ها رو می کشید، و با شاهزاده ازدواج می کنید.
و معلوم نیست به چه دلیلی، به جای این که به جرم ده پونزده فقره قتل عمد محکوم بشید، به قهرمان داستان کودکان بدل میشید. /-:

پ ن:
ولی انصافاً داستان خوشمزه ای بود. ((:

[Sean Barrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson, I think there really quite enchanting. The Tinderbox is one of the short tales in this edition and it depicts the life of a greedy, and quite cunning, solider. A witch has tasked him with fetching her tinderbox from a well, as a reward he gets to keep the silver that has been hidden with it. But, he decides to keep the box for himself and to slay the witch. He later discovers that the box is magical and can summon three dogs to do the holders bidding, so no wonder the witch wanted it back.



Indeed, he orders them to fetch him a princess in which he is arrested for by her farther. He uses his cunning to try and save himself. I like the Tinderbox; however, I don’t think it is the best of the fairy tales in this edition. I don’t feel that the story has an overall morale or meaning like some of his other tales. Indeed, the Nightingale is a much more memorable tale, and the one I think this edition should have been named after. That has a clear cut meaning the reader can interpret and understand rather than a story that just happened for no particular reason.



Also in this edition are several other fairy tales such as The Red Shoes, The Princess on the Pea and a couple of others. I think this is a good selection of his work, and it contains my personal favourite (The Nightingale.) If you’ve never read any of his work then this is a good place to start. My four star rating of this reflects my opinion of the overall pieces together not just the Tinderbox, which on an individual basis I would give a three star rating.

Penguin Little Black Classic- 23



The Little Black Classic Collection by penguin looks like it contains lots of hidden gems. I couldn’t help it; they looked so good that I went and bought them all. I shall post a short review after reading each one. No doubt it will take me several months to get through all of them! Hopefully I will find some classic authors, from across the ages, that I may not have come across had I not bought this collection.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This edition comprised of nine short fairy tales, with The Tinder-Box and Thumbelina being the strongest in this collection.

I'd brought this as a keepsake whilst visiting the Hans Christian Andersen Fairy tale House attraction I Copenhagen a few years ago and thought it would be ideal to read a couple a night to my daughter.

Most were pretty short but ultimately forgettable, I can't recall the selection of books they had available but would have preferred to have read all he's better known tales instead.

[cypt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuostabaus grožio Vladyslavo Jerko iliustracijos... Norisi žiūrėt ir žiūrėt!!!

Pasaka tai apie tai, kaip mafija (Matijošaitis??) valdo :D Kareivis išgirdo iš senutės, kad yra stebuklingas rūsys su 3 šunim ir belekiek pinigų, ir jis gali visus pinigus pasiimt, jei tik atneš jai skiltuvą. Jis prisirinko pinigų, skiltuvą, nukirto senutei galvą, su skiltuvo pagalba pralobo (galėdavo išsikviesti 3 šunis, kurie pildė jo norus). Sužinojo, kad yra graži karalaitė, bet tėvai ją labai saugo, tai pirma su šunų pagalba kelis kartus ją miegančią pagrobė ir "pabučiavo", tada vėl su šunų pagalba atsikratė jos tėvų, tada miestiečiai sako: būk mūsų meras, vesk karalaitę! Ir visi laimingai gyveno. Blemba, kaip bijau savivaldybių rinkimų 2023 m.

Už iliustracijas +100 žvaigždučių, už pasaką -95 žvaigždutės, už tai, kad ant viršelio klaidinga iliustracija - ne grobikiško kareivio, o prieš savo valią transportuojamos princesės -1 žvaigždutė.

[Carolyn Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of stories by one of the greatest fairytale/fable writer's of all time!
I grew up with a few of these stories, but it was such a joy to read some new ones!
My personal favorite from this collection, and a longtime favorite of mine is The Steadfast Tin Soldier!
I am hoping to get my hands on a full collection of his stories soon! I look forward to reading many more!
Couldn't recommend these classic stories more! They are a staple in any book nerds library!

[Bionic Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Tinderbox is one of the first fairy tales written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, and remains one of his most popular, possibly because it has echoes of several earlier stories, and conforms to many of the features we expect from fairy tales. It was originally published in 1835, as one of four fairy stories, along with "Little Claus and Big Claus", "The Princess and the Pea", and "Little Ida's Flowers". Except for "Little Ida's Flowers", these early tales were not Hans Christian Andersen's own original ideas. Earlier in the year, he had written a letter stating,

"I have started some 'Fairy Tales Told for Children' and believe I have succeeded. I have told a couple of tales which as a child I was happy about, and which I do not believe are known, and have written them exactly the way I would tell them to a child."

In a later edition, Andersen confirmed his commitment to this "improved" style of writing to his public,

"The style should be such that one hears the narrator. Therefore, the language had to be similar to the spoken word; the stories are for children, but adults too should be able to listen in. The first three fairy tales are ones I heard during childhood, in the spinning room and during the harvesting of the hops."

At the end of this review I will name the Scandinavian folk tale Andersen is referring to. This story, The Tinderbox, may call to mind other fairy stories too, but before going any further, here is a summary of the story.

A poor soldier is returning home from war. He meets a witch, who asks him, "How would you like to be rich?" Of course, the soldier says that he would like this very much. The witch show him a hollow tree, asking him to climb to the top with a rope around his waist. Then, she says, she can lower him down into the hollow space, to retrieve a magic tinderbox for her. She promises the soldier that inside the tree he will find wide passages lit by a hundred lamps. There will be three filled to the brim with with precious coins. The witch assures the soldier that he may keep as much of this treasure as he likes - plus anything else he finds inside the chambers - as long as her gives her the tinderbox. The soldier can't wait to get going.

The witch also warns him, however, that each of the three chambers is guarded by a dog. In total there are three monstrous dogs, "one with eyes as big as saucers", who guards a vault filled with copper pennies, "one with eyes the size of soup plates", who guards a vault filled with silver, and "one with eyes as big as cartwheels", who guards a vault filled with gold. But,

"Don't worry about him!" the witch say about each of the dogs. She has a plan. She gives the soldier her blue and white checked apron, and tells him to put each dog in turn on the apron, as this will pacify each one, so that he can take as much treasure as he likes.

(This is a fairy story ... you have to go with it!)

Apparently this does not deter the soldier in the slightest.

Sure enough, the soldier finds everything as the witch told him, and fills his pockets and boots with gold coins. After he has stuffed everything about his person he can think of with gold coins, he calls out to the witch to haul him back up. The witch does so.

"'Have you got the tinderbox?' she asks. Of course the soldier had been far too excited at the prospect of being rich to think about that.

"'I'd clean forgotten it,' he said ... 'What's so special about it?'"

(Bad move. This is a witch, with witchy powers.)

"'Mind your own business!' she said, and refused to give a reason,

So he cut off her head. There she lay!"

(Well I didn't expect that!)

The soldier collects up all his money and set off to a nearby town. First of all he checks into the finest hotel in the place, and orders the choicest things on the menu. Next day he kits himself out with splendid clothing. He is generous with his money, and makes many friends. Everyone in the town boasts about how wonderful their town is, and eventually he comes to hear of the king and his beautiful daugher. Nobody is allowed to see her though, his friends tell him, because "it was foretold that she will marry a common soldier."

(Both the soldier and the reader find their ears pricking up at this news.)

As time goes on however, the soldier's money starts to run out.

"He had to leave his fine suite and move to a poky little room in the attic. Now he had to polish his own boots and darn his own clothes. None of his new friends ever came to see him; they said there were too many stairs to climb."

Eventually he find himself sitting in the dark, too poor to even afford a candle. Then he remembers that there was the end of one in the old witch's tinderbox, so he goes to get it.

As soon as he strikes a spark from the tinderbox, the first dog - the one with eyes as big as saucers appears - and asks,

"What is your command, master?"

(You can probably write the story yourself from now on.) The soldier learns that if he strikes the box once, the first dog appears, twice and the second dog appears, and three times, the third dog. Gradually he becomes rich again, and all his friends come back.

One night, he remembers the story of the princess in the locked tower, and longs to see her. Before he can have second thoughts, he strikes the tinderbox and sends the dog with eyes the size of saucers to bring her to him. The dog returns with the princess on his back,

"Anyone could see she was a true princess, she was so beautiful. The soldier kissed her. He couldn't help himself - he was a true soldier." The two fall in love.

The next day, back at home in her tower, the princess tells her parents all about the strange dream she had had, and relates the night's adventure. The queen is suspicious, and sets a lady-in-waiting to watch over the princess that night.

Sure enough, the next night, the princess is carried off again by the dog, but the lady-in-waiting chalks a cross on the soldier's door, so that she will know the house where the princess was taken to. Underterred the dog then chalks a cross on every door in town.

But the lady-in-waiting had another cunning plan. She filled a small silk bag with flour, attaching it to the princess's waist. Then she cut a tiny hole in it, so that if the princess moved, some flour would trickle out.

The next day the royal couple follow the inevitable trail of flour, and find out where the princess spends her nights. In this way, the whereabouts of the soldier's fine house are discovered. He is clapped in prison and sentenced to death.

However, on the day the soldier is due to be executed, he sends a boy to get his tinderbox. Right at the last minute, on the scaffold, he asks to have a last smoke... He then strikes the tinderbox and the three monstrous huge-eyed dogs appear, all together, at once.

"'Help me now! I don't want to be hanged!' cried the soldier."

All three dogs pounce on first the king, and then the queen, and despite their desperate begging and screams, throw them high into the air, "so high that when they fall back down they are broken into pieces."

The royal guards are so frightened that they will be next, that they say that the soldier can marry the princess, and everyone cheers.

"So the princess marries the soldier and becomes his queen, which was better than being locked up in a copper castle. The wedding feast lasted for a week, and the dogs at at the table staring about them with their great glaring eyes."

(I'm not quite sure what the royal couple did to deserve that. Nor the witch come to that. Nor why "our hero", the murderer, is thought to be so heroic. But such is the stuff of fairytales. Anything goes, as long as we have a happy ending.)

The folk tale which Hans Christian Andersen said that he based The Tinderbox on is "The Spirit in the Candle". In it, a soldier acquires a magic candle which has the power to summon an iron man to do his bidding. The soldier uses this candle to visit a princess, and also to summons the iron man to save his life, when he is sent to the stake for doing so.

When The Tinderbox was first published, it was not favourably received by the Danish critics. They disliked the informal, chatty style of Hans Christian Andersen's work. I disagree with those critics, as I personally think his style is part of his charm. But they disliked his lack of morals too, and in this I can concur, especially with stories like this one. It may have many features of a fairy story, but is certainly not a moral tale or a parable, with such a greedy, selfish, brutish "hero". It is, however, very reminiscent of "The Arabian Nights" with its emphasis on haphazard killings, unpredictable and random events, features such as all the princesses being beautiful by definition, the magic of threes, the supernatural, "deus ex machina" endings and so on.

Hans Christian Andersen was familiar with folk and fairy lore, and widely read. He will have known the tales in "The Arabian Nights". The Tinderbox is specifically quite similar to "Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp". Both tales feature a supernatural being tempting a mortal to enter an enchanted area on the promise of rich reward. Both tales feature three chambers filled with treasures. Both tales have heroes refusing to part with a something magic that provides light, (Aladdin's lamp, and the tinderbox) and in the end winning a princess through its use. "The Arabian Nights" also has a story which features doors marked with chalk, in "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves".

In other fairy tales there are parallels too. The Tinderbox features a princess who is locked in a tower just as in "Rapunzel". The king and queen have to follow a trail of flour, which mirrors the trail of grain in "Hansel and Gretel".

Perhaps it is in this that our love of this tale lies; our satisfaction that this is a "true fairytale" meeting our expectations, and faintly echoing other well-loved tales we have known since our childhood, and our parents' childhoods, and so on through time immemorial. For I can think of no other reason really why this story should be so perennially popular.

[The Artisan Geek]

21/3/20
These stories were really good! They reminded me of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - just as absurd hahah! :D

You can find me on
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[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, well, well. I did not like this story.

The writing and art was fine but the story itself was terrible. For a children's book, this is an outrage. This teaches kids (and grown ups, for that matter) absolutely nothing!

Murder, greed, kidnapping, more murder - only for the main character to be rewarded in the end by marrying the princess!

If this was an actual novel intended for an older audience, I may have liked this story... in a grungy kind of way. As a kid's story? No way!

[Darwin8u · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I won tears from your eyes the first time I sang. I will never forget that about you."
- Hans Christian Andersen, "The Nightingale"



Vol 23 of my Penguin Little Black Classics Box Set. This represents a collection of Hans Christian Anderson's classic fairy tales, translated by Tiina Nunnally. This collection is short but diverse. Some of the stories I was very familiar with and others I read here for the first time. Here is the list of tales included in this volume, along with a rough star-ranking:

1. The Tinderbox - ✭✭✭
2. Little Claus and Big Claus - ✭✭✭✭
3. The Princess and the Pea - ✭✭✭
4. The Steadfast Tin Soldier - ✭✭
5. The Nightingale - ✭✭✭✭
6. The Red Shoes - ✭✭

[Michelle Curie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloody hell, Andersen, are you okay? And what is wrong with me for being able to forget for even a second how many lives are lost in these tales, how many tears wept and how many body parts lost? This Little Black Classic provides us with six of Hans Christian Andersen's dark fairy tales, making up one of in my opinion most beautiful collection of this series (out of those I have read so far).



I knew most of the tales before, like The Steadfast Tin Soldier (my favourite in this book), The Princess and the Pea and The Nightingale, but I thoroughly enjoyed another encounter with them. Andersen stories are strange above anything else, but so many other things as well: Creepy and painful, eery and beautiful. I love them, and this book made me want to read more of them again, too.



I think this book provides a fine selection of the Danish author's work, and definitely gives a good idea of what his writing is like. I get that some people don't find them suitable for children; the characters are greedy and selfish, make bad decisions and act violently, yet I personally enjoyed their enchanting morbidity very much.

In 2015 Penguin introduced the Little Black Classics series to celebrate Penguin's 80th birthday. Including little stories from "around the world and across many centuries" as the publisher describes, I have been intrigued to read those for a long time, before finally having started. I hope to sooner or later read and review all of them!

[Chantal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute little story out of the old box of Hans Christian Anderson. This story teaches a lot of things in life. Greed, murder, marriage everything comes by in this story. I do however find the story more for children, then for grownups. It also misses something and I can't put my finger on it. It is weird how a murderer can be a king in another day. Life is weird LOL

[Chelsey with a y · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was interesting. It’s funny how when he ran out of money his friends didn’t see to care about him much

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

آقا این چطور می‌تونست این‌همه عهد شکن و نامرد باشه؟!

همخوانی بهمن ۱۴۰۳

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://andersen.sdu.dk/moocfiles/tind...


What are you going to use that tinder box for?’ the soldier asked.

‘None of your business!’ the witch said, ‘you’ve got all your money! Just give me the tinderbox'

Stuff and nonsense!’ the soldier said, ‘tell me at once what you’re going to use it for, or I’ll
draw my sword and cut off your head!’

‘No!’ the witch said.

Then the soldier cut off her head. There she lay!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the horrible Hebel and his terrible tales of turgidity here is Andersen the weaver of words, the fairy tale fabulist to show him how it's done.
Andersen's masterful storytelling is sublime. If his stories fail to touch you then you are to old and cynical.

[Nivedita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good collection of short stories. Extremely entertaining fairy tales. Hans Christian Andersen is the master of fairy tales, and he proved it with this one!

[~Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

super fun but morbid at times but that’s what old fairytales were about so I’m not mad about it

[pagesandteastains · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always been a fan of Hans Christian Andersen growing up - my favorites being The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen and yes, even the Tinderbox.

But honestly, the rest of the stories given here just didn't sit well with me. I liked The Steadfast Tin Soldier, it sort of reminded me of The Nutcracker for a bit but nonetheless I think I liked the melancholy of it. The rest were just violent and seemingly without any reason or lesson? I don't know. Maybe if I had read them as a younger reader I would've liked them. Who knows.

One can say these stories are too violent for children - but then again I think all his stories are violent and extreme. One thing I noticed while re-reading The Tinderbox is how the soldier - the main character - just gets away with everything? He cuts off the witch's head in the beginning without any reason apart from the fact that she didn't tell him why she wants the tinderbox. She just got you a ton gold coin, man. Sheesh. Talk about anger issues.

And then later on, the soldier's friends stopped talking to him when he ran out of money and then making up when he got rich again. And at the end, the princess seemed way too chill about her parents being flung up in the air and dying when striking the ground, just because she could be queen and do whatever she wants now. LOL. What does this instill in a child?

The version I read of The Tinderbox was from A World of Fairy Tales by James Riordan and that one wasn't this harsh for some reason? It was better written. For example, the part where the soldier's friends refuse to come visit him in that book was that they gave the excuse that his new (poorer) apartments had too many stairs. While still petty, it shows some semblance of humanity or logic. It was just a much better retelling, I would definitely recommend you check out Riordan's version of it.

[Regitze Xenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admit it, I might be biased. As a Dane, I have grown up with Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales. Where many cite Harry Potter as sparking their love of stories and reading, HCA was that for me. This book contains some of my absolute favourites of his stories (he has written 157 or something in total, I believe), reading them in English was certainly a different experience and sometimes I couldn't help but recall the Danish phrasing without thinking. I will always adore these stories. Childhood magic that's more than readable as an adult as well.

[Vienna · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are six fairy tales in this collection: The Tinderbox, Little Claus and Big Claus, The Princess on the Pea, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Nightingale and The Red Shoes. Out of those fairy tales I liked The Tinderbox and The Steadfast Tin Soldier the most. I just wished they would have included his most famous fairy tale: The Little Mermaid. However, this is a great collection if you don't know where to start with his work and are not sure yet if you want to read all his fairy tales.

[Vaishali · Rating 1 out of 5]

Three strikes...

1. A story about a soldier? This is a fairy tale; gimme a prince!
2. The soldier kills an innocent, generous witch who trusts him. Immoral.
3. B-O-R-I-N-G

... and you're out.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hans Christian Anderson once again proving that fairy tales most certainly are NOT very children-friendly. They are really eery and almost all were great.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 1 out of 5]

God this was so bad like really bad

[ℛ ⚚ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun short fairytales that you can read in one sitting

[t · Rating 5 out of 5]

why would people read these to kids

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tinderbox, illustrated by Vladyslav Yerko

Vladyslav Yerko, the fabulously talented Ukrainian artist and illustrator, whose edition of The Snow Queen ranks as one of my absolute favorite fairy-tale retellings, returns to the work of Hans Christian Andersen in this marvelous picture-book. Here we have the classic story of a poor soldier, returning home from the wars, who encounters an old witch on his journey and finds his fortunes changed. Agreeing to fetch the eponymous tinderbox for the witch, in return for all the money he can carry away from its underground hiding place, he ends up murdering the witch when she won't tell him how the tinderbox will be used, and keeping both it and the money. Becoming a gentleman of leisure with his newfound wealth, the soldier's fortune holds, until the money runs out. It is then that he discover that the tinderbox controls and summons the three magical guard dogs who watched over the witch's underground treasure - the chest with bronze coins, the one with silver, and the one with gold. Fortune restored, the soldier next uses his magical dogs to kidnap the kingdom's beautiful princess from her bed, so he might look on her in her sleep. When this results in his imprisonment and imminent execution, he uses his dogs to destroy the king and queen and their advisors, marrying the princess and becoming king himself...

I was struck during the course of reading The Tinderbox, as I always am with this story, by how amoral of a tale it is. It doesn't have, like Andersen's The Red Shoes , with its narrative of a girl who is punished for her ingratitude and impiety with a terrible bodily disfigurement and violation, a moral outlike with which I would disagree. Rather, it seems entirely lacking in a moral outlook altogether, and the narrative never seems to question the ethics of the soldier's actions, in violating his agreement with the witch, going back on his word to turn over the tinderbox to her, and eventually murdering her. Nor are his actions, in kidnapping the princess, just so he can look at her sleeping form, ever depicted as problematic. Instead, the reader is apparently meant to sympathize with his change of fortune and to applaud his use of the dogs, whilst ignoring the fact tht he is a word-breaker, a murderer, and a pervet of sorts. I've always found this rather odd, and have never been convinced, despite his one good quality, of giving generously to the poor, that the soldier is a hero worth cheering for.

All that said, this presentation of The Tinderbox is, despite my usual distaste at the tale, so phenomenally gorgeous, that I am rating the book at five stars. Vladyslav Yerko's painting are so beautiful, so marvelously detailed and engrossing, that it was a sheer pleasure to peruse them! From decorative endpaper to decorative endpaper, front to back, this is a visually stunning book. No superlative could do it justice! The detailed indoor scenes, as when the soldier fetches the treasure from its underground lair, or when he first encounters one of the dogs in his room at the inn, have a rich, golden glow, and are crammed with so many little objects of interest, that one could pore over the page endlessly:



The outdoor scenes are lighter in tone, but no less rich in detail. The scene showing the city center is particularly lovely:



I have no idea, of course, how Vladyslav Yerko views this story - presumably he enjoys it, or he would not bother illustrating it! - but the scene in which the dog servant flies through the air with the princess on his back, resonates with my feeling that the soldier is a bit of a villain. Here's the princess, still enough of a little girl to be hugging her stuffed rabbit in her sleep, being ogled by a stranger, and a grown man at that!:



However that may be, there is no question that this is one of the most beautiful fairy-tale picture-books I have encountered. A lovely, lovely volume, one I would recommend wholeheartedly to anyone who loves fairy-tales, or who appreciates gorgeously-illustrated books.

[Anna Kļaviņa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magic tinderbox and three dogs, an amoral soldier and a princess under house arrest.

Beautiful and colourful illustrations by an Ukrainian artist Vladyslav Yerko


Утром солдат подошёл к маленькому окошку и стал смотреть сквозь железную решётку на улицу: народ толпами валил за город смотреть, как будут вешать солдата; били барабаны, проходили полки. Все спешили, бежали бегом. Бежал и мальчишка-сапожник в кожаном переднике и туфлях. Он мчался вприпрыжку, и одна туфля слетела у него с ноги и ударилась прямо о стену, у которой стоял солдат и глядел в окошко.

In the morning he could see through the iron grating of the little window how the people were hastening out of the town to see him hanged; he heard the drums beating, and saw the soldiers marching. Every one ran out to look at them. and a shoemaker’s boy, with a leather apron and slippers on, galloped by so fast, that one of his slippers flew off and struck against the wall where the soldier sat looking through the iron grating.

[[ J o ] · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hans Christian Andersen was a 19th Century Danish writer best know for fairy tales and short fables, though he was a prolific writer of plays, novels and poetry.

This is a selection of the lesser-known fairy tales written by Andersen. I've not read any of his other works though I'm well versed in the outside knowledge and I have to say I was disappointed in how terribly they were written and how blasé they seemed as a whole. Although I'm sure some of their charm must have been lost in translation, I still can't say I enjoyed any of them.


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