Dima Blogs about Fairy Tales: The Horrifying story

     So, as the title implies this will hopefully be my last blog about fairy tales, or at least I have run out of fairy tale books at this point. The story today is truly an odd one, with seemingly nothing to say to the reader. The tale is The Tinderbox, a slightly horrifying and pointless tale about knights, dogs, and the fairy tale staple, marriage. The story begins with a soldier returning from a war, and while walking encounters a witch. The witch tells the knight "'You are a real soldier! You shall have as much money as you want" (335 Andersen). The witch informs him of the riches to be found under a hollow tree that the witch points to. Inside is a dog with saucepan-sized eyes over a box with copper riches, then one with a dog with millstone-sized eyes over silver riches, and the final dog with eyes as big as the round tower over gold riches. To obtain these riches the dogs must be placed on the witch's apron and then he can gather the riches. In exchange, the soldier must bring her a tinderbox her grandmother left behind the last time she was there. Now, for those unaware of what the round tower is, it is a building in Copenhagen and it is massive. Looking up images, most illustrators try to compensate for this by making the dogs big too, but the soldier has to pick them up. This leads to the horrifying conclusion that this gold dog must be regular-sized, and have eyes as wide as a large tower.

    

    The knight exits, pockets and clothes full of gold when he makes a request of the witch. He asks the with "'What do you want the tinderbox for?' asked the soldier 'That's no business of yours' said the witch" (337 Andersen). After the witch repeatedly says no, the soldier just cuts her head off and steals the tinderbox. The soldier returns and lives a lavish lifestyle, fine clothes, fine hotels, the works. However, his lavish spending catches up to him and he runs out of money. Poor and destitute he uses the tinderbox to strike a match and light a candle. however, something amazing for the knight happens. Striking the match summons the dog who will grant him his every wish. He uses it to grant a wish and to transport the sleeping king's daughter to him. Eventually, he is caught and sent to be hanged, however, he is able to get his hands on the tinderbox. Faking a last smoke, the knight summons the dogs who maul the people trying to hang him, and after that marries the princess, ending the story.

    Now with the weird plot summarized I have two main theories on what the plot might be. The first theory is showing that just with the help a common person can ascend to riches. This theory personally is not my preferred one, so I will not spend too much time on it. Ignoring the murder part, this seems to be a story of a knight rising to become a rich man with just a little bit of help from the dogs. The knight is also seen donating his riches to those who are poorer than him. This shows that the knight sympathizes with the struggle of those who are less successful than him. That is all of the evidence that theory really has, so it is time for the second theme.

    The second theme theory is that there is no theme. To explain further the theme is that not every story needs a theme. Stories emulate real life, and real-life never has a message preplanned to be told. Life can be absurd and confusing with someone left wondering why things are that way. It's paralleled in the tale, with the dogs. the dogs are absurd, and as I describe, horrifying. The sorry does not have a theme because it does not need to, and is explaining that to the reader. Just because someone can pick up a pen and write does not mean that what they write will be transferred into the real world and become true.