A prince becomes all powerful, but still his priests fear God more than they do him. There is only one being left for the prince to conquer – God himself. And sohe declares war on God. Hans Christian Andersen’s moral and dramatic warns against the hubris of power. It has some things in common with our story about the Angel of Death.
Read by Natasha. Duration 10.08.
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 débris of the destroyed cities.
The prince often looked with delight upon his gold and his magnificent buildings, 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.
34 Comments
natasha how come you never answer comments
Hi Natillie, Natasha leads a hectic life and I’m at my computer a good deal of the time, which is why I answer the comments usually.
Bertie, there is a moral in this story, but not a happy ending. I read these stories to my little sisters, but sometimes they don’t like it because there is no happy ending. BTW. One is in second grade.
I normally listen to Natasha first then I read to my little sisters.
PS Tell Natasha she is really good at telling stories.
Come on Bertie! Let Natasha have a chance to reply!!!!!
Dear Samantha,
It’s true – people do like happy endings. But not all stories have them. I will of course tell Natasha that she is good at telling stories. All the best
Hugh
the story’s are long and pretty good
I really Loved the way it showed that the good always win
who is hugh?
thanks it was really good.i think i have heard or read which is base was like this one.and natasha what did you do that your voice is so good?when my friend listened to your story she was amazed by your voice!!!she asked this quistion but she didnt have time to write it so i wrote her quistoin.so please reply as soon as possible because my friend keeps on asking me.
Dear Zaha, I’ll ahve to ask Natasha about your questions.
i loved the story natasha
sharanya
PS you have a very pretty voice too
bye
HAHA, Bertie typed ahve instead of have!1
SORRY CATTIEN!
Bertie had a typo on have but he typed ahve instead!
Loooooooooooool
Natasha you really have a very nice voice. .tomorrow will be our story telling in school. .therefore I always listen to your voice, to have an idea how to deliver a story. .
wish me luck. .
this is a very nice story. .
god bless everyone everything , there is no one more powerful than himself , he made everything ,everyone ,everybody ,everybody all. and this is what I believe . even though im ten.
cool story
Come on Bertie! Let Natasha have a chance to reply
heider, you copied every word of my comment!! Bertie, please tell him not to do that.
Thank you Natasha very much, please allow me to say this story has a great wisdom, that human beings has not to be a haughty person whatever the power or money or anything he has, he should be modest in all walks of life.
so so so so so so so fun fun fun fun fun fun fun aaa~~~~nd i loove
it sooooooooooooooo much
ECSUSE ME BUT TODAY WAS
SOPOSED TO HAVE
A
NEW
STORY
BERTIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BESIDES I WON VOTED
MOST LIKELY
st
what is a gnat?
Why don’t you already have the story?
Sorry, story coming soon
Hi love your this story.
plz plz tell me bertie what is a gnat
Hi Rachel, a gnat is a very small insect that bites, like a mosquito
thank you for telling me
Oh Bertie ,when will you ever come back to me?!
I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!
PS I have moneyin case you lost some $$$$$$$$$$$$
How do you do the smiling faces?
Beatrice, how to write smilies is here
http://storynory.com/2009/11/20/how-to-write-smilies/