Latest / Hans Christian Andersen Fairytales & Short Stories Vol. 1 / 023 - The Wicked Prince

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023 - The Wicked Prince · Hans Christian Andersen Fairytales & Short Stories Vol. 1

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty three of Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales and
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  Speaker 1: Short Stories, Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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  Speaker 1: are to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: eve Lynne. Hans Christian Andersen, Fairy Tales and Short Stories,
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  Speaker 1: Volume one, eighteen thirty five to eighteen forty two by
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  Speaker 1: Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paul. The Wicked
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  Speaker 1: Prince There lived once upon a time, a wicked prince
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  Speaker 1: whose hearts and mind were set upon conquering all the
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  Speaker 1: countries of the world and on frightening the people. He
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  Speaker 1: devastated their countries with fire and sword, and his soldiers
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  Speaker 1: trod down the crops in the fields, and destroyed the
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  Speaker 1: peasant's huts by fire, so that the flames licked the
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  Speaker 1: green leaves off the branches, and the fruit hung dried
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  Speaker 1: up on the singed black trees. Many a poor mother
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  Speaker 1: fled her naked baby in her arms behind the still
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  Speaker 1: smoking walls of her cottage. But also there the soldiers followed,
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  Speaker 1: and when they found her, she served as new nourishment
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  Speaker 1: to their diabolical enjoyments. Demons could not possibly have done
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  Speaker 1: worse things than these soldiers. The prince was of opinion
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  Speaker 1: that all this was right, and that it was only
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  Speaker 1: the natural course which things ought to take. His power
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  Speaker 1: increased day by day. His name was feared by all,
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  Speaker 1: and fortune favored his deeds. He brought enormous wealth home
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  Speaker 1: from the conquered towns, and gradually accumulated in his residence
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  Speaker 1: riches which could nowhere be equalled. He erected magnificent palaces,
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  Speaker 1: churches and halls, and all who saw these splendid buildings
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  Speaker 1: and great treasures exclaimed admiringly, what a mighty prince. But
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  Speaker 1: they did not know what endless misery he had brought
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  Speaker 1: upon other countries. Nor did they hear the size and
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  Speaker 1: lamentations which rose up from the debris of the destroyed cities.
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  Speaker 1: The prince often looked with delight upon his gold and
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  Speaker 1: his magnificent edifices, and thought, like the crowd, what a
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  Speaker 1: mighty prince. But I must have more, much more. No
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  Speaker 1: power on earth must equal mine, far less exceed it.
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  Speaker 1: He made war with all his neighbors and defeated them.
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  Speaker 1: The conquered kings were chained up with golden fetters to
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  Speaker 1: his chariot when he drove through the streets of his city.
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  Speaker 1: These kings had to kneel at his and his courtier's
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  Speaker 1: feet when they sat at table, and live on the
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  Speaker 1: morsels which they left. At last, the prince had his
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  Speaker 1: own statue erected on the public places and fixed on
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  Speaker 1: the royal palaces. Nay, he even wished it to be
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  Speaker 1: placed in the churches on the altars. But in this
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  Speaker 1: the priests supposed him, saying, Prince, you are mighty, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: but God's power is much greater than yours. We dare
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  Speaker 1: not obey your orders. Well, said the Prince, then I
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  Speaker 1: will conquer God too, And in his haughtiness and foolish presumption,
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  Speaker 1: he ordered a magnificent ship to be constructed with which
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  Speaker 1: he could sail through the air. It was gorgeously fitted
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  Speaker 1: out and of many colors. Like the tail of a peacock.
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  Speaker 1: It was covered with thousands of eyes, but each eye
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  Speaker 1: was the barrel of a gun. The Prince sat in
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  Speaker 1: the center of the ship and had only to touch
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  Speaker 1: a spring in order to make thousands of bullets fly
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  Speaker 1: out in all directions. While the guns were at once
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  Speaker 1: loaded again hundreds of eagles were attached to this ship,
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  Speaker 1: and it rose with the swiftness of an arrow up
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  Speaker 1: towards the sun. The earth was soon left far below
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  Speaker 1: and looked with its mountains and woods, like a cornfield
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  Speaker 1: where the plow had made furrows which separated green meadows.
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  Speaker 1: Soon it looked only like a map with indistinct lines
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  Speaker 1: upon it, and at last it entirely disappeared in mist
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  Speaker 1: and clouds. Higher and higher rose the eagles up into
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  Speaker 1: the air. Then God sent one of his numberless angels
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  Speaker 1: against the ship. The wicked prince showered thousands of bullets
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  Speaker 1: upon him, but they rebounded from his shining wings and
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  Speaker 1: fell down like ordinary hailstones. One drop of blood, one
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  Speaker 1: single drop, came out of the white feathers of the
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  Speaker 1: angel's wings, and fell upon the ship in which the
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  Speaker 1: prince sat, burnt into it, and weighed upon it like
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  Speaker 1: thousands of hundredweights, dragging it rapidly down to the earth. Again,
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  Speaker 1: the strong wings of the eagles gave way. The wind
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  Speaker 1: roared round the prince's head, and the clouds around were
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  Speaker 1: they formed by the smoke rising up from the burnt cities,
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  Speaker 1: took strange shapes like crabs, many many miles long, which
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  Speaker 1: stretched their claws out after him, and rose up like
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  Speaker 1: enormous rocks, from which rolling masses dashed down and became
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  Speaker 1: fire spitting dragons. The Prince was lying half dead in
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  Speaker 1: a ship when it sank at last, with a terrible shock,
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  Speaker 1: into the branches of a large tree in the wood.
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  Speaker 1: I will conquer, God said the prince. I have sworn it.
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  Speaker 1: My will must be done. And he spent seven years
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  Speaker 1: in the construction of wonderful ships to sail through the air,
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  Speaker 1: and had darts cast from the hardest steel to break
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  Speaker 1: the walls of heaven with He gathered warriors from all countries,
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  Speaker 1: so many that when they were placed side by side,
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  Speaker 1: they covered the space of several miles. They entered the ships,
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  Speaker 1: and the Prince was approaching his own when God sent
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  Speaker 1: a swarm of gnats, one swarm of little gnats. They
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  Speaker 1: buzzed round the prince and stung his face and hands. Angrily.
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  Speaker 1: He drew his sword and brandished it, but he only
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  Speaker 1: touched the air and did not hit the gnats. Then
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  Speaker 1: he ordered his servants to bring costly coverings and wrap
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  Speaker 1: him in them, that the gnats might no longer be
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  Speaker 1: able to reach him. The servants carried out his orders,
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  Speaker 1: but one single gnat had placed itself inside one of
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  Speaker 1: the coverings, crept into the prince's ears and stung him.
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  Speaker 1: The place burnt like fire, and the poison entered into
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  Speaker 1: his blood. Mad with pain, he tore off the coverings
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  Speaker 1: and his clothes, tow flinging them far away, and danced
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  Speaker 1: about before the eyes of his ferocious soldiers, who now
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  Speaker 1: mocked at him. The mad prince who wished to make
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  Speaker 1: war with God, and was overcome by a single little gnat.
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  Speaker 1: End of the wicked Prince