Blue Light

The blue light story is a fairy tale that revolves around a soldier that suffers betrayal, experiences magic, and seeks revenge. Whether the ending is happy or not can be concluded by the readers individually. In this story, we can see that the soldier, disowned and abandoned, becomes a king of a kingdom just by using his  intelligence. Though it is debatable whether the soldier did right by overthrowing  the king or not, he saw an opportunity and used it in the most intelligent way possible.

The Soldier Summoning the Dwarf in the Well

The Blue Light Story

An injured soldier, loyal to his king was disowned after failing to be of use during the war. He felt betrayed and left the palace, walking across the kingdom in search of a means to earn a living. In his search for work, he walked into a forest and came across a house that belonged to a witch.

He begged for accommodation and food for a night. The witch agreed but said that if he wanted to stay he would dig the garden around her house. The soldier readily agreed. On the next day, he put in all his efforts to finish the task. However, he could not. The witch offered him another day of accommodation on the condition that he would help her by chopping a load of wood into small bits. The soldier agreed.

As promised, the next day, he chopped the wood according to the instructions given by the witch. The witch was pleased and offered him another day to stay back if he helped her pick a blue light that had fallen in a dried well in her backyard.

The next day, she took him to the well and put him in a basket at the bottom of the well. Upon finding the blue fairy tale light, the soldier signalled her to pull the basket to the surface. When the basket neared the surface, the witch reached her hand out for the blue light, and the soldier saw through her malicious intent. He stretched the light out of her reach. That pissed her off, and she dropped him, crashing to the bottom of the well.

The moist soil at the bottom kept the soldier from sustaining any injuries. He thought he was about to die and reached for his pocket, where he found some rolled tobacco. Thinking it would be his last pleasure, he lit the tobacco with the blue light and blew a circle of smoke. Then appeared a little dwarf, asking for commands from the soldier.

The soldier asked the dwarf to get him outside the well. The dwarf led him through an underground passage where the witch had treasured plenty of gold. The soldier carried a big bulk with him before reaching the surface. Then he asked the dwarf to blind the witch, and the witch got blinded.

The next thing the soldier did was get the best furnished to his taste and get the best clothes for himself. He summoned the dwarf again and made him fetch the king’s daughter so she could do his chores. This was his plan to get back at the king. The dwarf obeyed him and brought the princess, who was still asleep. Under hypnosis, she did all the cleaning that the soldier asked her to do. Before dawn, the dwarf would return the princess to the palace.

After keeping it to herself for a while, the princess told about the “strange dreams” she had been having. The king asked her to keep a bag full of peas that had a little hole in it. So the next time she was carried somewhere in her sleep, the peas would drop and create a path. This would happen regularly.

The dwarf hid and listened to the plan. That night he threw peas all over the kingdom. The princess had the same “dream,” but the king failed to figure it out. This time the king asked her to hide one of her slippers wherever she was carried. His soldiers would find it and catch the culprit.

The dwarf heard the plan but did not know how to counter it. He expressed his concerns to the soldier, but he was adamant. As a result, he got caught and thrown into prison. He found a ducat in his pocket and asked a soldier to fetch his bundle with the blue light and gold in exchange for a ducat. The other soldier did it for him.

Through an unfair trial, the soldier was sentenced to the death penalty. Before being hanged, he requested the king for the last smoke. The king permitted him three. The soldier took a smoke, and the dwarf appeared. He asked the dwarf to kill the king, who then fell to his knees and begged for his life in exchange for his kingdom. The soldier pardoned the king but took his kingdom in return.

Moral of the Story

The moral of the story is: “One should give a person what he deserves.” 

Summary

A king disowns his loyal soldier who has returned injured from the battle. The soldier meets a witch who gives him accommodation in return for chores. But when he understands her intent and tries to betray her,she makes him fall into the well. But when the soldier meets a dwarf he brings the princess to do his daily chores. But he meets with a trial and is sentenced to death. But he uses his intelligence and becomes the king. The soldier’s intelligence and the lack of righteousness of the king decided their fate in the end. If the king had been kind to the soldier he would not have to lose his kingdom. But it was the soldier’s intelligence that made him a king from a prisoner.