Tuesday Tales: The Blue Light

All of the Tuesday Tales this month are from the Brothers Grimm. That was not intentional. I just looked at the list and saw it.

Today's Tale is The Blue Light. A soldier, recently discharged from the King's service, finds the home of a witch on his journey away from the castle. In return for a night of lodging, the soldier agrees to spade the witch's garden the next day. It takes him so long that he must stay another night. In return, he chops wood. This also takes so long that he is forced to spend a third night. In exchange, he agrees to climb into the well and get the witch's blue light. He figures out that he will be trapped once he hands it over to her so he keeps the light. The witch leaves him in the well anyways.

Figuring he was about to die, he uses the blue light to light his pipe. A dwarf then comes to grant him whatever he wishes. His first wish is to be led out of the well. His second wish is for the witch to be arrested and hanged for her crimes. His third wish is for the King's daughter to come to him as his nightly servant, as he is still bitter about his discharge. The princess tells her mother about her "strange dream" the next morning and the Queen fills the princess's pocket with peas and then puts a hole in the pocket so that a path would be set if she were carried away into the night. The dwarf sees this and he spreads peas all over the city, sabotaging the Queen's plan. The next night, the princess plans to leave her shoe wherever she is taken. The dwarf discovers this plan as well but the soldier ignores his warning.

The next day, the princess's shoe is found in the soldier's quarters and he is arrested. He sends a friend to get his blue light and as a last request, he asks to smoke his pipe once more. The dwarf appears and the soldier wishes for the henchmen to die. He then demands that the King die, but spares him after he begs for mercy. The soldier marries the princess and takes the throne from the King.

I'm not sure what the moral of the story is here. Yes, I know... it is parables that are supposed to give a moral at the end, but most of these tales have some message at its core. I suppose I can take from this that if you are fired, you can work really hard and employ some trickery to get back at your boss? Or, possibly, when given a warning by a magic dwarf, heed it? I'm not really sure here.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS