Fairy Tale Story - Essay Example

Fairy Tale Story “The Bronze Ring” is an important fairy tale that makes the opening story of Andrew Lang’s ic selection of popular fairy tales titled The Blue Fairy Book. Significantly, the main story of this fairy narrates how a gardener’s son wins the hands of the princess of the kingdom, with the help of a bronze ring that he got as a gift from the sultan of a city. “The Bronze Ring” opens with the account of how the king is successful in turning the wasteland around his castle into a fruitful garden, with the help of a head gardener who has been a descendant of other gardeners.

When the princess of the country falls in love with the gardener’s son, instead of the King’s choice i.e. the prime minister’s son, the King organizes a contest between the gardener’s son and the prime minister’s son. Thus, both of them are asked to undertake a journey to a far destination and whoever returned first would be given the hands of the princess. On his unpleasant journey to the destination, the gardener’s son helps a woman in rags, with whose support he heals the sultan of another city.

In return, he gains the bronze ring which contains a djinni who can grant all his wishes. With the help of this bronze ring, he gains a magnificent sailing ship with goods of gems, gold, etc, and attractive sailors on board. When the gardener’s son meets his opponent in distress, he helps him on condition that he would make an imprint upon his back with the bronze ring heated in a fire. In the course of the story, the prime minister’s son comes back home first on a ship offered by the gardener’s son and claims the princess as his bride.

However, the gardener’s son soon reaches back to the country in a gold ship who tells him that the prime minister’s son is merely a slave to him. When the prime minister’s son denies this, the gardener’s son shows the trademark of his bronze ring on the back of the prime minister’s son. Thus, the king gives the princes in marriage to the gardener’s son and they start a happy life for a short period of time. However, issues return to their life without delay when a student of the black arts gains the bronze ring from the princess during the absence of her husband.

Now, the student of the black arts turns the gold ship of the gardener’s son into one of rotten wood, his crew into slaves, and his cargo of gems into cats. When he reaches an island of mice, the Mouse Queen asks him not to approach her island with his cats. He agrees to the queen’s plea but demands that her mice must find out and win back his bronze ring to him. Thus, three mice appointed by the Mouse Queen manage to win back the bronze ring from the student of the black arts turns and return it to the gardener’s son.