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The Golden Soldier
by Christine Natale
Illustrations by Natalya Yeshchenko
This
story is lovingly dedicated to
Alan
Howard
Waldorf Educator
and Mentor
Who saw the Golden
Soldier in me
Copyright 2010
Straw Into Gold
Press
All Rights Reserved
Once upon a time, there was a handsome young
soldier who had just finished fighting in a war. His country was now at peace,
but the young man decided that he liked to fight in battle and that he would
become a soldier of fortune. So the young man set off into the world, looking
for battles to join and glory to win.
After a while he came to a
village. When he entered the village, he found people sitting in the streets.
He was amazed to find no one working. The people were mostly sitting quietly on
logs or benches, or under trees. No one was building or fixing or moving
anything. Even the children were too lazy to play and sat about idle. Everyone
looked hungry and filthy and many were sick. The young soldier stopped in front
of a large group and asked why they were not working.
“What is the use?” replied one
old man slowly, “I remember a day, long ago, when people worked but that was
before we fell under the rule of our king.”
“The king forbids you to work?”
asked the soldier.
“No, but he taxes us so heavily
that there is nothing left for our use. He takes all of our food, money, craft
items and anything useful for himself so that we have no more than you see now.
We decided long ago not to
produce anything, as it will only be taken away.” replied the old man.
“That is ridiculous!” exclaimed
the young man, “Why do you not take up arms against him and rebuild your
village?”
“There is no use,” answered the
villager, “We have no weapons, our tools are broken, we have no money for
materials and most of our young people are ill or undernourished. There is
nothing that we can do.”
The young soldier thought to
himself, “I could fight with these people and help them but I cannot fight for
them all by myself.”
So he left the village in
disgust.
After a while, he came to a
town. The people in the town seemed busy enough but as soon as they saw the
soldier, they scurried into their houses like mice into their holes and the
soldier could hear all the bolts slam shut.
“Hallo-o! Hallo-o!” cried the
soldier, “Good day to ye!
But no one answered him and no
one came out of their house.
The soldier passed through he
town, unable to find a bite to eat, even where the sign said tavern or inn.
When he reached the other side
of the town though, one door opened a see crack and a lady stretched out her
finger and beckoned to him.
“What do you want here - what is your business?” she hissed through the crack.
“Good
day mother! I’ve come into the world to fight battles,” said the soldier.
“Hush! Not so loud! The walls
have ears and even the trees have eyes, you know.”
Then she explained to the
soldier that the town was under the control of a terrible tyrant. This tyrant
had created such a big web of spies and trickery that the people had become
afraid of each other. People were thrown into dungeons anytime their neighbors
reported any misdeed, however small. And everyone told tales about everyone
else in an effort to keep themselves out of trouble. No one liked or trusted
anyone else, not even in their own families.
“How can you live in such a
way!” said the soldier, “Why do you not take up arms and overthrow the tyrant?”
“No one could trust anyone else
to make such plans and not turn them in. It is quite impossible.” answered the
lady.
Just at that moment, a band of townspeople swarmed down the street, eagerly pointing to the young man and he could see that they were leading the way for the tyrant’s guards, so he took to his heels and ran until he was well away.
In a week or two he found himself in a city that was
beautifully built and gloriously decorated. The citizens wore gold and jewelry
and much finery and the soldier was greatly impressed. But after he had been in
the city a while, he began to notice that the people all had very haughty and
superior expressions on their faces and that everyone looked at him like he was
a simpleton.
In fact, they all looked at each other that way, too!
So he asked his innkeeper why
everyone seemed so proud.
“Why shouldn’t we be proud,”
asked the innkeeper in return, “We live in the biggest city in the world, the
richest city in the world and everyone is so educated that we all know
everything.”
The soldier had already seen
bigger and finer cities and it was a little hard to believe that everyone could
know everything, so he asked the innkeeper to prove it.
“Sure.” said the innkeeper,
“Just ask me anything.”
So the young man began to ask
questions like what are two and two, what kind of animal lays eggs, what color
is the grass and how do you say the alphabet?
“Two and two are nine, donkeys
lay eggs, the grass is blue and the alphabet goes S,Q,O,L,T,I . . . ”
“Stop!” shouted the soldier,
“That is all wrong!”
"It cannot be wrong,” said
the innkeeper indignantly, “Because we have all of our facts straight from our
ruler, who is a very wise dictator. His answers are the only ones allowed and
they are always right!”
The innkeeper went off in an
angry huff and the soldier decided to leave a city where everyone was ignorant
and proud of it. He passed through the city gates in great despair
* * * * * *
The road led him through a great
forest and after three days he found a little hut. He knocked and a kind old
woman came to the door and bade him enter. When the young soldier was fed and
rested, he told the old woman all that he had seen and heard and he said,
“I would like to fight to free
those people from their oppressors but I can’t do it alone and they don’t seem
to want to free themselves.”
“No one will follow you, my son,
until you have the golden sword and shield which the dragon is guarding in a
cave on the mountain. If you had the
golden sword, they would all follow you into freedom.”
“Is that all?” said the soldier.
“Fighting a dragon is not too difficult. That is what I’ll do – I’ll get the
sword and come back to free the people.”
“You have my blessing my son.”
said the old woman. And the young man set off again.
When he reached the dragon’s
cave in the mountain, the brash young fellow whooped and hollered until the
dragon woke up from his nap. The dragon slithered off his glittering treasure
hoard and crawled out of the cave into the daylight. The dragon did not take
kindly to being woken up.
He fought a great battle with
the soldier but in the end, the soldier won and the dragon lay dead.
Then the young man rushed into
the cave and began to look for the golden sword. He spent hours and hours. He
opened every treasure chest and he moved every diamond bracelet. He turned over
every gold coin but he finally realized that there was no golden sword to be
found. He was so angry and frustrated that he sat down on a treasure chest and
cried.
The soldier had never cried
before in his life - but he had never felt so frustrated before, either. He
cried and cried so much that a pool of tears began to form on the floor at his
feet. He did not notice until he stopped, that the floor of the dragon’s cave,
being magic, had turned the tears to gold, which lay in a solid lump at his
feet. He picked up the heavy lump and wondered aloud,
“Now what in the world should I
do with this?”
“Take it to the dwarfs.” said a
mysterious voice.
The soldier looked around and he
saw a golden cup encircled with jewels standing alone on a high stone pedestal.
A light was shining from the cup and the voice seemed to come from it, too. As
the soldier stared, it spoke again.
“Take it to the dwarfs deep in
the mountain and they will fashion the gold into a sword for you. And take me
with you, too.”
Then the light went out and the
soldier took hold of the cup. Behind the pedestal was a door. There was a long
narrow stairway that went down. The soldier went down, down, down hundreds and
hundreds of stairs until it seemed that he was at the very center of the earth.
There he found an enormous cavern full of dwarfs busily working at
goldsmithing. They did not seem surprised to see him and they took the gold
from him and set to work on the sword.
Although the dwarfs appeared to
be working very busily, every time the soldier asked for the sword, the dwarfs
said, “It is not ready yet.” The task was taking so long that he grew very impatient.
To amuse himself, he took the golden cup out of the sack and began to examine
it. There were seven jewels embedded around the cup and the soldier spent one
day looking at each jewel.
On the first day,
the soldier looked
at a beautiful green emerald.
As he did so, it revealed to him everything there is to see of the
beauty of the earth.
On the second day,
a deep blue sapphire
showed him
the unfathomable mystery of the heavenly sky.
On the third day,
a fiery red ruby
taught him about
the purifying power of flame.
On the fourth
day,
a golden yellow
topaz took him through
the secrets of time.
On the fifth day,
a delicate peach
tourmaline brought him to
the mystery of the human heart.
On the sixth day,
a violet amethyst
taught him
the language of the wind.
On the
seventh day,
the purest
sparkling diamond gave him
the wisdom of the light.
When the soldier had completed
the round of jewels he began to weep. This time his tears were tears of compassion
for the earth and everything upon the earth, for mankind and everything that
mankind is, was and could be. And so many tears of love were shed that they
filled the cup to the brim.
When he stopped crying, the
soldier looked up and saw a great crowd of dwarfs in a circle around him.
“That is what we have been
waiting for.” said the chief goldsmith, “Now pour your tears into the fire.”
The soldier emptied the cup into
the forge, where the tears immediately became molten gold. From this gold, the
dwarfs fashioned a magnificent shield.
“Now the sword can be
completed.” said the chief dwarf, “We could not do so without the shield.”
Last, he took the cup from the soldier and melted
it down and made a golden crown with the jewels set all around it.
When all was ready, the dwarfs
presented the sword, shield and crown to soldier and showed him the way back to
the surface of the earth.
When the young man arrived in
the world again, he found to his surprise that each day that he had spent
looking at the jewels had been ten years upon the earth! He had not aged at all
but everyone else had. The people he had met were either very old or had died
and a new generation of young people had been born.
The soldier found that the evil king who ruled the village
had been replaced by his son and his son’s son, both of whom were just as
oppressive. The people still had not begun to work at all. But as the soldier
entered the village, he carried the golden sword high and upright. And as it
shone in the sun, they young people picked themselves up out of the dust and
began to follow in a crowd behind him.
Then the soldier spoke to the young people about freedom
and the satisfaction to be found in good labor.
The young people heard and
understood and for the first time in memory, they began to collect materials
and to fashion tools. They worked long and hard and in the end were able to
create for themselves all that they needed to rebuild their lives. They also
fashioned weapons to defend themselves against the king. They decided to give
the king a small share, but only as much as was his due and they were able to
uphold that decision.
Then the golden soldier passed
on to the hostile town. There, the younger people came out from behind closed
doors and when they were assembled, the soldier turned his shield to face them.
The mirror-smooth golden surface reflected each one back and revealed every
fault and every lie. No deception could live in the face of it.
When the intricate web of
mistrust and lies broke down, each young man and woman turned to their neighbor
and embraced him or her. They found trust and love in the knowledge of who they
really were and from that day on, the tyrant’s power was broken.
The golden soldier then came to
the city. Since the young people had never seen anyone like him, they were full
of curiosity. They followed him to the plaza in the center of the city. When
they were all gathered together, the soldier began to turn slowly and the
diamond on his crown began to shine.
The diamond light filled the
young people’s eyes and opened them to the light of real wisdom. For the first
time, they could see for themselves the difference between truth and falsehood
and their pride was melted. Armed with this inner knowledge, they closed their
ears to the wicked dictator and listened only to the truth within their hearts.
The golden soldier, having
completed these tasks, journeyed on throughout the wide world – helping people
set themselves free everywhere he went.
WOW!
ReplyDeleteThank you Bradford! I was waiting for a "wow"! Yours is the first and only "wow" I have received!
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