Original story synopsis

The Tinderbox, Hans Christian Anderson (My rewriting)
 
A soldier is returning home from a war. He has a knapsack and a sword. He meets an ominous looking woman, a witch, as he walks along the road. Her bottom lip hangs down to her chest.

She addresses him, compliments him on looking the part, and tells him he can have as much wealth as he has ever dreamt. The soldier is intrigued. The witch points to a tree nearby and claims it sits above an underground hall, illuminated by hundreds of lamps. Inside this subterranean passage are three doors leading each to a room with a large chest. On each chest lies a guard dog, one with 'eyes the size of teacups', one with 'eyes the size of mill-wheels', and one with 'eyes the size of a tower'. The dogs will not object to the soldier, as long as he picks them up and lays them on the witch's blanket, which she will lend the soldier. Inside each chest are many coins: copper, silver and gold.

The soldier asks why the witch would tell him this, as she doesn't seem interested in keeping any coins for herself. She replies that she seeks a 'tinderbox' her grandmother left the last time she was in the cavern.

The soldier and the witch get to work, the soldier with a rope tied around his waste and the witch to winch him in and out of the tree. The soldier finds everything as the witch had described, and fills his pockets with coins. Before winching him up, the witch reminds the soldier to take the tinderbox she requested.

Upon returning to the surface, the soldier asks the witch for what purpose she needs the tinderbox - why would she be interested in such a thing instead of all the wealth in the world. Although the soldier threatens her with his sword, she refuses to tell him, resulting in the soldier killing the witch by decapitation. And so he keeps the tinderbox and the gold coins, and makes his way to the nearest town.

Upon arriving, he rents a room in the grandest inn and orders a dinner of all his favourite foods, foods he could have never afforded prior to his new riches.

He reinvents himself as a wealthy gentleman, with clothes and board to match. Soon all the town knows of him and the wealthiest all vie for his friendship. The soldier hears a tale from the town's inhabitants of the king's beautiful daughter: prophesised to marry a common soldier, the king has locked her away in a tower. The king could not bear the thought of a princess marrying such a common man.

The soldier uses his sudden wealth to live the comfortable life he had always dreamed, although he also gives generously to the poor of the town, remembering how it had felt to be hungry and penniless. But his money could not last forever, without an income he becomes once again moneyless. His wealthy influential friends leave him, and he finds himself very much as he had started. One evening, without a penny to buy a candle, he searches his possessions for something to light is dingy room. He looks inside the tinderbox and upon striking the flint the door bursts open. One of the dogs from the underground hall stands in his room and speaks! "What orders, master?"

The soldier instructs the dog to bring him more money and the hound dutifully obeys. The soldier learns he can summon all three dogs through striking the tinderbox flint a certain number of times.

He returns to his previous lifestyle, and once again his wealthy former friends remember him.

The soldier thinks again of the princess. He wishes to see her, to see the beauty he had heard so much about. He instructs one of his dogs to bring her to him as she sleeps and without waking her. When the dog arrives with the princess on its back the soldier is overcome with her beauty. He cannot help himself to kiss her but instructs the dog to take her back to her tower before she awakes.

In the morning the princess tells her mother of her strange dream, of dogs with giant eyes and a soldier with an old tinderbox. The queen is alarmed and instructs one of her staff to watch over the princess as she sleeps.

The next few nights the soldier longs to see the princess again and orders his dogs to bring her to him. Eventually the King and Queen discover the soldier's activities and find his house by following the dogs. The soldier is taken to the town's prison to be hanged the next day.

Out of his cell window he calls to a shoemaker's boy, telling him that if he were to bring him his tinderbox from his room he would be greatly rewarded.

The next day the soldier is brought to the gallows. The whole town is present for the execution, the king and queen sitting high up on ornate thrones. Before the soldier is to be hanged he implores the monarchs for one last favour. He wishes to smoke a pipe, the last chance he will have to do so in this world. The king agrees, and allows him his tinderbox. When the soldier strikes the flint he summons all three guard dogs to the scene and commands them to save his life.

The dogs attack the judges, councilors and royalty, throwing them up into the air to be dashed to pieces as they hit the ground. The townspeople fear for their lives - seeing what the soldier and his hounds can do they declare him to be their new king, with the princess as his wife.

And so the soldier marries the princess - as was prophesised - and becomes the new ruler of the land. A grand procession is arranged and the wedding festivities last for a week.

The dogs sit by the new king's throne and their eyes stare throughout. One the size of teacups, one the size of windmills and one the size of a tower.