Hans Christian Andersen
Synopsis
In a garden, grows the most beautiful rose and in that rose lived a little elf. While exploring the garden he accidentally stays out too late and all the roses are closed. Not being able to take shelter the elf becomes distraught as he has never been left out in the cold before. He remembered that across the garden was a house with honeysuckle which should not have closed petals so he flew over to the house
In the house was a man and a women who loved each other very much but the man had to go on a long journey. The women kissed a rose, therefore opening the petals and gave it to the man before he departed. The little elf flew into the rose.
The woman’s brother came upon the man and brutally killed him as he did not like the man with his sister.
The little elf heard the murder and the plot to frame it on the man disappearing on his long journey. The elf hid in a leaf that ended upon the murders head and traveled with him home.
The little elf was able to whisper into the woman’s ear to tell her everything he knew as if it were a dream.
The woman went to the woods where the little elf told her the body was buried and found her beloved slain. She took a bough of jasmine-bush growing near the grave and planted it in her room.
The elf could not bear to watch her grieve any longer so he returned to his rose. However, the rose had withered so he found another. Each morning he would return to the window to check on the woman.
Everyday the elf saw the woman watering the bough with her tears and it began to grow.
Once more the elf whispered in her ear a pleasant tale and her life passed.
The wicked brother took the jasmine bush and placed it in his bedroom to enjoy. Furious, the elf told all the elves that lived in the bush what the brother had done. The jasmine elves knew of his treachery so they whispered to the brother in the middle of the night to give him terrible dreams before stabbing him in the tongue with poisoned weapons.
The brother was marked as a murder by this death and the two lovers went to heaven to be together.
Lessons & Takeaways
You Reap What You Sow
The wicked brother murders his sister’s lover and buries him in the earth. Poetically, the bush that grows next to his grave is ultimately his undoing. He put evil into the earth and the earth returned his wickedness to him.
True love conquers all
Even though the man and the woman both meet their tragic end, it is revealed that they both end up in heaven together. Because they were pure of heart and truly loved one another, they get to meet once again after death.
I would much rather not have my brother murder my boyfriend and then die of a broken heart but it is still a lovely sentiment that they get to eternally be with one another.
Small is Mighty
The Little Elf is so small that humans can’t even see him. Still, he is able to let the woman know what really happened to the man by whispering in her ear. He would have taken revenge on the wicked brother but the other Elves that spawned from the jasmine bush took care of the villain before he had a chance.
He never doubted his abilities or worried how he was going to help, he just acted and didn’t worry about the fact that he was such a small part of the other character’s world.
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