"The Tinderbox" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a soldier who acquires a magic tinderbox capable of summoning three powerful dogs to do his bidding. When the soldier has one of the dogs transport a sleeping princess to his room, he is sentenced to death but cunningly summons the dogs to save his life. In the Aarne-Thompson tale index, The Tinderbox is type 562: The Spirit in the Blue Light. Other tales of this type include The Three Dogs and The Blue Light.

Commentaries

Andersen biographer Jackie Wullschlager writes, "["The Tinderbox"] is a confident, young man's tale—jaunty, brisk, and exhilarating. It celebrates youth over age and it has the energy and hope and satisfaction of a traditional folk tale—"Aladdin", "Puss in Boots", "Jack and the Beanstalk"—whose young hero overcomes adversity and ends a contented, successful adult."

Adaptations

Video game

In 1985, Gremlin Graphics released a ZX Spectrum-only children's adventure game titled Tinderbox, of which all profit went to the Ethiopian famine relief fund through Soft Aid. In the game, written by Colin C. Chadburn, a wounded foot soldier named Tom must defeat a wicked witch and an evil king who together cruelly rule the country in order to save and marry the beautiful Princess Rowella. Tom does not kill the villains, instead he just scares the witch-queen away and banishes the king. Tinderbox received mixed reviews, ranging from only one out of five stars from Sinclair User, to the scores of 7/10 from both Crash and Your Spectrum. According to Home Computing Weekly, "the game could have been a massive hit" if only it was written in The Quill instead of BASIC.

Footnotes