The Three Tree-Toppers

One December, long ago, a King called Olov told an ornament maker to make him an angel for the top of his Christmas tree and the ornament maker made a beautiful smiling angel in a gown of white silk with eyes of sapphire and  hair and wings and a halo of gold.
But when the King had the angel mounted on top of his tree and the angel looked out of the palaces large bay windows and saw all the poor people outside, its smile started to turn into a frown.
"How can I smile", thought the angel, "When I am in this palace of so much wealth and can see all the suffering of those outside the palace?".
And aswell as a ruby frown, three tiny diamond tear drops appeared upon its silver cheek.
Unfortunately, when the King saw the angel frowning he was furious.
"What? Has that ornament maker sold me a frowning angel?", he said, "How dare he. I'll have him locked up for this".
And, immediately, he got into his royal coach and went to see the ornament maker in his workshop to shout at him and tell him how angry he was.
But, getting down upon his knees the ornament maker begged for mercy and pleaded for the King to have another of his ornaments; a star that was even better than the angel because it glowed brightly just like a real star.
And the King, seeing the brightly glowing star, liked it so much that he forgot about the angel and agreed to take it.
Unfortunately, no sooner did the king have the star put at the top of his tree when it too looked out of the palace windows and saw all of the desperately poor people outside and, just like the angel had it started to feel sad and when it began to feel sad it could no longer glow brightly.
"How can I glow brightly?", the star thought, "How can I be happy when I am in this palace of so much opulence while outside there are people suffering terrible poverty?".
Infact the star got so sad that its light went out altogether.
When the King saw that the glow had gone from the star however, he was even more angry than before.
"Garr! What a fool I was to take pity on that ornament maker", he shouted, shaking with rage, "First he sells me a frowning angel then he gives me a star that won't shine. Well this time I will definitely have him locked up".
And a second time the King went to the workshop of the ornament maker, this time accompanied by palace guards to arrest him.
But the ornament maker had just finished making a beautiful bell for the top of a tree that could ring by itself and, seeing the bell ring, the king liked it so much that he forgot about locking up the ornament maker and, taking the bell with him, spared the ornament maker a second time.
Unfortunately, once again, when the king had the ornament placed ontop of his tree, it looked out of his palace windows and, seeing all of the poor unhappy people outside, started to feel unhappy.
And because it was unhappy the bell would no longer ring.
"How can I ring?", it thought, "For ringing is the laughter of a bell and I don't feel like laughing when I see the wretched condition of those poor people outside".
But once more the king, seeing that this new ornament wouldn't work either, got angry and this time he was so angry that he did not even bother to go and see the ornament maker; he just ordered his guards to go and arrest him and the poor ornament maker was thrown in a dungeon with nothing but his angel, his star and his ringing bell for company.
"Why?", the ornament maker said to his three ornaments, "Why have you done this to me?".
But then, to his amazement, the angel, the star and the bell all began to speak and explained to him how they had looked out of the palace windows at the poor, suffering people of the king and felt too sad to smile or glow or ring.
Hearing them the ornament maker sighed.
 "Oh thats all very well", he said, "But what am I going to do? For now I will be locked up in the kings dungeon my whole life".
But the three ornaments told their maker not to worry, that they would help him to escape.
And then, flying out between the bars of a small window in his dungeon door, the angel stole the keys of a sleeping jailor and brought them back to him and unlocking the door he, carrying the star and bell, crept out of his cell.
"Getting out of my cell is one thing", said the ornament maker after they had crept safely past the sleeping guard, "But how do I get out of the palace? I have to go past all of the palace guards".
"Oh that is no problem", said the star, "Just cover your eyes and let me lead the way"
And so the Ornament maker, doing as the star said, covered his eyes and then the star shone with a glare so bright that, as they were leaving the palace all of the palace guards had to cover their eyes so as not to be blinded by it and none of them saw the ornament maker or the flying angel as they slipped out through the palace gates.
But even though they were free from the dungeon, the ornament maker could not go back to his workshop for fear that the kings soldiers would come looking for him there and so, instead, he went into the dark snow covered forest, the star lighting his way through the darkness.
And while he was walking through the forest he took refuge from a hailstorm in an old icy cave.
Unfortunately, the cave was full of big black bats that, when they smelled him in their lair, swooped down upon him in their hundreds; shards of black lightning, tearing at his clothes with their sharp teeth and claws.
But thankfully, just then the ornament makers bell started to ring angrilly and the sound of it drove the bats, with their large pointed, sensitive ears, out of the cave.
Sighing with relief, the ornament maker slept a little before carrying on through the forest but then, suddenly the old man found himself surrounded by a pack of growling and teeth-baring wolves.
"Oh no", he said to the angel who was fluttering by his side, "Is this what I escaped from the kings dungeons for, to be torn apart by a pack of wolves?".
The moment he said this, however, suddenly, the wolves around him took off their grey fur like cloaks, transforming into men.
"Did you say you had escaped from the kings dungeons?", asked one of the men.
"Yes", replied the ornament maker.
"How did you accomplish that?", asked the man.
The ornament maker showed him his star that could light up bright enough to blind a mans eyes and then the man introduced himself.
"I am Wolf Robinson", he said, "The kings mother was my stepmother but, when my father died, she abandoned me in the forest to be eaten by wolves. Fortunately, I was adopted by a kindly witch who taught me her magic. Now I and my men, by turning ourselves into wolves escape capture by the kings soldiers and steal back the taxes that they take from the poor".
Then Wolf Robinson asked to borrow the ornament makers star, saying that with it, he could capture the kings palace and reclaim the title of king that was rightfully his and the ornament maker agreed on the condition that Wolf Robinson did not become a tyrant as terrible as the king.
And the next night, which was December 24th, when the bright moon was full and the snow lay deep all around the palace walls, the band of wolf robinsons men attacked the palace.
First they appeared as a pack of wolves round about the palace and then, one of them, shedding his magic cloak of grey wolf fur, he shone the ornament makers star into the faces of the guards upon the battlements upon the palace walls and, while they were blinded by the light, more of his men fired arrows upon them.
Then, before the palace gates could be shut, the great pack of wolves like a river of growling, grey fur rushed into the courtyard and, tearing off their cloaks of transformation, Wolf Robinsons men leapt upon the men guarding it.
And it was not long before, with their savage skills, Wolf Robinsons men were inside the palace itself.
But King Olov had a secret that he had kept hidden a long time.
For his mother, like the woman who had adopted Wolf Robinson, had been a powerful witch and, within a secret room deep under the palace she had left him a magic bottle incase of just such an emmegency.
The label upon the bottle read, "Bottle of dragons".
And when the king opened the bottle, immediately, like the long tails of smoke that follow rockets, long heads and necks of black cloud came hissing and slithering and uncoiling from out of it.
Then the black clouds became long black bodies covered in leathery dragonhide with bat-like wings as big as sails and, flapping with a sound like the beating of a drum, out of the kings secret room and out of the palace door came three gigantic and fire breathing, flying lizards that, the moment they emmerged, began eating up Wolf Robinsons men in their fiery jaws.
Turning the light of the star against them Wolf Robinson tried to blind them with it but the dragons narrowed their pupils to slits the way that cats do for these were creatures very used to the blinding flames of hell.
"Now what do we do?", Robinson asked the Ornament maker.
Scratching his old balding head, the Ornament maker thought for a while but then he remembered the bats in the cave who had been driven off by the ringing of his bell.
"We need a big bell like a church bell to ring", he said.
"And where are going to get one of those?", asked Wolf Robinson.
But then the little ornament makers bell spoke up.
"I speak the language of the bells", it said, "If the angel will fly me to a church, I will tell the bells in its tower to ring"
And so that is what happened.
Picking up the bell, the angel flew it into the bell tower of the large cathedral nearby and the little bell tinkled to the big bells inside,
"Quick, quick, brother bells. Ring with all your might and tell all the bells in other churches round about to ring too. The good of the land depends upon it".
And hearing him the big bells of the cathedral started to chime without a bellringer and, as they did, they told all the bells round about to ring too and they told other bells to ring and soon bells all up and down the land were ringing.
And every loud chime was like the blow of a blade in the hide of the three black dragons, shattering them into black smoke until, finally, broken down into clouds again, they were torn apart by the four winds and scattered by them in every direction that the wind blows.
After that, the king was captured and thrown into one of his own dark dungeons and Wolf Robinson became the king and, keeping the promise he had made to the ornament maker, he was not a tyrant but a king who was caring, kind and wise.
And three Christmas trees were planted infront of the palace; one of the three ornaments placed upon the top of each of them so that, watching Wolf Robinsons happy people celebrating, the angel could smile; the star, glow and the bell ring with Christmas joy.