The Eternal Flame

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a prince, returning from abroad, brought back his princess the present of a magic flaming candle.

 

"I was told by the merchant who sold the candle to me that as long as my love for you continues to burn bright so too will the candle", he said.

 

And then, testing the candle, he placed it underwater but the candle simply floated to the surface with its flame still ablaze then he challenged the princess to blow it out but however she tried she could not and not even when both blew upon it together would the flame go out, finally he tried to snuff it out with a brass candle snuffer but still the flame burned on.

 

One day, however, the prince had to go away on business to a foreign land and, while he was away, an evil magician seized power and he threatened the princess that if she did not marry him he would kill her.

 

The Princess showed him the candle and told him about its magical properties.
"As long as the candle burns it means that my husband, wherever he is now still loves me and so I will never marry you", she said.

 

Hearing this the magician became angry and, seizing the candle he tried everything he could to snuff out the flame. He tried putting it in the water of the deepest ocean but the candle floated back up to the surface and the flame had not gone out; he tried summoning a wind to blow upon the flame with all the force of a hurricaine but still the flame would not go out and he even tried burying it a hundred miles beneath the ground but, when the candle was dug up again, it was still burning.

 

Then, however, the magician had an idea. Instead of trying to put the candle out, he substituted it with another candle that looked the same and took that to the princess saying,
"Look the candle has gone out. Your prince has stopped loving you".

 

When the princess saw the extinguished candle she was heart broken but then she submitted to the magicians pressure to marry him.

 

The magician was still worried that the prince would return home however and so, learning that the prince was on a sailing ship sailing back to his land he stirred up a storm with his magic cauldron that, with a whirlwind, turned the ship upside down and, with lightning, split it in two.

 

Fortunately, the prince, clinging to a piece of wreckage managed to survive and was washed up upon a deserted island.
But the island was a very strange one indeed, populated, as far as the Prince could tell, entirely by beautiful young women who began throwing themselves amorously at the Prince as soon as they saw him but the Prince told them that his heart only belonged to one girl; his beloved Princess and that all he  wanted was to find a way to escape the island so that he could return to her

 

For days, the prince languished upon the island, resisting the constant, pestering invitations by the women to stay there with them but then, one day, the prince found a cave in which an eagle was chained by one of its legs to a rock.

 

When the prince, out of kindness, helped to break the chain and free the eagle, the eagle transformed into an old man who said that he was a wizard who had been changed into an eagle and chained there by the queen of the Island.
"The queen is a witch who hates men because her heart was broken once by a philanderer. She believes all men to be philanderers who are incapable of true love and that is why she populated the island with women", said the wizard.
"But all the women here seem so friendly", said the Prince.
"That is how they keep the island populated, seducing any man who is shipwrecked here but once the women become pregnant and the man has served his purpose then he is killed", said the wizard.
"But then why did the witch chain you up?", asked the Prince, "Why did she not kill you aswell?"
"Death would have been too good for me", said the Wizard, "You see, I am the one who broke her heart".
But then, as a reward for the princes kindness, the wizard gave him a magic ring.

 

"Place the ring upon your thumb and you shall be a giant; place it upon your forefinger and you will fly fast as the wind; place it on your middle finger and nothing shall ever harm you; place it on your ring finger and you shall be invisible and place it on your pinky and you shall be as small as an ant", said the wizard.

 

And so, putting the ring upon his forefinger, the prince flew fast as the wind back home to his land but when he appeared at the gates of his palace, the magician sent out his archers and spearmen to rain down arrows and spears upon him but then the prince placed the ring upon his middle finger and the spears and arrows passed harmlessly through him as if he were not there, so then the magician sent out a firebreathing dragon to eat him but, as soon as the dragon came out through the palace gates, the prince put the ring upon his thumb and, becoming gigantic, wrestled the dragon, tying a knot in its long neck so that its fiery breath could not escape and, blowing up like a hot air baloon it floated away towards the clouds, bursting itself upon the peak of a mountain but then the prince, putting the ring upon his ring finger made himself invisible, slipping past the wizards guards and when the wizard made all the doors and windows of the palace dissappear so that none could enter the palace, the prince made himself as tiny as an ant and crawled into the palace through a crack.

 

When the prince entered the palace, however, the magician held a knife to the princesses throat and threatened to kill her if the prince did not surrender and take off his ring and so the prince was forced to hand over the ring and then the prince was put in chains.

 

But then, while the Prince was in chains the Princess asked him about the candle, telling him how it had gone out and asked whether he had stopped loving her.
The prince said that he did not know how the candle could have gone out but swore that he had never stopped loving her, not for one single moment and leaning forwards, though in chains, he kissed her on the lips.

 

When he kissed her, however, the princes love burned so brightly that the real candle, that the wizard had been keeping in a small glass case in the pocket of his robe melted through the glass of the case and, on its flame, the wizards robes caught fire.
In desperation the wizard leapt into the palace moat to put out his burning robes and was drowned.

 

After that, the Prince and Princess lived happily together forever and the flame of the Princes love never ever died out.