The Magic Wedding Ring

Once upon a time there was a boy named Ronnel who was head over heels in love with a girl in his village and so deeply wanted to marry her.

 

But the girl would not marry him or anyone, she said, unless it was with a golden wedding ring and, sadly, Ronnel was just too poor to buy a golden ring.

 

One day, however, as he was walking through the forest, Ronnel saw a gnome made out of stone standing under a tree and, on the finger of the gnome, to his amazement, the boy saw a solid golden ring.

 

“Well”, he thought, “What does an old stone gnome need with such a fine ring? Better that my wife should wear it than it be wasted upon a stone finger”.

 

And then, slipping the ring off of the stone finger and placing the ring upon his own finger for safe keeping, Ronnle walked off through the woods whistling cheerily.

 

As he was walking away however, the stone gnome opened its stone eyes and, snarling, shouted at Ronnel angrily.

 

“How dare you steal my magic wishing ring. I’ll not have you use up its five wishes. I’ll have your head instead, you thief”.

 

And then, fast as a stone flies when its thrown through the air, the stone gnome started to run after him.

 

“Oh no, no, help!”, cried Ronnel, seeing the angry, fierce looking gnome coming towards him and then Ronnel took off as fast as his legs could take him into the forest.

 

But then, before he had gone very far, Ronnel came to the edge of a deep lake with no way to cross over it and Ronnel couldn’t swim either.

 

“Aha!”, cried the Gnome, seeing that he had Ronnel trapped, “Now you’ll pay for stealing my wishing ring”.

 

But then, just as the boy was wishing he knew how to swim, Ronnel  turned into a fish with a long tail around which was the golden ring and the fish swam across to the other side of the lake before, crawling up onto land again it turned back into Ronnel.

 

Now, stuck on the other side of the lake, the stone Gnome grew furious.

 

But the Gnome wasn’t about to give up his pursuit of the boy and, taking off his wooden gnome cap, the stone gnome turned it into a wooden boat, then getting into the boat, it started to paddle across the lake, yelling angrily as it did so, “You just wait till I get across this lake then I shall have you, you ring thief”.

 

Ronnel was not about to wait around for that to happen and so he continued to run. He ran and ran far into the forest but then he came to a mountain that was so high but also so smooth that there was no way for him to climb up it and whats worse, soon he heard the Gnome behind him running closer.

 

“Aha!”, said the Gnome as he had before, “Now there is nowhere for you to run and I shall bury you at the foot of that mountain you ring thief”.

 

But then, just as the Gnome was getting closer to him and Ronnel  was wishing he could leap over mountains, the boy turned into a goose with a long neck and the golden ring round it and then the goose flew over the mountain.

 

Now the Gnome; stuck at the foot of the mountain was furious again; so furious in fact that his grey stone face went as red as molten magma, but the Gnome was still not ready to give in and, taking off his belt, he turned it into a long rope with a grappling hook at the end and then, throwing the hook up so that it latched onto the edge of the mountaintop, the Gnome quickly began to scramble up the side of the mountain until he was soon at the top, then turning the rope back into a belt and fastening it back round his waist the Gnome continued his pursuit of Ronnel.

 

But then, on the other side of the mountain, as Ronnel turned from a goose back into a young man, he saw a giant, red dragon that was curled up fast asleep in front of him, snoring flames from its nostrils and, seeing the Dragon, he was certain that this time he really was trapped.

 

However, just as he was wishing that he could creep quietly enough to go unnoticed past the dragon, the ring turned Ronnel into a little red ant carrying the golden ring upon its back and then the ant crawled easily passed the sleeping dragon without waking it up.

 

Then, turning back into himself and looking back Ronnel saw the Gnome stuck upon the other side of the sleeping dragon and looking furious that Ronnel had escaped him for a third time.

 

But then the boy saw the stone gnome pick a hair from his grey beard and the hair became a pin and the pin became a dagger and the dagger became a sword and then the gnome started to creep up upon the sleeping dragon and, when it had gotten close enough, it raised up the sword to plunge it into the dragons heart.

 

Now Ronnel was wishing that the dragon WOULD wake up and eat the gnome and, just at that moment, the golden ring turned into a golden trumpet then, realizing what it was for, Ronnel blew hard into the end of the trumpet and, hearing the trumpet, the dragon opened its large green eyes.

 

And, when the dragon saw the stone gnome with the sword in its hands; angrily, the dragon grabbed hold of the gnome in a red scaly claw and, opening its mouth wide, swallowed the gnome whole.

 

Finally, thankful to be rid of the Gnome, Ronnel took the ring home to his village and soon afterwards his fifth and final wish came true, to place the ring, in marriage upon the hand of the girl he loved.