The message? Generosity and kindness are the key to happiness.

  The Devoted Friend

  A linnet tells a water rat the story of a rich miller who is “friends” with Little Hans, who is poor, but has a beautiful garden. Little Hans is about to sell some of his flowers when the Miller comes and takes them all. Little Hans has had to sell his wheelbarrow to buy food, but the Miller promises to give him his own old, broken wheelbarrow instead. But he never does. He keeps asking favours of Little Hans because they are “friends”. One stormy night, the Miller sends Little Hans to fetch a doctor for his son; Little Hans gets lost and dies, but the Miller shows no remorse.

  The message? The rich can be extremely selfish and cruel to the poor, because they think that their lives are more important.

  The Remarkable Rocket

  The King’s son is getting married and there will be fireworks in his honour, but the Remarkable Rocket boasts it’s the other way round – the Prince is lucky to be getting married on the Rocket’s special day. The Rocket is so vain and silly that he bursts into tears to prove that he’s sensitive. That makes him wet, so he doesn’t go off at all! He’s thrown away into a ditch. He tries to convince other creatures that he’s remarkable, but they’re not interested. At last, he gets placed on a fire, and when he finally goes off, no one sees him.

  The message? There’s really no point in boasting and showing off.

  The Young King

  A young man is about to be crowned king of his country. The night before his coronation, he has three terrible nightmares. He sees that the weavers who made his robe suffer all their lives; a slave was forced to dive underwater to find the pearls in his sceptre, and it killed him; the rubies in his crown come from a dreadful place where Death sends fever and plague to kill the workers. So, the following day, the King refuses to wear his finery – he carries a simple stick, and wears a crown made of a briar (a thorny branch) and a shepherd’s robe instead. The people mock, but God blesses him – his staff and crown sprout flowers, and his robe shimmers with beautiful light.

  The message? The poor suffer to create the riches of the wealthy; but God sees the truth.

  The Birthday of the Infanta

  On her twelfth birthday, the King arranges entertainment for his daughter, the “Infanta” (Spanish princess). She enjoys watching a dwarf the best, and asks to see him again. The Dwarf doesn’t understand that she’s laughing at him; he thinks that she loves him – until he enters the palace. When he sees himself in a mirror, he realizes he is ugly, and dies of a broken heart. The Infanta finds out, and says that no one with a heart should perform for her in future.

  The message? The rich are blind to the sufferings of those less fortunate than themselves.

  The Fisherman and His Soul

  This is the most complicated of all Oscar Wilde’s tales. A fisherman falls in love with a mermaid, but he can only be with her if he is separated from his soul. So he finds a way to cut off his soul and enter her magical world. Meanwhile his Soul wanders the world; every year, it comes back and begs to be reunited with the Fisherman, enticing him with stories of what it has seen. When it describes a dancing girl, the Fisherman leaves his mermaid, only to discover that his Soul has become wicked without him. He wants to return to his mermaid, but it’s too late. Both he and the mermaid die, but eventually they are united in love with beautiful white blossoms on their grave.

  The message? Love is the greatest thing. But the tale says much more than this, and explores the possibility that a person can be cut off from his or her soul.

  The Star Child

  A woodcutter finds a baby wrapped in a starry golden cloak in the woods, and takes it home. As he grows up, the Star Child proves to be beautiful but mean and cruel. When a beggar woman arrives, and claims he is her son, the child rejects her because she is poor and ugly. After that, he too becomes ugly, and realizes his mistake. He tries to find his mother to beg forgiveness; instead he is captured, and becomes a slave. But he has learnt his lesson. He shows only kindness to others – in particular, a leper at the city gates. When he is ready to give his life for the leper, he discovers that he is a prince and that the beggar woman and the leper are the Queen and King.

  The message? Cruelty should be punished, and kindness should be rewarded. But there’s a twist at the end of this tale – Oscar suggests that most kings are cruel, and that they get away with it.

  what’s in a tale?

  Oscar Wilde’s stories are fairy tales, but it could be argued that some of them are fables, or parables, too. So what’s the difference? And what about folk tales, myths and legends? All these terms have their own special meanings, but the definitions are not always used very strictly, and they often overlap. Here we explain each kind of story, and give some famous examples.

  Folk Tales

  “Folk” just means “people”, so traditionally these are stories that are passed down from one generation to the next – stories that people would have told their children, or each other. In the past, they weren’t written down anywhere, but would be told at bedtime or around the fire. Folk tales vary from one culture to another and exist around the world. They can be fairy tales, but they don’t have to be – they can be about historical or mythical characters, or local people.

  One famous folk tale is the story of Bluebeard. It’s originally a French story, and may have been inspired by a real-life person – it’s hard to say for sure. Bluebeard is an evil character who tricks each of his wives into disobeying him, and then he murders them, one by one.

  Fairy Tales

  Fairy tales have a magical, fantasy element to them – they often include princes and princesses, faraway kingdoms, and magical creatures such as dwarves, mermaids, giants, trolls or dragons. They can have fairies in them, but they don’t have to. We talk about “fairy-tale endings” and “fairy-tale romances” as things that are very happy, and many fairy tales do end “happily ever after” – but they can be sad, tragic or even quite scary and brutal. Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales certainly have a mixture of endings. And while some fairy tales have a meaning or message, it can be hard to understand. Some seem just to explore dark secrets, or things that we’re afraid of. They can be folk tales, but Oscar Wilde’s are not, because he made them up himself.

  In Europe, the most famous collections of fairy tales date from the nineteenth century. The Brothers Grimm in Germany wrote down stories such as ‘Cinderella’, ‘The Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’. A little later, in Denmark, Hans Christian Andersen wrote tales such as ‘The Snow Queen’, ‘The Princess and the Pea’ and ‘The Ugly Duckling’.

  Fables

  Fables are a very old form of story that always have a moral, or message. They tend to involve animals, or natural things such as rivers and the sun, rather than people. These creatures or elements are characters in the story, and they can speak. The moral is sometimes summarized in a simple sentence at the end. Some of Oscar Wilde’s stories are a little bit like fables – such as ‘The Happy Prince’, with its talking swallow and statue, and message about love and sacrifice.

  The most famous fables are Aesop’s fables, from ancient Greece. It’s thought that Aesop was a slave who lived around 2,500 years ago. ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’, in which the tortoise wins the race even though he can’t run as fast as the hare, is one of the best-known fables in the world.

  Parables

  Like fables, parables have a clear moral message, but they don’t have magical animals or other creatures in them. Instead, they are stories about people. Oscar Wilde’s story ‘The Devoted Friend’ is perhaps a parable, because it reveals the selfish behaviour of the rich towards the poor.

  The most famous parables appear in the New Testament, the second half of the Christian Bible. There, Jesus uses parables to teach lessons to his followers. Two of the most well known are ‘The Good Samaritan’, which is about showing kindness, and ‘The Prodigal Son’, which is about forgiving people.

  Myths

  Myths are powerful stories that often have a supernatural element. Each culture usually has its own myths, which can be closely related to its religion or beliefs. For example, the myths of ancient Greece (which Oscar Wilde would have known very well) involve gods and goddesses such as Apollo, Aphrodite and Zeus. We see them as mythical characters now, but the people of ancient Greece actually worshipped them and built many beautiful temples in their honour. The myths also include dangerous monsters such as the Minotaur and the Gorgon, which the Greeks would have seen as powerful symbols of the dangers in the world around them. Because myths are deeply rooted in people’s beliefs, they tend to last a very long time.

  Legends

  Like myths, legends usually belong to a particular culture, but they are based on a little grain of historical truth. That is, they are based on something that happened long ago – or something that is believed to have happened. The story gets passed on down the ages; there are often lots of versions, which lose or add different details.

  In the UK, Robin Hood is a good example: in most versions of the legend, he lived in Sherwood Forest near Nottingham, and his enemy was the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. He was surrounded by a band of “merry men”, he loved Maid Marian, and he stole from the rich to help the poor. It’s quite possible that Robin Hood did really exist – but the details are difficult to pin down. Robin could have been several different people, and it seems that Maid Marian was added to the stories later on. Whatever the truth, the idea of a man who robbed the rich to give to the poor was very appealing, and that is why the legend has lasted so long.

  test yourself

  Did you read these stories with as close attention as the Happy Prince pays to his city? Try this multiple-choice quiz to find out. The answers are overleaf.

  1. In ‘The Happy Prince’, where have all the Swallow’s companions flown away to?

  A) Siberia

  B) Australia

  C) Egypt

  D) Scotland

  2. In ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’, what is the gift that impresses the Professor’s daughter?

  A) Jewels

  B) Chocolates

  C) A silk dress

  D) An exciting novel

  3. In ‘The Selfish Giant’, what bird singing in the garden lets the Giant know that spring has returned?

  A) A robin

  B) A linnet

  C) An albatross

  D) A flamingo

  4. In ‘The Devoted Friend’, how does the Miller’s son get hurt?

  A) He drops a rock on his foot

  B) He scalds himself with hot water

  C) His little sister punches him

  D) He falls off a ladder

  5. In ‘The Remarkable Rocket’, the Rocket claims that his mother was which type of firework?

  A) A Catherine wheel

  B) A squib

  C) A sparkler

  D) A rocket like himself

  6. In ‘The Young King’, the king swaps his expensive crown for:

  A) A baseball cap

  B) A headscarf

  C) A crown made of a thorny briar

  D) A deerstalker

  7. In ‘The Birthday of the Infanta’, how old is the Infanta?

  A) Five

  B) Twelve

  C) Twenty-one

  D) Ten

  8. In ‘The Fisherman and His Soul’, the Fisherman leaves his mermaid to see a girl who can:

  A) Perform magic tricks

  B) Cook tasty food

  C) Walk a tightrope

  D) Dance

  9. In ‘The Star Child’, the Star Child’s skin becomes scaly like that of an adder (a kind of snake). What does his face become like?

  A) A rat

  B) A mushroom

  C) A kitten

  D) A toad

  answers

  1–c

  2–a

  3–b

  4–d

  5–a

  6–c

  7–b

  8–d

  9–d

  scores

  1–3 correct: The swallow has flown off to Egypt. 4–6 correct: Spring might return to your garden… 7–9 correct: A nightingale would definitely sing for you!

  Glossary

  affected False, pretentious.

  agate An ornamental stone with distinct bands of colour inside, similar to onyx.

  ague Illness, fever.

  air A tune or a song.

  alabaster A white mineral used in sculpture and for other ornamental purposes.

  alack Another term for “alas”, used to express sadness.

  alb A long white robe worn by priests.

  alighting Landing.

  alms Money or food given to the poor.

  amber The fossilized resin of certain trees, used as a gemstone.

  amethyst A purple-coloured precious stone.

  anemone 1. Any of a large number of species of plant with brightly coloured flowers. 2. A brightly coloured sea-dwelling animal, closely related to coral and jellyfish, that attaches itself to rocks on the sea floor and ensnares passing fish.

  anodyne A painkiller.

  antimony A dark powder used for make-up; otherwise known as khol or stibium.

  arras A large tapestry used as a wall hanging.

  artificer A craftsman.

  aught Anything.

  aureole A circle of light like a halo.

  aurora borealis Spectacular bands of light that appear in the sky near the North Pole.

  auto-da-fé The execution by burning of those condemned as heretics. The name means “act of faith” in Portuguese.

  avarice Greed for wealth.

  balustrade A row of ornamental wooden posts with a railing on top, like a banister.

  Barbary ape A species of monkey found in North Africa.

  batten A strip of wood used to separate the threads of the warp on a loom, so that half go above the weft, and half below, alternately.

  bazaar A marketplace in a Middle Eastern country.

  Bedouin A member of one of many nomadic tribes inhabiting the Arabian desert.

  beryl A kind of gemstone.

  beseech Beg.

  besought Past tense of beseech.

  bier A special platform on which a dead body or a coffin is lain before burial.

  blindworm Another name for the slow-worm, a small, snake-like lizard.

  brackish (Of water) salty.

  brazier A metal bowl for burning coal.

  briar A prickly shrub.

  brocaded Elaborately decorated with woven patterns.

  burgeon Grow.

  burgomaster A mayor.

  buskins Boots.

  byre A cowshed.

  caparisoned (Of a horse) covered in a decorative cloth.

  carbuncle A red-coloured precious stone.

  carlot A peasant.

  casement A window that opens on a hinge.

  censer An ornamental receptacle for incense, used in religious ceremonies.

  chalcedony A kind of ornamental stone.

  chamberlain A person who manages a monarch’s household, or the treasurer of a city.

  changeling A child of a fairy or other supernatural being left in place of a stolen human child.

  charity children Poor children who go to a school supported by charity.

  chrysolite A green-coloured gemstone.

  Circassian A person from Circassia, a historical region in the Caucasus, a mountainous area in Eastern Europe and western Asia.

  citrons Citrus fruits similar to lemons.

  confessor A priest who acts as a spiritual advisor.

  confirmed A man who has reached a certain age

  bachelor without ever having married.

  cope A long cloak or outer garment, like that worn by a monk.

  coquette A flirtatious woman.

  corporation The government of a town or city; the council.

  coup de grâce A death blow, literally “blow of mercy” (French).

  crier A person who makes public announcements in a town or village.

  cumbrous Large and heavy; unwieldy, cumbersome.

  cynic A person who believes that people are motivated by selfishness; a suspicious person.

  dais A raised platform.

  damask A fabric with an ornate, reversible pattern.

  deal Pine or fir wood.

  dearth Scarcity.

  dervish An Islamic mystic.

  device An emblem used in heraldic designs (like coats of arms), which identifies a particular person.

  divination A vision of the future; a prophecy.

  eaves The edge of a roof, overhanging the walls.

  eddying Swirling in a circular motion, like a whirlpool.

  embalmed (Of a corpse) preserved from decay by being covered in spices.

  ermine White fur taken from stoats.

  eunuch A man who in the past was used as a slave or to guard the women’s living quarters at an oriental court.

  faggot A bundle of sticks used to build a fire.

  faun A mythological being whose top half is that of a man but who has the legs of a goat.

  fawned on Showed affection for; tried to please.

  filigrane Decorated with an intricate and delicate pattern.

  foundry A workshop where metal is melted and moulded.

  fowler A person who hunts birds.

  frankincense A sweet-smelling incense.

  fretted Decorated with elaborate patterns.

  galbanum An aromatic substance referred to in the Bible.

  galley A ship propelled by oars, often rowed by slaves.