Brave Tin Soldier

A classic tale about the adventurous journey of a one-legged tin soldier

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Brave Tin Soldier was first published in 1838. It tells the story of a tin soldier who was the last of a batch and there was not enough tin left to make him. That's why he only had one leg. The soldier falls in love with a paper ballerina who also stands on one leg only. The wizard warns the soldier to leave the ballerina alone, but the soldier does not heed his warning. The next morning it falls off the windowsill and lands on the street. Two boys find him and put him in a paper boat and send him out on the water. However, the boat falls into a canal, where it and the soldier are swallowed by a fish. The fish is eventually caught, gutted and the maid brings the soldier back to the room. So he finds himself once again next to a beautiful ballerina. The boy who received the soldier for his birthday throws him into the stove out of nowhere and a gust of wind brings the ballerina into the stove. The next day the maid finds only a piece of tin in the form of a heart and a burnt star in the ashes.