The Bronze Ring is a fairy tale published in Andrew Lang’s The Blue Fairy Book in 1889. It follows a poor gardener’s son whose kindness to an elderly beggar-woman leads him to a magical ring capable of granting his wishes. With its help, he wins the hand of a princess, but an envious sorcerer later steals the ring and destroys his good fortune. To recover it, the young man must depend on an unexpected group of helpers: three mice with unusual abilities.
The King’s Unfruitful Garden
Once upon a time, a king lived in a palace surrounded by a spacious garden. Although he employed many gardeners and the soil was fertile, nothing grew properly. The garden produced no flowers or fruit, and even grass and shady trees were missing.
The king was deeply troubled by this failure. One day, a wise old man advised him to find a gardener whose father and grandfather had also worked as gardeners. Such a man, he argued, would understand the profession through generations of experience.
The king accepted the advice and sent messengers throughout his kingdom. After forty days, they found a poor gardener whose family had practiced the trade for generations.
The messengers invited him to work for the king. The gardener hesitated because he lacked suitable clothes and owed money to several people. They promised to provide clothing for his family and settle his debts, so he agreed to go with them, taking his wife and son.
The king entrusted the garden to him. The gardener soon transformed it into a beautiful place filled with flowers and fruit. Delighted with the improvement, the king rewarded him generously.
The gardener had a handsome son with pleasant manners. Every day, the young man carried the finest fruit from the garden to the king and the prettiest flowers to the king’s daughter.
The princess was sixteen years old and remarkably beautiful. Her father began considering a suitable husband for her and decided that she should marry the son of his prime minister.
The princess refused.
She confessed that she loved the gardener’s son and would marry no one else. The king became angry and argued that the young man was not worthy of his daughter. Yet the princess would not change her mind.
The king consulted his ministers, who proposed a way to separate the lovers. Both young men would travel to a distant country, and whoever returned first would marry the princess.
The king gave the prime minister’s son a fine horse and a purse filled with gold. The gardener’s son received only an old, lame horse and a purse of copper coins.
Before the journey began, the princess secretly gave her beloved a purse of jewels. She encouraged him to be brave, make good use of the gift, and return quickly.
The Beggar-Woman’s Kindness
The two young men left together, but the prime minister’s son rode away quickly on his fine horse. After traveling for several days, he reached a fountain where an elderly woman sat in rags.
She told him she was starving and begged for help. He dismissed her rudely and continued his journey.
That evening, the gardener’s son arrived at the same fountain. The old woman greeted him and asked for assistance.
He treated her kindly. He offered her his purse and invited her to ride behind him because her legs seemed too weak to carry her far.
The woman accepted, and they traveled together to the chief city of a powerful kingdom. The prime minister’s son stayed at a grand inn, while the gardener’s son and his companion went to an inn for beggars.
The following day, the young man heard the king’s heralds announcing that their ruler was old and infirm. The king promised a great reward to anyone who could restore his youth.
The old woman explained that this was the opportunity the young man needed. She instructed him to leave the city through the southern gate, where he would find three small dogs: one white, one black, and one red.
He was to kill and burn the dogs separately, then place their ashes in three bags matching their colors. Afterward, he should present himself at the palace as a celebrated physician from Janina in Albania.
The woman explained that he must ask for a large cauldron and enough firewood to carry out the strange treatment. He would need to boil the king until only his bones remained, arrange the bones correctly, and sprinkle them with the ashes.
According to her instructions, the king would return to life with the strength and appearance he had possessed at twenty years of age.
For his reward, the woman told him to demand a bronze ring that could grant any wish.
The gardener’s son listened carefully and followed her directions.
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The Magical Bronze Ring
The young man found the three dogs and prepared their ashes as instructed. He then went to the palace and announced that he was a physician who could restore the king’s youth.
The royal physicians laughed at his unusual claim, but the king ordered them to admit him.
The young man received the cauldron and firewood. He carried out the treatment exactly as the old woman had described. When he arranged the king’s bones and sprinkled them with the ashes, the king returned to life, young and healthy once more.
Overjoyed, the king offered his benefactor half his treasures. The gardener’s son refused. The king then offered him his daughter’s hand, followed by half the kingdom, but the young man declined both rewards.
He wanted only the bronze ring.
The king treasured the ring, but he honored his promise and handed it over.
After thanking the old beggar-woman, the young man spoke to the ring and asked it to prepare a magnificent ship. He requested a golden hull, silver masts, brocade sails, twelve handsome young men dressed like kings, and Saint Nicholas at the helm. The ship’s cargo was to contain precious stones.
Immediately, the splendid vessel appeared.
The gardener’s son boarded it and continued his journey. Eventually, he reached a great city, where he established himself in a magnificent palace.
There he encountered his former rival, the prime minister’s son. The young man had spent all his money and was reduced to carrying dust and rubbish from houses.
The gardener’s son offered to help him return home, but only on one condition. The other young man accepted without hesitation.
At the palace, the gardener’s son ordered his servants to mark the rival’s back with the red-hot bronze ring. He then used the ring to create a miserable vessel with battered black timbers, torn sails, and an unhealthy, crippled crew.
The prime minister’s son sailed home in this shabby ship. Although he returned in a pitiful condition, the king welcomed him and prepared for the promised marriage.
The Princess Recognizes Her Beloved
The next morning, a magnificent ship arrived at the harbor. Its golden hull, silver masts, and fine sails astonished the king, who invited its handsome captain to the palace.
The captain accepted the invitation and learned that the princess was about to marry the prime minister’s son. He questioned the king’s decision and explained that the supposed bridegroom was actually his servant.
The king doubted the claim until the captain described the miserable ship in which the young man had returned. Unable to deny the truth, the prime minister’s son admitted what had happened.
The captain then asked the king to recognise him.
The princess immediately knew that he was the gardener’s son she loved. She declared that she wished to marry him, and the king finally agreed.
That very day, the lovers married.
For several months, the couple lived happily. The gardener’s son had won the princess’s hand and gained the king’s approval, all through his kindness, courage, and the power of the bronze ring.
The Sorcerer Steals the Ring
After several months, the captain of the golden ship needed to undertake a long voyage. He embraced his wife and departed.
In the outskirts of the capital lived an old man who had spent his life studying alchemy, astrology, magic, and enchantment. He discovered that the gardener’s son owed his success to the bronze ring and decided to steal it.
The sorcerer caught some beautiful little red fish and carried them past the princess’s window, calling out to attract customers.
The princess heard him and sent a servant to ask what he wanted in exchange for the fish. The old man refused gold and silver. Instead, he demanded a bronze ring.
When the servant asked where such a ring could be found, the sorcerer said it was hidden beneath a cushion in the princess’s room.
The servant returned and explained the strange request. The princess remembered the ring and ordered her servant to find it and give it to the seller.
The servant discovered that the captain had accidentally left the ring behind. She handed it over, and the sorcerer hurried away with his prize.
Once home, he commanded the ring to transform the golden ship into a vessel made of black wood. He ordered the crew to change into frightening figures, Saint Nicholas to leave the helm, and the cargo to consist only of black cats.
The ring obeyed.
When the captain discovered the transformation, he realised that someone had stolen his magical possession. He feared that the thief might also have taken his wife and wondered whether he should return home at all.
He wandered from island to island until he reached a place inhabited entirely by mice. The hungry black cats left the ship and began killing the mice.
The mice feared that their entire population would be destroyed. Their queen gathered them in a council and decided to send a delegation to ask the captain to leave.
Three Mice on a Dangerous Mission
The mice approached the captain and begged him to depart before his cats wiped them out.
He agreed, but he demanded that they first recover the stolen bronze ring. Otherwise, he threatened to release all his cats upon their island.
The mouse queen called another council and sought help from mice throughout the world. Nobody knew where the ring was until three mice arrived from a distant country.
One was blind, another was lame, and the third had cropped ears.
The three newcomers explained that they knew where the sorcerer kept the ring. He carried it in his pocket during the day and placed it in his mouth at night.
The mouse queen sent them to retrieve it.
The mice built a small boat and sailed to the sorcerer’s country. When they reached the capital, two entered the palace while the blind mouse remained by the shore to guard their boat.
That night, the sorcerer placed the ring in his mouth before falling asleep.
The mouse with cropped ears found a lamp filled with oil and a bottle of pepper. She dipped her tail in the oil, coated it with pepper, and held it beneath the sorcerer’s nose.
He sneezed without waking, and the movement forced the ring from his mouth.
The lame mouse quickly seized the precious object, and the three mice escaped towards their boat.
The Ring Returns to Its Owner
As the mice sailed home, they began arguing over which of them deserved the greatest credit.
The blind mouse insisted that guarding the boat had made their escape possible. The mouse with cropped ears claimed that she had caused the sorcerer to sneeze. The lame mouse argued that she deserved the credit because she had carried away the ring.
Their argument became so heated that they began fighting. During the struggle, the bronze ring fell into the sea.
The mice were devastated. They feared returning to their queen without the ring and worried that their people would be destroyed by the captain’s cats.
They landed on a deserted island. The two mice left their blind companion behind while they searched for food.
As the blind mouse wandered along the shore, she found a dead fish and began eating it. Suddenly, she felt something hard inside it.
She called to the others, who hurried back. To their astonishment, the object was the missing bronze ring.
The three mice returned to their boat and sailed back to their island just in time. The captain was preparing to release his cats when the mice arrived with the talisman.
He immediately commanded the ring to restore his ship to its former glory.
The black vessel became a magnificent golden ship again. Its silver masts and brocade sails returned, and the handsome crew resumed their places aboard it.
The captain set sail for the capital.
The Sorcerer’s Punishment
When the captain reached the palace, he found the sorcerer asleep. His wife rushed to embrace him, relieved to have him home again.
The sorcerer tried to escape, but the captain’s people seized him and bound him securely.
The following day, the sorcerer received a terrible punishment. The tale describes him being tied to the tail of a savage mule loaded with nuts and torn apart, with the number of pieces corresponding to the nuts on the mule’s back.
With the sorcerer defeated and the bronze ring restored to its rightful owner, the captain and princess were reunited. The magical ring had brought him extraordinary fortune, but it was the courage and cooperation of the three mice that finally made his return possible.
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Moral Lesson
Kindness can open doors to unexpected opportunities, while greed and envy can lead to ruin. The three mice also demonstrate that cooperation matters: each used a different ability to help recover the ring, even though their quarrel nearly cost them everything.
Knowledge Check
1. Why did the king seek a new gardener?
His royal garden would not produce flowers, fruit, grass, or shady trees, so he followed advice to employ a gardener from a family with generations of experience.
2. How did the gardener’s son earn the bronze ring?
He followed the beggar-woman’s instructions to restore an ageing king to youth, then asked for the magical ring as his reward.
3. How did the gardener’s son win the princess’s hand?
He used the ring to create a magnificent ship, returned in splendor, exposed his rival’s deception, and revealed his identity to the princess.
4. How did the sorcerer steal the bronze ring?
He offered beautiful red fish and told the princess’s servant that he wanted the ring hidden beneath a cushion in her room. The princess ordered the servant to give it to him.
5. How did the three mice recover the ring from the sorcerer?
The mouse with cropped ears used an oil-and-pepper-coated tail to make the sleeping sorcerer sneeze, causing the ring to fall from his mouth. The lame mouse grabbed it.
6. How was the ring recovered after it fell into the sea?
The blind mouse found it inside a dead fish on the shore, and the three mice returned it to the captain.
Source
Andrew Lang, editor. The Blue Fairy Book, first published in 1889. “The Bronze Ring.” Lang’s source note credits Carnoy and Nicolaides, Traditions Popularizes de l’Asie Mineure, Paris, 1889.
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