Max and the flying thread

There once was a happy and carefree boy named Max. One day the king came driving through the streets. The kings golden carriage was pulled by eight white horses, and by his side sat the princess. She smiled and waved to the people by the roadside. Max waved back with his ragged cap - and then, in a split second, they looked each other in the eyes.

From that moment Max became unhappy. The same afternoon he sat sadly and quietly at the dinner table, staring at his soup. "Max," his mother said with concern. "What has happened to you?" "I've seen the princess," Max said with a sigh. "Has the princess done you any harm?" Max nodded. "I think I'm in love with her," he said and started to cry. "If I can't be with her, I think I will die."

"Well, well," his mother said. "If that's how you feel, you had better go to the palace and ask if she wants to marry you." Max dropped his spoon in the soup. "Don't you understand anything?" he said dejectedly. "She is a princess!" "Princess or not," his mother urged. "If you are planning to die of love, I think you should ask for her first." "But I don't have any decent clothes, no money, no horses - nothing," Max complained. "She won't marry a beggar like me."

This made Max' mother angry. She fetched a piece of soap. "Don't talk like that in my house," she said. "You are a good and clever boy with lots of imagination and drive. Just wash yourself first and everything will be all right." "That's what you think," Max said grumpily taking the piece of soap. "She has probably plenty of clean suitors already." Max' mother shook her head. "If you don't ask, you won't get anything either," she said. "Be off now. The worst that can happen is that she turns you down."

Max washed himself, put the soap in his pocket and set off towards the palace. When he arrived he saw lots off boys standing in line outside the door. One after the other they went in to see the king. When they came out, they looked up at the princess' tower shaking their heads.

When Max came in, the king started to laugh. "How many horses do you have?" he asked. "None," Max said. "How much money do you have then?" "I have no money either," Max said. "But why do you come here without horses or money?" "Because I'm in love with the princess," Max said. "Yes, yes," the king said. "Amorous boys are visiting the princess all the time." He looked at him sternly. "If the princess should choose you, you must have something that the others don't have."

"I'm clean. Besides I have a lot of imagination and drive," Max said and smiled. The king laughed so the crown slid down on to his nose. "Clean - with imagination and drive, ha, ha, ha." But then he became serious again. "They say that imagination has wings." Max nodded. The king then pointed to the princess' tower. "I have a thousand soldiers looking after the princess in her tower. If you can get to her alive, she will be yours." Then Max understood why the other suitors had looked so depressed. But he continued to smile and said: "With imagination and drive, I'm sure I'll manage." "I'm pleased to hear it," the king said while his crown slid down on to his nose again.

When Max came out of the palace he saw a boy walking on tall stilts. But when he arrived at the tower, a soldier pushed the stilts and the boy fell down. There's' only one way up to her, Max thought. And that's on a flying carpet. But, dear me, that means I'll have to get hold of flying thread. Just the thought of obtaining flying thread was so scary that he shivered. If it weren't for the fact that the princess at that moment waved to him from her veranda, he would have dropped the whole idea.

But as I said. The princess waved, and to Max it felt as if his heart was on fire. Fearlessly he turned around and ran into the desert to look for flying thread. After a long days walk he came to a horrifying place. There were skeletons all over the ground. White skulls, thighbones, ribs, spinal bones and hip bones reached him to his knees. In the air above him huge vultures flew. One of them got caught in an enormous cobweb that stretched straight up in to the air. The Vulture flapped its wings to get loose. A huge spider that was resting with a bone in its mouth woke up. It spit out the bone and walked lazily towards the desperate Vulture. The spider yawned loud and long, then it gobbled up the vulture in one mouthful. It swallowed, burped and removed some feathers from its mouth and went back to rest.

Max shivered when he got closer to the web. It was thicker than normal spiders' webs, like sewing-thread and very sticky. With a pair of scissors in his hands Max walked stealthily ahead. He tried, with great care, to cut out a piece of flying thread, but the scissors and his hand got caught.

The spider noticed that somebody was pulling its threads. It opened one eye: "Who is it this time then?" "Oh, only poor Max who needs some flying thread for his carpet," Max said as mildly and gently as he could. "That's what they all say," the spider said and stretched his six hairy legs. "Why is it that nobody ever asks, before helping themselves," it said and walked towards Max. "Now I have to eat you as well - even though I am quite satisfied."

"Are you absolutely sure you have to?" Max said. "Yes, I'm afraid so," the spider said. "Flying thread is awfully popular. If I were to set you free with a ball far too many would come here. Many more than I can eat." The spider stood right in front of Max, picking its teeth with a rib bone. "It is a fine web you have," Max said to win time. "Thanks," the spider replied. "But you can't fool me with flattery. I'll eat you now." "You can have a much bigger web if you listen to me," Max said, his voice shaking. "You're such a big and strong spider. I'm sure you could spin a web all the way up to the moon, from the moon to the sun and back to earth. Just imagine how big it would be then."

The spider opened its mouth wide. Max looked into the dark throat and felt sick from the rotten smell from the spider's stomach. But just as Max was sure he would be eaten the spider shut its mouth so that it became little and thoughtful. The red eyes gazed at Max. "Do you really think I can make it?" the spider asked and lay its head on one side. "Absolutely sure," Max said with relief. "The moon is in the eastern sky, and the sun in the west. You can start right away." "You are damn right," it said. "This desert web of mine is just a little toy-web in comparison." Max saw the spider's eyes glowing eagerly. "Thanks for that brilliant idea," the spider said stretching out a leg and stroking his chin. "I'll start spinning at once."

The spiders back-body started to hum when it went down from its old web and towards a huge stone. There it fastened its flying thread with care and spun out a few yards. The spider lifted up in the air and Max heard it whistle a merry tune as it spun itself towards the moon. "Wait a minute," Max shouted. "Tell me how I can get loose from this web." The spider smiled at Max. "That's easy. Just rub the thread with soap."

Max took the soap out of his pocket with his free hand and started immediately to rub the threads. Soon he was free and busy collecting flying thread. The spider spun his thread so quickly that it was only a dot in the sky when Max wound up the whole web in to a ball. When the sun went down over the distant hills Max made a carpet loom by tying flying thread between his fingers and toes. All night he sat weaving his carpet, and by dawn he was finished. He sat down on the carpet and flew towards the princess.

You maybe wondering what happened to the spider? Well, it came to the moon. But it was far too cold there. So it spun its way to the sun, but there it was too hot. And besides. Out in space there was nothing to eat, only asteroids and satellites. I have been fooled, it thought and spun its way back to the desert to eat Max. But when it arrived, Max and the flying carpet had left long ago.

In the meantime Max came to the princess' tower. Even a thousand soldiers could not prevent him from landing on her veranda. He bowed deeply to the princess and told her the whole story about how he fell in love with her, how he spoke to the king, how he fooled the spider and made a flying carpet. He was so good at telling stories, and had so much imagination and drive that the princess fell in love with him. Above all, he was clean. The princess appreciated that so much, she kissed him.

Then there is nothing more to tell except that Max's mother was very proud when he married the princess. And the king was pleased to have a son in law with so much imagination and drive.

© Martin Nygaard