The Complete Fairy Tales & Other Stories
By Hans Christian Andersen - online book

Oxford Complete Illustrated Edition all his stories written between 1835 and 1872.

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630           THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER
her memory, words she had heard pronounced as they rode onward, and when she was borne wondering and trembling through the air, words from the great Fountain of lave that embraces all human kind.
Yes, great things had been achieved and won ! Day and night beautiful Helga was absorbed in the contempla­tion of the great sum of her happiness, and stood in the contemplation of it like a child that turns hurriedly from the giver to gaze on the splendours of the gifts it has received. She seemed to lose herself in the increasing happiness, in contemplation of what might come, of what would come. Had she not been borne by miracle to greater and greater bliss ? And in this idea she one day lost her­self so completely, that she thought no more of the Giver. It was the exuberance of youthful courage, unfolding its wings for a bold flight ! Her eyes were gleaming with courage, when suddenly a loud noise in the courtyard below recalled her thoughts from their wandering flight. There she saw two great ostriches running round rapidly in a narrow circle. Never before had she seen such creatures —great clumsy things they were, with wings that looked as if they had been clipped, and the birds themselves looking as if they had suffered violence of some kind ; and now for the first time she heard the legend which the Egyptians tell of the ostrich.
Once, they say, the ostriches were a beautiful, glorious race of birds, with strong large wings ; and one evening the larger birds of the forest said to the ostrich, ' Brother, shall we fly to-morrow, God willing, to the river to drink ? ' And the ostrich answered, ' I will.' At daybreak, accord­ingly, they winged their flight from thence, flying first up on high, towards the sun, that gleamed like the eye of God—higher and higher, the ostrich far in advance of all the other birds. Proudly the ostrich flew straight towards the light, boasting of his strength, and not thinking of the Giver, or saying, ' God willing ! ' Then suddenly the avenging angel drew aside the veil from the flaming ocean of sunlight, and in a moment the wings of the proud bird were scorched and shrivelled up, and he sank miserably to the ground. Since that time the ostrich has never again been able to raise himself in the air, but flees timidly
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