The Golden Soldier

Christine Natale

Illustrations by Natalya Yeshchenko

This story is lovingly dedicated to

Alan Howard

Waldorf Educator and Mentor

Who saw the Golden Soldier in me

Copyright 2010
Straw Into Gold Press
All Rights Reserved

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Once upon a time, there was a handsome young soldier who
had just finished fighting in a war. His country was now at
peace, but the young man decided that he liked to fight in
battle and that he would become a soldier of fortune. So the
young man set off into the world, looking for battles to join
and glory to win.

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After a while he came to a village. When he entered the
village, he found people sitting in the streets. He was amazed
to find no one working. The people were mostly sitting
quietly on logs or benches, or under trees. No one was
building or fixing or moving anything. Even the children were
too lazy to play and sat about idle. Everyone looked hungry
and filthy and many were sick. The young soldier stopped in
front of a large group and asked why they were not working.

“What is the use?” replied one old man slowly, “I remember a

day, long ago, when people worked but that was before we
fell under the rule of our king.”

“The king forbids you to work?” asked the soldier.

“No, but he taxes us so heavily that there is nothing left for

our use. He takes all of our food, money, craft items and
anything useful for himself so that we have no more than you
see now.
We decided long ago not to produce anything, as it will only
be taken away.” replied the old man.

“That is ridiculous!” exclaimed the young man, “Why do you

not take up arms against him and rebuild your village?”

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“There is no use,” answered the villager, “We have no
weapons, our tools are broken, we have no money for
materials and most of our young people are ill or
undernourished. There is nothing that we can do.”

The young soldier thought to himself, “I could fight with

these people and help them but I cannot fight for them all by
myself.”

So he left the village in disgust.

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After a while, he came to a town. The people in the town
seemed busy enough but as soon as they saw the soldier,
they scurried into their houses like mice into their holes and
the soldier could hear all the bolts slam shut.

“Hallo-o! Hallo-o!” cried the soldier, “Good day to ye!

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But no one answered him and no one came out of their
house.

The soldier passed through he town, unable to find a bite to

eat, even where the sign said tavern or inn.

When he reached the other side of the town though, one

door opened a see crack and a lady stretched out her finger
and beckoned to him.

“What do you want here - what is your business?” she hissed

through the crack.

“Good day mother! I’ve come into the world to fight battles,”
said the soldier.
“Hush! Not so loud! The walls have ears and even the trees
have eyes, you know.”

Then she explained to the soldier that the town was under
the control of a terrible tyrant. This tyrant had created such
a big web of spies and trickery that the people had become
afraid of each other. People were thrown into dungeons
anytime their neighbors reported any misdeed, however small.
And everyone told tales about everyone else in an effort to
keep themselves out of trouble. No one liked or trusted
anyone else, not even in their own families.

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“How can you live in such a way!” said the soldier, “Why do
you not take up arms and overthrow the tyrant?”

“No one could trust anyone else to make such plans and not
turn them in. It is quite impossible.” answered the lady.

Just at that moment, a band of townspeople swarmed down

the street, eagerly pointing to the young man and he could
see that they were leading the way for the tyrant’s guards, so
he took to his heels and ran until he was well away.

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In a week or two he found himself in a city that was beautifully
built and gloriously decorated. The citizens wore gold and
jewelry and much finery and the soldier was greatly
impressed. But after he had been in the city a while, he began
to notice that the people all had very haughty and superior
expressions on their faces and that everyone looked at him
like he was a simpleton.

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In fact, they all looked at each other that way, too!

So he asked his innkeeper why everyone seemed so proud.

“Why shouldn’t we be proud,” asked the innkeeper in return,

“We live in the biggest city in the world, the richest city in the
world and everyone is so educated that we all know
everything.”

The soldier had already seen bigger and finer cities and it
was a little hard to believe that everyone could know
everything, so he asked the innkeeper to prove it.

“Sure.” said the innkeeper, “Just ask me anything.”

So the young man began to ask questions like what are two
and two, what kind of animal lays eggs, what color is the grass
and how do you say the alphabet?

“Two and two are nine, donkeys lay eggs, the grass is blue
and the alphabet goes S,Q,O,L,T,I . . . ”

“Stop!” shouted the soldier, “That is all wrong!”

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"It cannot be wrong,” said the innkeeper indignantly,
“Because we have all of our facts straight from our ruler, who
is a very wise dictator. His answers are the only ones allowed
and they are always right!”

The innkeeper went off in an angry huff and the soldier

decided to leave a city where everyone was ignorant and
proud of it. He passed through the city gates in great
despair

The road led him through a great forest and after three days
he found a little hut. He knocked and a kind old woman came
to the door and bade him enter. When the young soldier was
fed and rested, he told the old woman all that he had seen
and heard and he said,

“I would like to fight to free those people from their

oppressors but I can’t do it alone and they don’t seem to
want to free themselves.”

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“No one will follow you, my son, until you have the golden
sword and shield which the dragon is guarding in a cave on
the mountain. If you had the golden sword, they would all
follow you into freedom.”

“Is that all?” said the soldier. “Fighting a dragon is not too
difficult. That is what I’ll do – I’ll get the sword and come back
to free the people.”

“You have my blessing my son.” said the old woman. And the
young man set off again.

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When he reached the dragon’s cave in the mountain, the
brash young fellow whooped and hollered until the dragon
woke up from his nap. The dragon slithered off his glittering
treasure hoard and crawled out of the cave into the daylight.
The dragon did not take kindly to being woken up.

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He fought a great battle with the soldier but in the end, the
soldier won and the dragon lay dead.

Then the young man rushed into the cave and began to look
for the golden sword. He spent hours and hours. He opened
every treasure chest and he moved every diamond bracelet.
He turned over every gold coin but he finally realized that
there was no golden sword to be found. He was so angry and
frustrated that he sat down on a treasure chest and cried.

The soldier had never cried before in his life - but he had
never felt so frustrated before, either. He cried and cried so
much that a pool of tears began to form on the floor at his
feet. He did not notice until he stopped, that the floor of the
dragon’s cave, being magic, had turned the tears to gold,
which lay in a solid lump at his feet. He picked up the heavy
lump and wondered aloud,

“Now what in the world should I do with this?”

“Take it to the dwarfs.” said a mysterious voice.

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The soldier looked around and he saw a golden cup
encircled with jewels standing alone on a high stone pedestal.
A light was shining from the cup and the voice seemed to
come from it, too. As the soldier stared, it spoke again.

“Take it to the dwarfs deep in the mountain and they will

fashion the gold into a sword for you. And take me with you,
too.”
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Then the light went out and the soldier took hold of the cup.
Behind the pedestal was a door. There was a long narrow
stairway that went down. The soldier went down, down, down
hundreds and hundreds of stairs until it seemed that he was
at the very center of the earth. There he found an enormous
cavern full of dwarfs busily working at goldsmithing. They did
not seem surprised to see him and they took the gold from him
and set to work on the sword.

Although the dwarfs appeared to be working very busily,

every time the soldier asked for the sword, the dwarfs said, “It
is not ready yet.” The task was taking so long that he grew
very impatient. To amuse himself, he took the golden cup out
of the sack and began to examine it. There were seven jewels
embedded around the cup and the soldier spent one day
looking at each jewel.

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 On the first day,
the soldier looked at a beautiful green emerald.
As he did so, it revealed to him everything there is to
see of the beauty of the earth.

On the second day,

a deep blue sapphire showed him
the unfathomable mystery of the heavenly sky.

On the third day,

a fiery red ruby taught him about
the purifying power of flame.

O
Onn tthhee ffoouurrtthh ddaayy,,
aa ggoollddeenn yyeelllooww ttooppaazz ttooookk hhiim m tthhrroouugghh
tthhee sseeccrreettss ooff ttiim
mee..

On the fifth day,

a delicate peach tourmaline brought him to
the mystery of the human heart.

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 On the sixth day,
a violet amethyst taught him
the language of the wind.

On the seventh day,

the purest sparkling diamond gave him
the wisdom of the light.

When the soldier had completed the round of jewels he

began to weep. This time his tears were tears of compassion
for the earth and everything upon the earth, for mankind and
everything that mankind is, was and could be. And so many
tears of love were shed that they filled the cup to the brim.

When he stopped crying, the soldier looked up and saw a

great crowd of dwarfs in a circle around him.

“That is what we have been waiting for.” said the chief

goldsmith, “Now pour your tears into the fire.”

The soldier emptied the cup into the forge, where the tears
immediately became molten gold. From this gold, the dwarfs
fashioned a magnificent shield.

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“Now the sword can be completed.” said the chief dwarf,
“We could not do so without the shield.”

Last, he took the cup from the soldier and melted it down
and made a golden crown with the jewels set all around it.

When all was ready, the dwarfs presented the sword, shield
and crown to soldier and showed him the way back to the
surface of the earth.

When the young man arrived in the world again, he found to

his surprise that each day that he had spent looking at the
jewels had been ten years upon the earth! He had not aged
at all but everyone else had. The people he had met were
either very old or had died and a new generation of young
people had been born.

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The soldier found that the evil king who ruled the village had
been replaced by his son and his son’s son, both of whom
were just as oppressive. The people still had not begun to
work at all. But as the soldier entered the village, he carried
the golden sword high and upright. And as it shone in the
sun, they young people picked themselves up out of the dust
and began to follow in a crowd behind him.

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Then the soldier spoke to the young people about freedom
and the satisfaction to be found in good labor.

The young people heard and understood and for the first
time in memory, they began to collect materials and to fashion
tools. They worked long and hard and in the end were able to
create for themselves all that they needed to rebuild their
lives. They also fashioned weapons to defend themselves
against the king. They decided to give the king a small share,
but only as much as was his due and they were able to uphold
that decision.

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Then the golden soldier passed on to the hostile town.
There, the younger people came out from behind closed
doors and when they were assembled, the soldier turned his
shield to face them. The mirror-smooth golden surface
reflected each one back and revealed every fault and every
lie. No deception could live in the face of it.

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When the intricate web of mistrust and lies broke down, each
young man and woman turned to their neighbor and embraced
him or her. They found trust and love in the knowledge of
who they really were and from that day on, the tyrant’s power
was broken.

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The golden soldier then came to the city. Since the young
people had never seen anyone like him, they were full of
curiosity. They followed him to the plaza in the center of the
city. When they were all gathered together, the soldier began
to turn slowly and the diamond on his crown began to shine.

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The diamond light filled the young people’s eyes and opened
them to the light of real wisdom. For the first time, they could
see for themselves the difference between truth and
falsehood and their pride was melted. Armed with this inner
knowledge, they closed their ears to the wicked dictator and
listened only to the truth within their hearts.

The golden soldier, having completed these tasks, journeyed

on throughout the wide world – helping people set themselves
free everywhere he went.

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Golden Soldier

Golden is my helmet
Golden is my shield
Golden is my shining sword
That with my strength I wield

Golden is my armor
That bears the sign of God
Golden are my leather boots
As ‘cross the Earth I tread

I also have a golden crown

With jewels are bright as stars
That helps me see what we can be
When hate no longer mars

My crown and helmet stand for truth

My shield for brotherhood
My sword gives strength unto my will
To do what’s right and good

So come with me, my loyal friends

And be a soldier, too
A Golden Soldier brave and strong
Together – me and you

We’ll fight for truth and justice

We’ll fight for good and right
We’ll fight for freedom and for God
We’ll fight with all our might

Whenever strength and might are

joined
With healing, hope and love
Our world will ever closer come
To Heaven’s joy above

Christine Natale

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