The Bronze Ring

Sham S. Misri

A king has a big garden. But, the king's garden lays unplanted. There are no flowers and no fruitful trees in the garden. He wants it to blossom. A humble gardener is engaged. The gardener tends the Earth and it blossoms. The king wants the gardener to shift his family in the corner of the garden for better care. The gardener and his family shift to king’s garden. The gardener has a handsome son. The gardener's son and the king's daughter fall in love. Hope leaps across the great divide of class, status and power. The king wants his daughter to marry the son of his Prime Minister, but she loves the gardener's son. The princess wants to marry no one else. She refuses her father’s choice of the prime minister’s son. So the king sets a contest that only the Prime Minister's son should win:

The two men must go to a far destination and the first to return shall marry the princess. The Minister’s son is given a fine horse and gold, while the gardener’s son is given a lame horse and copper. The two suitors have to travel to a distant city and return. The winner will take the hand of the king's daughter.

Travelling swiftly, the minister’s son encounters a woman in rags. Weak and starving, she begs for his help. He refuses to help her.

The gardener’s son then encounters the woman. She is a witch. He gives her his purse and invites her to ride behind him. At the next city, an announcement is made that the sultan is sick and, whoever cures him can name the reward. The woman instructs the boy to kill three dogs, burn them, and collect their ashes, then make way to the sultan. Place the dying sultan in a metal pot over a roaring fire, and boil him right down to his bones. Finally, arrange the bones properly and scatter the dogs' ashes over them. The gardener’s son does all these things and the sultan revives. He is in full youth. The witch has suggested the gardener’s son to choose the bronze ring for his reward. This ring contains a jinni who grants any wish. Now the gardener’s son continues his journey in a wonderful sailing ship. The cargo of gems, and a hull of gold, crewed by a dozen handsome sailors, each dressed as richly as a king – all gifts of the bronze ring.

Finally he meets his rival. He has spent all his fortune. Unrecognized, the gardener’s son offers to supply his rival with a ship - on the condition that the skin of his back be branded with the imprint of the bronze ring, heated in a fire. Once that is done, the gardener’s son asks the ring to prepare a ship with half-rotten timbers painted black and ragged sails. In this ship the prime minister’s son returns, and claims his bride from the king.

As the unhappy princess’ wedding is being prepared, the king looks out on the harbour and wonders at the gleaming gold ship sailing into it. He is so taken by the sight of its captain (the gardener's son) that he invites him to the wedding. After closer inspection, actually invites him to give away the bride.

The gardener’s son agrees. When the king sees the other groom he objects. The king declares that the man is not worthy of the princess. The prime minister's son denies this, but the brand of the bronze ring on his back serves as proof of the claim. The gardener’s son marries the delighted princess that day with the king's blessing. They have a short period of happiness.

Meanwhile, a student of the black arts has come to learn about the jinni of the bronze ring. When the prince sails off for a trip in his golden ship, he persuades the princess to trade him the ring for some red fish. Once he has the ring, he wishes the prince’s boat from gold into rotten wood, his crew from princely appearing men into slaves, and the cargo of gems into ravenous black cats.

Realizing that an enemy must now have his bronze ring, the prince sails on until he comes to an island inhabited by mice. The Mouse Queen sends an envoy to ask that the ship sail away with its terrible cargo of cats. The prince agrees, on the condition that his bronze ring be found and returned to him. The Mouse Queen contacts all the mice of the world, three of whom know that the magician keeps the bronze ring in his pocket when awake, and in his mouth when asleep. The three go to retrieve the ring. One of them tickles the sleeping magician’s nose with her tail, and he expels the ring from his mouth with a sneeze. After some misadventures, the mice manage to return the ring to the prince, who restores his golden vessel and hurries home to the princess. He captures the magician and has the man broken into pieces by being tied to the tail of a savage mule.