There was once a soldier who had served the King faithfully for many years. When the war ended, he could no longer serve due to his many wounds. The King dismissed him, saying, "You may return home. I need you no longer, and you will receive no more money, for only those who serve me earn wages."
The soldier, troubled and unsure how to earn a living, walked all day until he entered a forest at nightfall. Seeing a light, he approached a house where a witch lived. "Please give me a night's lodging and a little food and drink," he begged, "or I shall starve."
"Who gives anything to a runaway soldier?" she replied. "Yet I will be compassionate and take you in, if you do what I wish." She asked him to dig her entire garden the next day. The soldier agreed and labored hard but could not finish by evening.
The witch then asked him to stay another night and chop wood for her the following day. After he completed that task, she proposed he stay one more night for a "trifling" job: to retrieve her blue light from an old dry well behind her house, which burned with a永不熄灭的蓝光.
The next day, she lowered him into the well in a basket. He found the blue light and signaled to be pulled up. As he neared the top, she tried to snatch the light from him. "No," he said, seeing her evil intent, "I will not give you the light until I stand with both feet on the ground." Enraged, the witch let him fall back into the well and left him there.
The soldier landed unharmed on the moist ground. Despairing, he lit his tobacco pipe from the blue light. As smoke filled the cavern, a little black dwarf appeared and said, "Lord, what are your commands?" Astonished, the soldier learned the dwarf must obey him. His first command was to be helped out of the well.
The dwarf led him through an underground passage, showing him treasures the witch had hidden. The soldier took as much gold as he could carry. Once above ground, he ordered the dwarf to bind the witch and take her before a judge. Soon, she was seen riding away on a wild tom-cat with frightful cries. The dwarf returned, reporting the witch was hanged.
The soldier returned to town, bought fine clothes, and rented a handsome room. Summoning the dwarf, he sought revenge on the King who had abandoned him. He ordered the dwarf to bring the sleeping princess to his room each night to work as a servant. The dwarf warned it was dangerous but obeyed.
At midnight, the princess was brought. The soldier made her sweep his chamber, pull off his boots, and clean them, throwing them in her face. She obeyed silently until the first cock crow, when the dwarf returned her to her bed.
The next morning, the princess told her father of her strange dream of being forced into servitude. The King suspected it was true and advised her to fill her pocket with peas with a hole in it, so they would leave a trail if she were taken again.
The dwarf, overhearing the plan, scattered peas in every street beforehand. That night, when peas fell from the princess's pocket, they created no unique trail, as poor children were found picking them up everywhere the next morning.
The King then advised his daughter to hide one of her shoes at the soldier's place. The dwarf warned the soldier, but the soldier insisted on proceeding. The princess hid her shoe under the bed. The next day, the shoe was found, and the soldier was captured and thrown into prison, having forgotten his blue light and gold in his flight.
From his dungeon window, the soldier saw an old comrade. He paid him a ducat to fetch a small bundle from the inn, which contained his pipe. Alone again, he lit his pipe with the blue light and summoned the dwarf. "Have no fear," said the dwarf. "Take the blue light with you wherever they take you."
The next day, the soldier was unjustly condemned to death. As he was led to his execution, he begged the King for a last wish: to smoke one more pipe. The King granted him three, thinking it would not save him.
The soldier lit his pipe with the blue light. The dwarf appeared instantly. "Strike down the false judge and his constable," commanded the soldier, "and spare not the King who treated me so ill." The dwarf, swift as lightning, struck down all who opposed him with his cudgel.
Terrified, the King begged for mercy. To save his life, he gave the soldier his kingdom and the princess's hand in marriage.