The Nose Tree

"The Nose Tree" is adapted from an old German story by Warwick Hutton, who also does the watercolor illustrations for this book. The story is about three soldiers, returning home from a hard fought war and experiencing lots of bad luck. However, one night in the woods while each takes a turn watching over their campfire, a small ugly man approaches. Each allows the little man to come and share their fire, and to each the little man gives a magical gift. One receives a cloak that makes every wish come true, another a purse that is always full of gold, and the third a horn that summons a great army.While the story has a lot of the traditional elements of a folktale, such as being kind to strange looking folks because they are almost always magical, there are a few twists. For example, if you visit a castle you expect there to be a king, who has a daughter, who is not yet married. But few readers would expect the princess to turn out to be a witch, which is just one of the strange elements that pops up in this story. Actually the princess ends up being the villain of the piece, but even a greedy witch of a princess is no match for a small, ugly man who knows about the Nose Tree. This is an interesting little tale with its little twists and turns. Teachers or parents will probably have to explain to young readers that once upon a time having an army was as good as having a supply of gold, although a cloak that grants all wishes would pretty much trump the other two. I wonder if these have always been the three gifts or if things have changed and corrupted across the centuries as the story was passed along before it was finally written down.