The Nutcracker Story by E. T. A.

Hoffmann

This is the Story of the Nutcracker. It was a Christmas Eve and Marie was waiting
for Uncle peter. It was a tradition for Uncle Peter to give Marie presents before
Christmas. Uncle Peter got a funny-looking nutcracker toy as her gift. Marie put the
nutcracker in the cabinet carefully.
That very night, Marie woke up to some strange noise. She saw a bunch of mice!
There were countless of mice running around. Even more shocking was the Mouse
Queen with seven heads!
Just then, the nutcracker and other toys were jumping down from the cabinet. After
the nutcracker drew his sword, the toy soldiers rushed after him, shooting their guns
and sugar canons. The nutcracker soon became surrounded by the mice.
Marie threw her shoe at the mouse queen to save the nutcracker and then she
fainted.
Marie woke up and found herself in her own bed. She tried to explain what had
happened the night before. However no one believed her except Uncle Peter. Uncle
Peter told Marie that there was a very interesting story about the nutcracker.
Uncle Peter started the story,
“Long, long time ago, the queen of mice hid in a royal palace. One day, she lost her
seven sons to trap the king had ordered to be placed. The queen mouse cast an ugly
spell on the princess. The princess could only reverse the spell if she could break
open the hardest nutshell. And that’s where the Nutcracker came in. As soon as the
prince broke open the shell, the princess became beautiful again. However, the spell
was transferred to the prince and made him ugly instead. Easily forgetting what the
prince had done for her, she chased him off. “
After hearing the story, Marie started to believe that her ugly nutcracker was the
prince in the story. The very next morning, a handsome boy came to Marie’s
house. The Prince of Toy Land was there at the door!
Because of her genuine love, his curse had been lifted. He asked Marie to marry
him. And so, Marie became the Princess of toy Land and lived happily ever after
with her prince.