Of course I can’t chop wood. I’m made of glass! Swing me against a hard tree, and I’ll shatter.

Imagine, though, that you were cutting down a paper tree. I could chop down a whole forest of paper trees with my fine edge.

You can’t chop down a forest with a glass axe. But if you can imagine hard wood as fine paper, you could do it. You could employ me forever, and I would never shatter.

The Glass Axe in The Glass Axe, Yellow Fairy Book. Painting by Ferdinand Hodler.

What sort of person has the power to wield a “glass axe”?