The Iron Man

by Ted Hughes
adapted for Year 3 at BIS, HCMC
 Chapter 1 - The Coming of the Iron Man

The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. Where had he come from?
Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows.

Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the brink of the cliff in
the darkness. The wind sang through his fingers. Slowly, his great head
turned left then right. He was hearing the sea. His eyes glowed white
then red. He had never seen the sea.

Suddenly, the Iron Man stepped forwards, off

the cliff.

He tumbled head over heels.

His iron legs fell off. His iron arms broke off.

CRRRAAAASSSSSSH!

He smashed on the jagged rocks below. Pieces

of the Iron Man scattered across the beach. Nobody
knew that he had fallen, and the pieces lay still all night.

The next morning, a seagull found the Iron Man’s eye and took it
back to her nest. She thought that the eye was a shell. Another seagull
found the iron man’s hand. Strangely, the hand began to move, scurrying
on its fingers like a crab. It picked up the eye, which began to glow blue
and look around.

Slowly, the hand and the eye found the other pieces. The Iron Man
started to come together again. After a while, the Iron Man found his
head buried in some seaweed.

Finally, everything was in place again except for one ear. As the sun
rose, the Iron Man strode across the beach looking for his ear. The
seagulls watched. Between them, was the Iron Man’s great iron ear. At
last, the Iron Man stood and gazed at the sea. Maybe, he thought that
the sea had taken his ear. He slowly walked into the breakers until his
head disappeared beneath the waves. The gulls wheeled and glided above.
 Chapter 2 – The Return of the Iron Man

One evening, a farmer’s son called Hogarth was fishing in a stream.

Suddenly, he saw a huge dark figure climb up over the cliff-top. It was
taller than a house with green headlamp eyes. It was the Iron Man!

Hogarth ran home, and, gasping for breath, he told his dad. His dad
believed him. His dad drove to another farm. He told a farmer with a red-
mouthed laugh what Hogarth had seen, but the farmer didn’t believe him.
He drove to another farm and found a tractor. There were great teeth-
marks in the steel. Hogarth’s father jumped back into his car and drove into
the night and the rain as fast as he could. Suddenly, a gigantic foot came
down in the road, a foot as big as a bed. Hogarth’s father drove faster and
knocked the foot out of the way. Luckily, he got home safely.

The next morning, all the farmers were furious because their tractors
had disappeared. They found massive footprints in the soft soil of the
fields. They wanted to catch the Iron Man, so they dug a deep, enormous
hole, wider than a house and as deep as three trees. They covered the hole
with branches, straw and soil. They put an old rusty lorry next to the hole
as bait.

They waited for many days,

but the Iron Man didn’t come.
Finally, he came down the hill,
tearing the wire from the fence
posts, rolling it up like spaghetti and
eating it. Suddenly, Hogarth had an
idea. He got a long nail and a knife
and tapped them together. At the
sound of the metal, the Iron Man
strode towards Hogarth and fell
into the colossal pit. The Iron Man
roared. The earth began to fall on
him and soon, he roared no more.
 Chapter 3 – What’s to be Done with the Iron Man?

As spring came, the round hill over the Iron Man was green with grass.
Before the end of summer, sheep were grazing on the lovely little hill.
People who had never heard of the Iron Man said, “What a perfect place
for a picnic!” People began having picnics on top of the hill.

One day, a mother, a father, a little boy and a little girl stopped their
car and climbed the hill for a picnic. They thought the hill had been there
forever. They put a pretty tablecloth on the grass. They set down a plate
of sandwiches, a big pie, a roast chicken, a bowl of tomatoes, a bag of boiled
eggs, a dish of butter and a loaf of bread. As the father made tea, they
munched their food under the blue sky.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. They thought it was an

earthquake! The ground opened up and the tablecloth and food fell into the
crack. Then, an enormous iron hand came up. It felt around the grass and
nearly touched the boy. The mother screamed. “Run to the car!” shouted
the father. They all ran. They jumped into the car and drove away. They did
not look back.

The Iron Man was free. His headlamp

eyes glowed red. When the farmers saw
that the Iron Man had escaped, they
wanted to call the Army to blow him to bits
with huge guns. But Hogarth had another
idea. At first, the farmers did not want to
listen to Hogarth, but at last they agreed.
They would try Hogarth’s idea. If that
didn’t work, they would call the Army.

The Iron Man spent a day and a

night eating all the delicious metal he
could find. He even ate three new
tractors, two cars and a lorry. Finally, he
rested near some trees, his eyes glowing soft blue.
 The farmers drove near in cars. They stopped 50 metres from the
Iron Man. He really was a monster. His chest was as big as a truck, and his
arms were like cranes. He was rusty, probably from eating all the old wire
fences.

Hogarth hit a horse shoe against a rock. The Iron Man’s eyes turned
dark blue. Then purple. Then red. And finally white, like car headlamps.

“Mr Iron Man,” Hogarth shouted. “You can have all the food you want
if you stop eating up the farms.”

The Iron Man stood up straight and looked at Hogarth.

“We’re sorry we trapped you,” shouted the little boy. “We promise not
to trick you again. Follow us.”

Slowly, the farmers drove away, and the Iron Man walked after them.
As they went through the villages, half the people came out to stare at the
Iron Man, and half ran inside to hide. Nobody could believe their eyes.

At last, they came to the town, and there was a great scrap-metal
yard. Everything was there, old cars, old stoves, old trains, old fridges, old
bicycles. It was all piled up, rusting away.

“There,” cried Hogarth. “Eat all you can.”

The Iron Man’s eyes turned red.

He picked up an old black stove and
chewed it like a toffee. Then, he put a
handful of rusty chain his mouth –
better than any spaghetti. The Iron
Man had never eaten such delicacies.

So there they left him. It was an

Iron Man’s dream. The famers left him
alone. Sometimes, Hogarth visited.
Now, the Iron Man’s eyes were a happy
blue. He was no longer rusty. And he ate, ate, ate, ate – endlessly.
 Chapter 4 – What’s to be Done with the Iron Man?

One day, there came strange news. Everybody was talking about it.

A tiny star in the Constellation of Orion began to get bigger.

Astronomers saw it first with their telescopes. They watched it with
worried frowns.

That tiny star was definitely getting bigger.

Everybody could see it, night after night.

The star was getting bigger because it was
getting nearer. It was rushing towards the world.

Faster than any rocket.

Faster even than a meteorite.

But suddenly, the star seemed to stop. There it stayed, dark red,
just the size of the moon.

What had happened?

And now the next strange thing happened. A tiny black thing
appeared in the middle of the star. On the second night, it was bigger. On
the third night, you could see it without a telescope. By the fifth night,
astronomers saw that it looked like a bat or a dragon.

Each night, it was bigger. It was coming straight at the earth.

One terrible night, its wings filled the sky. All the frightened people
of the Earth gazed up.

Next morning, it landed on Australia. The shock was like an

earthquake. It was a huge dragon. Terribly scaly, terribly horned, terribly
clawed, with terrible eyes as big as Switzerland. It covered the whole of
Australia. There it sat, gazing at the countries of the world.

What had it come for? What was going to happen to the people of
the world? Everybody waited.
 But the next morning, it spoke. It wanted food. People, animals,
forests – it didn’t care as long as the food was alive. But it had to be fed
quickly or it would eat everything on earth.

The people of the world got together. How could you feed a monster
as big as Australia? No, they would not feed it. They would fight it. They
sent all of their armies to Australia.

What an amazing attack!

Rockets, missiles, bombs. They tried everything. The black smoke

from the explosions covered the Pacific Ocean. Then the noise stopped
and the smoke cleared. And the people of the world cried with shock.

The dragon was smiling!

Now the people of the world were worried. They had spent all their
money on weapons, but the dragon wasn’t hurt. It just smiled.

And now the space-bat-angel-dragon spoke again. It gave the people

of the world one week to prepare its first meal or it would start eating
the cities.

Now the little boy Hogarth heard about it. Everyone in the world was
talking about it. He was sure the Iron Man could do something.

He visited the Iron Man in the scrap yard and talked to him about
the monster.

“Please,” he said, “can you think of a way to get rid of the monster.”

The Iron Man chewed a juicy old stove and shook his head slowly.

“Please think of something,” cried Hogarth. “If this space-bat-angel-

dragon eats everything on the earth, there’ll be no more metal for you.”

The Iron Man became still. He was thinking. Suddenly, his headlamp
eyes were red, green, blue and white all at once. He had an idea.

Hogarth danced for joy. The Iron Man would be the champion of the
world against this monster from space.
 Chapter 5 – The Space-Being and the Iron Man

There was no time to be wasted. The terrible space-bat-angel-dragon had

terrorised the world for long enough. Something had to be done. The Iron
Man would challenge the colossal monster from space to a battle. He would
rid the earth of him once and for all.
The Iron Man was flown piece by piece to Australia. After the
engineers put him back together, he stood on the beach and shouted his
challenge.
“Sit up,” he roared. “Sit up and listen, you great space-lizard.”
The space-bat-angel-dragon sat up slowly. He gazed in surprise at the
Iron Man.
“I challenge you to a test of strength” roared the Iron Man as he
looked up at the terrifying creature.
A test of strength? The space-dragon couldn’t believe his ears! A tiny
little creature like the Iron Man? He simply laughed.
“If I win, then you must promise to become my slave,” cried the Iron
Man. “And if you don’t accept my challenge, you’re a coward!”
Astounded, the space-bat-angel-dragon agreed.
Some engineers started to make a fire pit. Now the space-bat-angel-
dragon got a shock. The Iron Man was lying across the flames – just as if
he were in bed. The flames became fiercer. The space-dragon stared down
in astonishment.
Suddenly, the flames died. The white-hot Iron Man stiffly got off his
glowing bed and said, “Now it’s your turn”.
The monster laughed. “Okay, build the fire. I’ll lie on it” it replied.
The Iron Man pointed up at the sun. “There’s your fire, go and lie on
it until you are red hot,” he shouted.
The monster gazed up at the sun. How could he refuse? Slowly, he
lifted his immense body off the earth while everyone watched. They saw
him land on the sun. They saw the monster begin to glow. Blue at first, then
red, then orange and finally, white. When he returned great ragged holes
were burned in his wings.
“There,” he panted. “I’ve done it”.
The Iron Man nodded and signalled the men. Once more they lit a fire
for the Iron Man to lie on. The space-bat-angel-dragon watched in horror.
He knew he would have to go again into the sun’s flames. Suddenly, the
space-bat-angel dragon began weeping.
Finally, the fire under the Iron Man died. He stood up and walked
around on the sand to cool off. Then he pointed at the sun.
“Enough!” cried the dragon. “It’s too much! I can’t stand the fires of
the sun.”
“Then I’ve won,” shouted the Iron Man. “Because I’m ready to roast
myself again.”
“Yes, you’ve won, and I am your slave,” cried the space-bat-angel-
dragon. “I’ll do anything you like, but not the sun again.”
“Very well,” said the Iron Man. “Now you are the slave of the earth.
What can you do?”
“I am useless,’ said the space-bat-angel-dragon. “All we do in space is
fly or make music.”
“Make music?” asked the Iron Man. “What sort of music?”
“Haven’t you heard of the music of the spheres?” asked the dragon.
“It’s the music of space. I’m a star spirit. I sing. The music of the spheres
is what makes space so peaceful.”
“If you’re so peaceful,” asked the Iron Man, “how did you get so
greedy and want to eat up the earth?”
The dragon was silent for a long time after this question. “I don’t know
why. I heard the battles and wars of the earth and I got excited. I wanted
to join in.”
“Well, you can sing for us instead,” said the Iron Man. “It might do us
good.”
 And so it was decided. The space-bat-angel-dragon sent his star back
to the Constellation of Orion. He went to live in the moon. Every night, he
flew around the world singing. The whole world could hear his strange, soft
music, like millions of voices singing together. Suddenly, the world became
peaceful. The singing made everyone peaceful. They stopped making
weapons. The countries began to think how they could live together
peacefully. All they wanted was to enjoy the strange, beautiful music from
the giant singer in space.
Meanwhile, the Iron Man was the world’s hero. He went back to the
scrap yard. Everyone sent him a present. Someone sent him a car. A rich
man even sent him a ship. He sat there, chewing away, listening to the
singing of his friend in the night sky.