Hans Christian Andersen’s tale featuring a magical airborne trunk is “The Flying Trunk.”
The story follows a young man who receives a magic trunk from a servant after wasting his inheritance. When he climbs inside and closes it, the trunk carries him through the air to a distant land. He eventually uses it to reach a princess and tells her stories to win her interest.
Andersen published the tale in 1839. Its mixture of travel, storytelling, romance, and sudden reversals reflects the imaginative prose style of his early fairy tales.
The story is often mixed up with “The Tinderbox,” in which a soldier obtains a magical tinderbox and encounters three enormous dogs. Although both tales involve magical objects and adventure, the flying trunk belongs specifically to “The Flying Trunk.”