150 years of Hans Christian Andersen(newstatesman.com)
newstatesman.com
150 years of Hans Christian Andersen
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/07/150-years-of-the-bizarre-hans-christian-andersen
https://archive.ph/10l96
54 comments
I really love the less famous stories by Andersen that involve objects or insects… A needle, a coin in a foreign land, a teapot that feels empty, a tree (that wants to be cut down!) have deep inner thoughts; a butterfly in love!
In all those stories the last sentence introduces some sort of a final twist.
About a decade ago I was at a museum in Odense, Denmark. I vaguely remember a comical story about him and Charles Dickens. In that Andersen would regularly visit Dickens and stay with him and his family. The gist was that Dickens found this to be quite irritating, as he was not enthused by Andersen's company, finding him to be much too emotional and having "strange" Danish customs.
Curious what a strange Danish custom entails
> he requested one of Dickens' sons to shave him on a daily basis — a custom performed by hosts to male guests in Denmark.
https://www.grunge.com/617197/the-truth-about-hans-christian...
https://www.grunge.com/617197/the-truth-about-hans-christian...
He was talking in his sleep in a weird dialect of Swedish.
A few years ago the H. C. Andersen center made a New website with all his works online: https://hcandersen.dk/en/works/?pageNumber=1&genre=tale
Both in Danish and English
Both in Danish and English
What an great article and what a great life. I had no idea.
When he was 11, his father died and Andersen took a job in a factory where he had his trousers pulled down to prove he was a man.
Aged 14, he left [...] to make his fortune in Copenhagen. “First you go through an awful lot, and then you become famous,” he explained to his anxious mother, as though the plot of his life had been written already.
“I shall have no success with my appearance,” he reflected, “so I make use of whatever is available.”
If he sounds like a character invented by Charles Dickens, it is because Uriah Heep was modelled on Andersen, whom Dickens met in 1847. David Copperfield’s first sighting of Heep was “a cadaverous face” peering out of the round tower: “He had a way of writhing when he wanted to express enthusiasm, which was very ugly, the snaky twistings of his throat and body.” “If you’re an eel, sir,” counsels Betsey Trotwood, “conduct yourself like one. If you’re a man, control your limbs, sir!” In our own kinder age, we might diagnose Anderson with dyspraxia.
He saw himself, however, not as an earthly being at all but “one who seemed”, as he told Dickens, “to have fallen from the skies”.
When he was 11, his father died and Andersen took a job in a factory where he had his trousers pulled down to prove he was a man.
Aged 14, he left [...] to make his fortune in Copenhagen. “First you go through an awful lot, and then you become famous,” he explained to his anxious mother, as though the plot of his life had been written already.
“I shall have no success with my appearance,” he reflected, “so I make use of whatever is available.”
If he sounds like a character invented by Charles Dickens, it is because Uriah Heep was modelled on Andersen, whom Dickens met in 1847. David Copperfield’s first sighting of Heep was “a cadaverous face” peering out of the round tower: “He had a way of writhing when he wanted to express enthusiasm, which was very ugly, the snaky twistings of his throat and body.” “If you’re an eel, sir,” counsels Betsey Trotwood, “conduct yourself like one. If you’re a man, control your limbs, sir!” In our own kinder age, we might diagnose Anderson with dyspraxia.
He saw himself, however, not as an earthly being at all but “one who seemed”, as he told Dickens, “to have fallen from the skies”.
The article mentions Dickens a couple of times, but neglects to talk about when Dickens told Andersen that if he was ever in London he should drop in. The casual invitation turned into a five week stay despite increasingly panicky hints from the Dickens family that he should really leave.
Is there a source about that you could link to? Not challenging you, just interested to read about it!
I read about this in Odense at either his house or the museum? But it looks like it’s made his Wikipedia page,[1] with a Danish citation.[2]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Andersen#Meetin...
[2] https://www.hcandersen-homepage.dk/?page_id=3683
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Andersen#Meetin...
[2] https://www.hcandersen-homepage.dk/?page_id=3683
There's also a solo tabletop RPG that someone made about it: https://x.com/Sotherans/status/1513210507506954250?lang=en
That's hilarious!
HCA is famous for overstaying his welcome when invited. There was a pattern :D
Just like the article mentioned, he has become almost synonymous with fairy tales associated with stories for kids, but for anyone who has ever read from a collection of his stories, a majority of them are most certainly not appropriate for kids. Some of them are incredibly sad, and as another comment says, the fate of the characters often can change for the worse in the last paragraphs, when you least expect it.
I can only recommend reading his works, they are deeply profound.
I can only recommend reading his works, they are deeply profound.
> for anyone who has ever read from a collection of his stories, a majority of them are most certainly not appropriate for kids.
That really depends on the culture you are coming from.
There is a deep divide between how European and USA culture views what is appropriate material for children.
Being from the nordics, H.C.A's whole collection was part of mine and every friends childhood, from as early as kindergarten, and I vividly remember feeling deep sadness and empathy towards some of his characters at an early age.
That really depends on the culture you are coming from.
There is a deep divide between how European and USA culture views what is appropriate material for children.
Being from the nordics, H.C.A's whole collection was part of mine and every friends childhood, from as early as kindergarten, and I vividly remember feeling deep sadness and empathy towards some of his characters at an early age.
> a majority of them are most certainly not appropriate for kid
I did enjoy them as kid - as sad as they were. Many years after I can't think of a reason to consider them: "most certainly not appropriate". That's being overprotective.
In the light of the current events - they should introduce an age check verification to readers, right?
I did enjoy them as kid - as sad as they were. Many years after I can't think of a reason to consider them: "most certainly not appropriate". That's being overprotective.
In the light of the current events - they should introduce an age check verification to readers, right?
I agree with you that OP is being overprotective, but its natural that we all draw slightly different lines about what's appropriate when.
FWIW, when (spoiler alerts) the little girl gets her feet cut off in red shoes my 8 and 10 year olds were shocked at the turn events, but hardly shaken. Likewise when the little match girl died in the cold they were sad, but not permanently so.
It's the same deal with grimm fairy tales, or even pinocchio (pinocchio gets hanged).
FWIW, when (spoiler alerts) the little girl gets her feet cut off in red shoes my 8 and 10 year olds were shocked at the turn events, but hardly shaken. Likewise when the little match girl died in the cold they were sad, but not permanently so.
It's the same deal with grimm fairy tales, or even pinocchio (pinocchio gets hanged).
Or the little mermaid, where she failed to get the prince to fall in love with her and fell into the sea, dying and turning into sea foam.
She doesn’t turn into sea foam though, she turns into an air spirit, getting the chance of an immortal soul, which is what she was after.
I clearly remember the version I read having her throw herself off of a cliff and turn into sea foam. It was a very sad ending that stuck with me.
It must have been an abridged version or something that skipped the redemption arc, like this:
"In the end, the Prince marries another, a girl he thinks is the girl that saved him, but of course, isn’t. And the little mermaid is given the opportunity to win back her life with her family, to return to life as a mermaid, if she can kill the Prince as he sleeps. But, she loves him, and so she can’t.
Instead as part of the bargain she made with the sea witch, she dies, turning into sea foam."
That left off the redemption arc:
But here, Andersen is able to deliver the ultimate judgment. Instead of simply perishing as sea foam as other mermaids do (we are told earlier that, unlike humans, mermaids do not have afterlives), the little mermaid becomes a daughter of the air. In exchange for her goodness, for her suffering, and her loyalty, she is given the chance to win immortality, to win an immortal soul.
https://thecuriousworthy.com/2017/03/30/the-original-little-...
It must have been an abridged version or something that skipped the redemption arc, like this:
"In the end, the Prince marries another, a girl he thinks is the girl that saved him, but of course, isn’t. And the little mermaid is given the opportunity to win back her life with her family, to return to life as a mermaid, if she can kill the Prince as he sleeps. But, she loves him, and so she can’t.
Instead as part of the bargain she made with the sea witch, she dies, turning into sea foam."
That left off the redemption arc:
But here, Andersen is able to deliver the ultimate judgment. Instead of simply perishing as sea foam as other mermaids do (we are told earlier that, unlike humans, mermaids do not have afterlives), the little mermaid becomes a daughter of the air. In exchange for her goodness, for her suffering, and her loyalty, she is given the chance to win immortality, to win an immortal soul.
https://thecuriousworthy.com/2017/03/30/the-original-little-...
I think that’s basically the ending in the Czech film version too
>grimm fairy tales
Indeed, Max and Moritz ending up in the meat grinder (literally). Also reminds me of 'little riding red hood' originally lacks a happy ending at any rate.
(As for age, I think I was 6-7 when I first read Han C. Andersen)
Indeed, Max and Moritz ending up in the meat grinder (literally). Also reminds me of 'little riding red hood' originally lacks a happy ending at any rate.
(As for age, I think I was 6-7 when I first read Han C. Andersen)
“Max and Moritz” is not Grimm but Wilhelm Busch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_and_Moritz
Thanks! Indeed! I guess I have read the stories together, same book pretty much.
Those are absolutely horrific endings. They would have given me nightmares as a kid. I guess if your kids can handle it then great there's no need to coat them in bubble wrap.
> They would have given me nightmares as a kid.
This is not always the easiest thing to guess. The things that gave me nightmares were people looking at me through mirrors (i.e., Snow White), animal brutality (which featured prominently in 90s family movies), and adoption (i.e. getting adopted into the "wrong", abusive family). Meanwhile I ingested astonishingly violent material and slept like a baby. I think it's hard to figure out what kids will identify as fantasy and what they'll see as a real, yet-unknown risk.
This is not always the easiest thing to guess. The things that gave me nightmares were people looking at me through mirrors (i.e., Snow White), animal brutality (which featured prominently in 90s family movies), and adoption (i.e. getting adopted into the "wrong", abusive family). Meanwhile I ingested astonishingly violent material and slept like a baby. I think it's hard to figure out what kids will identify as fantasy and what they'll see as a real, yet-unknown risk.
I had access to no entertainment and only selected books, but still regularly had nightmares -- about my parents.
I read The Steadfast Tin Soldier for the first time when I was a kid but it didn't have a special meaning for me until my late teens, when I first fell in love.
Never mind the kids, "Story of a mother" is very much "adult fear".
A story having a tragic twist doesn’t automatically make it inappropriate for kids.
I wonder what dr detroit did wrong to be bombed into oblivion; he is not fully wrong.
As an example, the HCA story 'tinderbox' is clearly built from earlier borrowed cloth. As a dane myself, it is apparent that HCA didn't even have a danish term for the demon dogs, so he just calls them 'dogs' to avoid issues with his audience.
A whole paragraph on how freakishly ugly he was. I google images and he looked perfectly normal and fine in the portraits which I assume at least some were accurate.
I agree, looking at portraits he looks just fine. I wouldn't call him handsome but certainly not "ugly" or "grotesque". But it seems part of the impact of his appearance was due to his movements and his proportions, neither of which are going to be easy to discern from portraits. Take this image, for example. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Hans_Chr.... It could be his coat exaggerating his proportions, and maybe some amount of forced perspective, but I can begin to see that his hands are quite large, his head seems a bit small.
If you haven't visited before, Danes absolutely worship HCA. You can't go two blocks without stumbling on a statue of him, while walking on a street named for him.
I visited Denmark a few years ago and went to the Hans Christian Anderson museum in his home town of Odense.
It's absolutely fantastic, the museum is presented like a story you walk through his life.
Highly recommend!
It's absolutely fantastic, the museum is presented like a story you walk through his life.
Highly recommend!
A funny thing about Odense is that HCA was known as a quintessential Copenhagener by his contemporaries. He left the his providential birth town as soon as possible and harbored no tender feelings for his origin. That hasn't stopped Odense putting his name and likeness everywhere in the city, so much that HCA nowadays is closely linked with Odense - even though his person and work never actually was beside his childhood.
He was apparently known as an appalling house guest, and someone made a game about it: https://www.patreon.com/posts/trapped-in-your-71881711
I love the story of him tying his horse to a pole in the snow at night only to wake up and look up to see all the snow has melted and his horse is hanging from the roof cross of a church.
Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. The stories of my early childhood!
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When I grow up, I realize that fairy tales are almost lies.It is difficult for princes and princesses to live happily ever after～
Does Andersen ever use the “happily ever after” ending?
Literally, I can't think of a single happy ending in even one of his stories.
It always ends with death, disappointment, or apathy.
It always ends with death, disappointment, or apathy.
Andsersen has some happy endings, eg the Snow Queen or the Ugly Duckling. I guess the Matchstick Girl has the closest to a “happily ever after” ending, since she dies and goes to heaven.
Death usually is a happy ending in his stories. It's ascension to paradise and being freed from mortal suffering. It makes more sense if you're a deeply religious man from the 19th century than it does today, admittedly.
78% of the world population are religious today, per e.g. Statista.
Yeah but not every religious writer considers suffering and death a happy end.
Being religious is not quite the same thing as having a cultural frame of reference where death is a happy ending.
Everybody I grew up with is pretty happy, including me. Is that unusual?
Tell me you've never read the original fairy tales without telling me that you've never read the original fairy tales.