THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL
THE BOG KING’S DAUGHTER
THE GIRL WHO STEPPED ON BREAD
THE BELL
THE THORNY PATH TO GLORY
THE JEWISH MAID
THE STORY OLD JOHANNA TOLD
SHE WAS NO GOOD
THE ANTHROPOMORPHIZING OF ANIMALS AND NATURE
THE UGLY DUCKLING
IN THE DUCKYARD
THE STORKS
THE SPRUCE TREE
IT’S PERFECTLY TRUE!
THE DUNG BEETLE
THE BUTTERFLY
THE SNOWDROP
THE SUNSHINE’S STORIES
THE DROP OF WATER
THE FLEA AND THE PROFESSOR
THE SNOWMAN
THE HUMANIZATION OF TOYS AND OBJECTS
THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER
THE SHEPHERDESS AND THE CHIMNEY SWEEP
THE DARNING NEEDLE
THE OLD HOUSE
THE RAGS
LEGENDS
HOLGER THE DANE
BIRD PHOENIX
THE FAMILY OF HEN-GRETHE
EVERYTHING IN ITS PROPER PLACE
“You see, ladies and gentlemen, Your Royal Majesty! You can never know what to expect from the real nightingale, but everything is determined in the artificial bird. It will be so-and-so, and no different! You can explain it; you can open it up and show the human thought—how the cylinders are placed, how they work, and how one follows the other!”
(from “The Nightingale,” page 10)
It’s an old innate law and privilege that when the moon is in the precise position it was last night, and the wind blows as it blew yesterday, then all will-o‘-the-wisps born at that hour and minute can become human beings.
(from “The Will-o’-the-Wisps Are in Town,” page 37)
“This is certainly an interesting tinderbox if it will give me what I want like this!”
(from “The Tinderbox,” page 90)
“I almost didn’t close my eyes the whole night! God knows what could have been in the bed? I was lying on something hard, so I am completely black and blue all over my body. It’s quite dreadful!”
(from “The Princess on the Pea,” page 107)
Way out at sea the water is as blue as the petals on the loveliest corn-flower, and as clear as the purest glass, but it’s very deep, deeper than any anchor rope can reach. Many church steeples would have to be placed end to end to reach from the bottom up to the surface and beyond. Down there the sea people live.
(from “The Little Mermaid,” page 188)
The emperor came to them with his most distinguished cavaliers. Both swindlers lifted one arm in the air as if they were holding something and said, “See, here are the pants. Here’s the jacket, and here’s the cape!” They continued on and on. “They are as light as cobwebs. You might think you weren’t wearing anything, but that’s the beauty of this fabric.”