Fairy Tales

joy, resides in the knowledge that you consider me worthy of you. I think of you as I receive all this recognition. Yet I am truly loved and appreciated abroad; I am—famous. Yes, you may well smile. But the foremost men fly to meet me, I see myself welcomed into all their families. Princes, and the most talented of men pay me the greatest courtesies. You should see how they flock around me in the so-called important circles. Oh, that’s not something any of all those people back home think about, they overlook me completely and no doubt they would be happy with a droplet of the tribute I receive. Yet my writings must have greater merit than the Danes give them (Jens Andersen, Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life, p. 114) .

Andersen could never reconcile himself to the fact that he was not praised unconditionally by the Danish critics and public. He had an enormous ego and insatiable need for compliments and special treatment. From 1850 until his death in 1875, the more he wrote the more he tended to repeat the plots and styles of his earlier tales, and though some like “Clod Hans” (1855), “What Father Does Is Always Right” (1861), and “The Gardener and the Gentry” (1872) were masterful works of art, most waxed pale in comparison to those that had preceded them. His last two novels, To Be or Not to Be (1857) and Lucky Peter (1870), were poorly conceived and boring to read. His plays were performed but were not very successful. If anything, it was not Andersen’s unusual talents as a storyteller that grew in the latter part of his life, but rather his vanity, and he was often a burden on others. For instance, when he returned to England in 1857 and spent five weeks with Charles Dickens and his family, they could not wait to see him leave because he was too nitpicky and overbearing. Andersen continued to make annual excursions to other countries and cities, and wherever he went he insisted on being coddled and pampered, and he sought close male friendships that were often amorous but never fulfilled in the way he desired. The older he became, the more lonely he felt, and the more he needed some kind of warm family life to replace the Collins, who continued to assist him and manage his affairs but kept their distance. In 1865 Andersen began close friendships with two wealthy Jewish families, the Melchiors and the Henriques, who became his dedicated supporters; though he maintained a residence in Copenhagen, when he visited the World Exposition in Paris in 1867 and such countries as Spain, Germany, and Switzerland, Andersen often stayed at their estates. By 1873 it was clear that he was suffering from cancer of the liver, and though he courageously fought the disease and even made a few trips and attended social functions during the next two years, he finally succumbed to the cancer on August 4, 1875.

Most anthologies of Andersen’s fairy tales and stories tend to present them chronologically, according to the dates they first appeared in Danish. This type of organization enables readers to follow Andersen’s development as a writer and to draw parallels with the events in his life, but that can be a disadvantage if critics and readers go too far in interpreting the tales autobiographically and tracing biographical details in his tales. For example, “The Ugly Duckling” is generally regarded as a representation of the trials and tribulations of the outsider Andersen, who had to overcome obstacles to reveal his aristocratic nature as a swan. “The Little Mermaid” has frequently been interpreted as a reflection of the unrequited love Andersen felt for Edvard Collin. “The Nightingale” mirrors the tenuous relationship between Andersen the artist and his patron the King of Denmark. There is undoubtedly some truth to these interpretations. All writing has psychological and biographical dimensions. But to relentlessly view most of Andersen’s tales as symbolic stories about his own life and experiences can diminish our appreciation of the depth and originality of many of his narratives.

At his best, Andersen was an unusually creative and sensitive writer whose imagination enabled him to transform ordinary occurrences and appearances into extraordinary stories that open new perspectives on life. He was not a profound philosophical thinker, but he had a knack of responding spontaneously and naively to the world around him, and he possessed a talent for conveying his wonder about the miracles of life through short narrative prose that could be awe-inspiring. Moreover, because he always felt oppressed, dominated, and misunderstood, he sought to assess and grasp the causes of suffering, and offered hope to his readers—a hope that he himself needed to pursue his dreams.

It thus makes sense to try to “categorize” Andersen’s tales in a non-traditional-that is, non-chronological- manner in order to try to appreciate some of the common themes that he tried to weave into his narratives time and again from 1835 to 1875. Though it is difficult to typify all his tales, a consideration of their common themes will allow for a broader and more critical appreciation of his works and might make some of his intentions clearer. I have divided the tales into the following categories: the artist and society; folk tales (the adaptation of folklore); original fairy tales; evangelical and religious tales; the anthropomorphizing of animals and nature; the humanization of toys and objects; and legends. There are, of course, overlapping themes and motifs, and a tale that appears in one category might have been included in another. Yet from the vantage point of these categories, Andersen’s tales may assume more relevance in a socio-cultural context. (See “Commentaries on the Tales” for more on each tale in this collection.)

THE ARTIST AND SOCIETY

One of Andersen’s most insightful and profound fairy tales, one that fully addresses his philosophy of art and the artist, is “The Nightingale”; it deserves to be placed first in any anthology of Andersen’s tales, followed by “The Gardener and the Gentry.” The first is clearly a fairy-tale allegory about the relationship of the artist to his patron; the second is a bitter, ironic story, also about patronage, but more specifically about folklore and the artist’s role in Denmark. While it is difficult to state which category of Andersen’s tales is most important, it is clear that there was an overriding concern in all his tales with the virtue of art and with the genuine storyteller as a cultivator of the social good. Andersen was writing at a time when the status of the professional and independent writer was in the process of being formed; before Andersen’s time, in Denmark and most of Europe it was virtually impossible to earn a living as a professional writer. Therefore, a writer had to have an independent income, trade, and profession, or a wealthy patron to support his work, and as there was no copyright law, a writer’s works were not fully protected. If a writer was dependent on a patron, he would be obliged to respect and pay attention to the expectations of his benefactor.

In “The Nightingale” and “The Gardener and the Gentry,” Andersen depicts the quandary of the artist who must suffer the indignities of serving upper-class patrons who do not appreciate his great accomplishments; in each case, the artist is a commoner or is common-looking but capable of producing uncommon art. For Andersen, uncommon art was “authentic” and “true” and stemmed from nature—that is, the natural talents of the artist. It is also essential and therapeutic, for humankind cannot do without it. In “The Nightingale,” the artist/bird heals the emperor, who realizes that mechanical art is artificial. In “The Gardener and the Gentry,” a more cynical Andersen depicts an arrogant, rich man and his wife who are unable to appreciate the originality of their innovative artist/gardener. Despite their ignorance and closed minds, true art succeeds, an indication of Andersen’s strong belief that the artist who is naturally endowed with talent will somehow shine forth.

One can always distinguish the true art from the false, and all the other tales in this category reflect Andersen’s constant re-examination of the nature of storytelling and the salvation it offered all people. In one of his last tales, “The Cripple” (1872), it is the fairy tale that enables a sick boy to regain his health; the story is a personal wish-fulfillment that transcends the conditions in Andersen’s life to become a universal narrative about art’s wondrous powers.

FOLK TALES (THE ADAPTATION OF FOLKLORE)

Many famous writers of fairy tales have made and continue to make extraordinary use of folk tales that were spread by word of mouth, and Andersen was no exception. In fact, most of Andersen’s early tales—including “The Tinderbox,” “Little Claus and Big Claus (1835),” “The Princess on the Pea,” and “The Traveling Companion” (1835) —are based on Danish folk tales that he had heard or read. He may have also used German and European tales collected by the Brothers Grimm as his sources; for instance, “The Tinderbox” and “Little Claus and Big Claus” are closely related to the Grimms’ “The Blue Light” and “The Little Farmer,” and other of Andersen’s tales show the influence of the Grimms. Knowing the sources enables us to study how Andersen appropriated and enriched these tales to reflect upon conditions in Danish society and upon the trajectory of his life. A good example is “The