Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales

Delving into Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales seems like it should be a fun and easy task. However, I have in front of me a whopper of a book, coming in at 1,101 pages. Yikes. Thus, I've decided to Google "Top ten must-read Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales." The only website that turned up is this one, which contains a list of the 30 most popular. We'll go with that and work our way down to ten. Here are the tales that made the cut, some of them because I know the Americanized versions and am beyond curious to read the original (I mean, if I'm going to go see the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, I better understand the full context, am I right?) and others I chose because I've heard of them in passing/I like the titles. That sounds fair, right?

1. The Princess and the Pea

The story is exactly as I remember my mom telling it. Only a true princess could be so sensitive as to feel a pea all the way at the bottom of all those quilts and all those mattresses (although, in this case, the prince's mother creates the test, not the prince). This tale is annoyingly degrading to women, but there will be a post on feminist fairy tales! Not to worry!

My favorite part of this story is that it ends with the line, "Now that was a real story!" I'm hoping that is consistent throughout these stories. It reminds me of how many Russian fairy tales end: “I was at that wedding, too. I drank beer and mead; they flowed down my beard but did not go into my mouth.” I appreciate that Andersen can just assert the validity of his story, rather than making a poor narrator celebrate a wedding but remain sober to prove that the story is "real."

2. Thumbelina (or, in my collection, The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories, "Inchelina")

This tale is absolutely charming with its descriptions of all the little bits of nature that Thumbelina uses throughout her days (i.e. - she sleeps in a walnut shell, under a rose petal). The entirety of the story follows around Thumbelina as one mean animal after another steals her in order to marry her. Thumbelina just wants to be out in nature enjoying the birds and the sky, but the world seems intent on marrying her off. I had high hopes that at the end of the story, when her friend, a swallow, brings her south so that she can live outside all yearlong, that she would end up just being happy living in nature. But no! She was married off immediately to a king who looked like her but had wings. Sigh.

I've noticed that within these first two stories, there's a pattern of older (uglier) women being cruel to younger, beautiful women. Not loving this trend, Hans.

3. The Snow Queen

4. The Little Mermaid

Wow. Where to begin? This tale is probably the one I was most looking forward to reading, since the Disney movie was one of my favorites as a kid, and I was anxious to compare it to the original tale. The premise of the story is actually quite similar - the youngest of 6 mermaid princesses longs to be human, saves a Prince who almost dies in a shipwreck, trades her voice (in this case, by allowing the sea witch to cut off her tongue - yikes) for a pair of legs, and works to win the love of the Prince who would love her if only she had the voice of the girl he vaguely remembers saving him. The largest difference between the tale and the film is in the ending. The Prince in the Andersen's version, bummed as he is about the lack of the Little Mermaid's voice, decides that she still makes a great companion and allows her to go horseback riding with him, stare at him longingly, and sleep outside of his bedroom door on a large, velvet pillow - what a great guy! He runs around with the Little Mermaid having a great time, but eventually his parents force him to visit a neighboring kingdom to meet that Princess and see if there's a love connection. Princey-poo and the Little Mermz are convinced that there is no way he'll fall in love but they go anyway. In a shocking twist of events, the Princess from the neighboring kingdom is the girl that the Prince remembers saving him from his shipwreck! So, they get married immediately, which means that the Little Mermaid will die and turn into sea foam the next morning. The Little Mermaid's sisters all take a quick visit to the sea witch and trade in their luscious locks for a knife; all the L.M. needs to do is stab the Prince through the heart and the trickling blood will turn her legs back into a fish tail. The Little Mermaid, being so pure of heart, throws the knife into the ocean and jumps back to the sea, accepting her death. But wait! Instead of dying, she becomes a "spirit of the air," who has to do good deeds for 300 years, and then she will be allowed into the kingdom of Heaven (note: there is a decidedly Christian bent to this entire tale).

The story ultimately ends with a moral: if a spirit of the air sees a child being good, one year will be knocked off of their 300-year-sentence, but if a child is naughty, each tear that the spirit of the air cries will add one day to their sentence.

...huh?

This is the first tale that of Andersen's that ends with this moral directive. Curious, but perhaps not unfounded. After all, the Little Mermaid should not be rewarded for running away and making deals with a Sea Witch.

One final note: The descriptions and imagery are as beautiful as ever in "The Little Mermaid." For example, "At the very deepest place [in the ocean], the mer-king has built his castle. Its walls are made of coral and its long pointed windows of amber. The roof is oyster shells that are continually opening and closing. It looks very beautiful, of in each shell lies a pearl, so lustrous that it would be fit for a queen's crown" (57). How gorgeous and vivid is that?

5. The Emperor's New Suit

This tale's premise has not been compromised with modernization - a king ends up being tricked into parading around naked. In Andersen's version, however, it is not because everyone's afraid of arousing the king's anger that they lie and say he looks great in his new clothes, but because the weavers (swindlers) say that anyone who cannot see the fabric is either stupid or unfit for their job. Thus, everyone is shamed into pretending they see the cloth for their own selfish interests, rather than to please the king. It isn't until an innocent child remarks that the king has no clothes that everyone else is willing to admit that they don't see any clothing either. Out of the mouth of babes!

6. The Ugly Duckling

The classic tale actually stood the test of time and has not been changed over the years.

7. The Elfin Hill

*to be read

8. The Brave (or "Steadfast") Tin Soldier

I used to watch an adorable version of this video at my grandmother's house when I was younger. Having just finished reading the real deal, I can honestly say I have no idea how this was ever approved for children. The poor tin soldier who is created with only one leg falls in love with a ballerina (who also appears to have only one leg) goes through an awful adventure where he ends up being swallowed by a fish that the family maid ultimately buys at market so that the tin soldier makes his way home. He sees the ballerina again and is overcome with joy! What a great ending that would be! But no, one of the brothers in the family instead takes the tin soldier, throws him into the over; a breeze knocks over the ballerina who also ends up in the over and they burn up together in the flames of perpetual love (that's my optimistic interpretation, anyway), where the only remnants are a piece of heart-shaped, melted tin and a little trinket from the ballerin's dress. Yikes.

9. The Garden of Paradise

*to be read

10. The Sorcerer's Stone

*to be read

#Denmark #FairyTales #HansChristianAndersen