The Havfrue & the Monarchy - Denmark Day 4
- Emily Salazar
- Aug 1, 2016
- 4 min read
Today was the day! Despite the well-meaning advice/warnings of guidebooks and friends, we set out to visit the Little Mermaid statue. It just didn't seem right to be in Copenhagen, study H.C. Andersen, and yet not visit that famous (famously notorious?) statue.
To be fair, we were prepared to be underwhelmed with the statue and overwhelmed with the amount of tourists, so we made it through okay.
But first! On our way to the statue we passed by Kongens Have (King's Garden) to visit our old friend Hans.
What a guy. This is the one statue/public monument to him that I could find.
Then, we stopped by the Round Tower to walk up the spirally walkway for some great views of the city. BONUS! Halfway up the stairs is the the library that Andersen frequented throughout his time in Copenhagen. In fact, he often wrote at the library while looking out over the rooftops of the city. So you think there'd be a little section of the library (now museum) dedicated to him, right? Right!? Wrong. There are some cheesy souvenirs available for purchase, but that's it. So, I bought a poster for my classroom (of the tower with a bunch of fairy tale characters all around it) and called it a day.
Fun Fact: Walking up the spiral is way less tiring than climbing steps.
Then we walked the half-hour or so to Kastellet Copenhagen.
And here she is - the one and only Little Mermaid! Den Lille Havfrue!
If you recall from my original H.C. Andersen post, the original story of the Little Mermaid is really depressing compared to Disney's rom-com version. So, while it was neat to see the statue in person, it was also kind of sad to think about what she was doing there and why.
It's day four in Denmark, our final day, so it's time to draw some conclusions. Here we go:
In Iceland, even the geological tours had constant references to the sagas (the literature is intrinsically tied up in the land); in Norway there's a theatre built just for Henrik Ibsen; in Sweden there are special Millenium series tours. In Copenhagen, Andersen's beloved city and birthplace, there is one cheesy animatronic museum, one statue of him, one statue of the Little Mermaid, and nothing in his often-visited library.
I have come to the conclusion that this city does not care about Hans Christian Andersen very much.
This conclusion does, of course, lead to one burning question: What does Copenhagen care about?
Conveniently, I have an answer!
Copenhagen cares about its royalty. There are pictures of Queen Margrethe II and her son and his Tasmanian princess everywhere. There are just as many museums about royalty as there are for art. In fact, when we stopped by the current castle homestead of the reigning monarchs, we found that the museum section was cared for significantly more than the items at the National Museum. We were encased in glass hallways as we walked by offices and sitting rooms from the mid-1900s. The Nationalmuseet had artifacts from the Stone Age and was uncomfortably hot and had photo exhibits with sunlight streaming in the windows. Denmark seems to have one very real priority: its royal family.
Above are the parts of the palace that the Queen and her son live in. There are four buildings that look like this all facing inwards to create square. Which reminds me: while we were there, we saw the changing of the guard!
Very dramatic. Love the hats.
One of the four buildings in the square has a museum dedicated to the royal families, specifically those who have ruled since the early 1900s. In what appeared to be a ballroom, there was this large photo of the Crown Prince's royal wedding in 2004:
Queen Margrethe II is to the right of Prince Frederik. After reading about her New Years Eve addresses that she gives annually to the nation, I got to wondering about the amount of power she actually wields. So, I asked the museum's attendant who was near the photo and received a TON of interesting information. Here are the highlights:
Queen Margrethe II has no real power in parliament, but she does have slightly more influence than, say, Queen Elizabeth II. The Prime Minister has to seek her approval for his cabinet choices (though its clear she never would/could say "no") and once a month she has a briefing about the goings-on of the country. She also gives a speech once a year on New Years Eve and apparently she's known to be quite outspoken. While she never throws her weight behind one political party or another, she definitely provides her opinions. For example, in the 1990s there was a large wave of Middle Easterners who immigrated to Denmark. They were not particularly welcome by the Danish people, so during the NYE address, the queen told off the Danish people for being haughty and racist.
The royal family lives off of an allowance provided by the government. That is to say, the taxpayers pay for the royal lifestyle. AND they paid for the wedding, seen above. Apparently the Queen had to put in an application for the funds so that the royal wedding could even take place.
All of the people in the first row are European monarchs.
The lady in the light green dress on the left and the man next to her are the king and queen of Sweden. Apparently the Swedish king is not as good as Queen Margrethe at walking the political line during his speeches and is clearly super conservative, so the Swedish people are apparently split 50/50 on whether or not to continue supporting the monarchy (in Denmark, apparently there is a 90% approval rating).
The couple next to Queen Margrethe and her Prince is the Norwegian king and queen. The Norwegian King, Danish Queen, and Swedish King are all distant cousins. Basically everyone in this photo is related somehow.
There's a lot more detailed information, but I can hardly remember it all. All of the stories and all of the relationships of these people seem to be common knowledge in Denmark (and Europe?), but it is a ton of minutiae! I guess the royalty are the original celebrities.
And with that, today's research is complete. I leave you with this picture of an awesome street dragon:
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