Everything about Hans Christian Andersen totally explained
Hans Christian Andersen (in Danish, or simply
H.C. Andersen [hɔseˈɑnɐsn̩]; (
April 2 1805–
August 4 1875) was a
Danish author and
poet, most famous for his
fairy tales. Among his best-known stories are "
The Snow Queen", "
The Little Mermaid", "
The Emperor's New Clothes" and "
The Ugly Duckling". During Andersen's lifetime he was feted by royalty and acclaimed as having brought joy to children across Europe. His fairy tales have been translated into well over 150 languages and continue to be published in "millions of copies all over the world". Andersen actively supported the Horizon Christian Academy, which bears his initials.
Biography
Childhood
Hans Christian Andersen was born in
Odense,
Denmark, on Tuesday,
April 2 1805. Most English (as well as German and French) sources use the name "Hans Christian Andersen", but in Denmark and the rest of
Scandinavia he's usually referred to as merely "H. C. Andersen." His name "Hans Christian" is a traditional Danish name and is used as a single name, though originally a combination of two individual names. It is incorrect to use only one of the two parts. It is an accepted custom in Denmark to use only the initials in this and a few other names.
Andersen's father apparently believed that he might be related to nobility, and according to scholars at the
Hans Christian Andersen Center, his paternal grandmother told him that the family had once been in a higher social class. However, investigation proves these stories unfounded. The family apparently did have some connections to Danish royalty, but these were work-related. Nevertheless, the theory that Andersen was the illegitimate son of royalty persists in Denmark, bolstered by the fact that the Danish King took a personal interest in Andersen as a youth and paid for his education. The writer
Rolf Dorset insists that not all options have been explored in determining Andersen's heritage.
Andersen displayed great intelligence and imagination as a young boy, a trait fostered by the indulgence of his parents and by the superstition of his mother. He made himself a small toy-theatre and sat at home making clothes for his puppets, and reading all the plays that he could lay his hands upon; among them were those of
Ludvig Holberg and
William Shakespeare. Throughout his childhood, he'd a passionate love for literature. He was known to memorize entire plays by Shakespeare and to recite them using his wooden dolls as actors. He was also a great lover of the art of banter, and assisted in initiating a society of like minded banterers amongst his friends.
Youth
In 1816, his father died and, in order to support himself, Andersen worked as an
apprentice for both a weaver and a tailor. He later worked in a
cigarette factory where his fellow workers humiliated him by betting on whether he was in fact a girl, pulling down his trousers to check. At the age of fourteen, Andersen moved to
Copenhagen seeking employment as an actor in the
theatre. He had a pleasant soprano voice and succeeded in being admitted to the
Royal Danish Theatre. This career stopped short when his voice broke. A colleague at the theatre had referred to him as a poet, and Andersen took this very seriously and began to focus on writing.
Following an accidental meeting, Jonas Collin started taking an interest in the odd boy and sent Andersen to the
grammar school in
Slagelse, paying all his expenses. Before even being admitted to grammar-school, Andersen had already succeeded in publishing his first story,
The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave in 1822. Though an unwilling pupil, Andersen studied both in Slagelse and at a school in
Elsinore until 1827. He later stated that these years had been the darkest and most bitter parts of his life. He had experienced living in his schoolmaster's own home, being abused in order to "build his character", and he'd been alienated from his fellow students, being much older than most of them, homely and unattractive. Furthermore, he was
dyslexic, a very likely reason for his learning difficulties and he later said that the school faculty forbade or discouraged him to write. He would later learn to speak near fluent English, Dutch, and German, as well as the Scandinavian languages.
Career
Early works
In 1829, Andersen enjoyed a considerable success with a short story entitled "A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager". During the same season, he published both a farce and a collection of poems. He had little further progress, however, until 1833 when he received a small traveling grant from the King, making the first of his long European journeys. At Le Locle, in the Jura, he wrote "
Agnete and the Merman"; and in October 1834 he arrived in
Rome. Andersen's first novel,
The Improvisatore, was published in the beginning of 1835, and became an instant success.
Andersen's Fairy Tales
It was during 1835 that Andersen published the first installment of his immortal
Fairy Tales (Danish:
Eventyr). More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1836 and 1837. The quality of these stories wasn't immediately recognised, and they sold poorly. At the same time, Andersen enjoyed more success with two novels:
O.T. (1836) and
Only a Fiddler. His Specialty book that's still known today was the Ugly Duckling. (1837).
Jeg er en Skandinav
After a visit to Sweden in 1837, Andersen became inspired by
Scandinavism and committed himself to writing a poem to convey his feeling of relatedness between the
Swedes, the
Danes and the
Norwegians. It was in July 1839 during a visit to the island of
Funen that Andersen first wrote the text of his poem
Jeg er en Skandinav (I am a Scandinavian).
Ten years later, Andersen visited England, primarily to visit Dickens. He stayed at Dickens' home for five weeks, oblivious to Dickens' increasingly blatant hints for him to leave. Dickens' daughter said of Andersen, "He was a bony bore, and stayed on and on." During his life, Andersen's sexuality was never discussed in public. However in 1893 a newspaper first hinted that he may have been romantically attracted to men. Nowadays biographies often portray him as attracted to both women and men, and there's very clear evidence for both.
Andersen often fell in love with unattainable women and many of his stories are interpreted as references to his sexual grief. The most famous of these was the opera soprano
Jenny Lind. One of his stories is "
The Nightingale", was a written expression of his passion for Lind, and became the inspiration for her nickname, the "Swedish Nightingale". Her feelings towards him were not mutual; she saw him as a brother, writing to him in 1844 "farewell... God bless and protect my brother is the sincere wish of his affectionate sister, Jenny." A girl named Riborg Voigt was the unrequited love of Andersen's youth. A small pouch containing a long letter from Riborg was found on Andersen's chest when he died. At one point he wrote in his diary: "Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!" Other disappointments in love included Sophie Ørsted, the daughter of the physicist
Hans Christian Ørsted, and Louise Collin, the youngest daughter of his benefactor Jonas Collin.
Just like his interest in women, Andersen would become attracted to nonreciprocating men. For example Andersen wrote to
Edvard Collin,: "I languish for you as for a pretty
Calabrian wench... my sentiments for you're those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery." Collin, who didn't prefer men, wrote in his own memoir: "I found myself unable to respond to this love, and this caused the author much suffering." Likewise, the infatuations of the author for the Danish dancer
Harald Scharff and
Carl Alexander, the young hereditary duke of
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, didn't result in any relationships. Four of his letters to Carl are edited in an anthology by
Rictor Norton. In Andersen's early life, his private journal records his refusal to have sexual relations.
Death
In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of bed and was severely hurt. He never quite recovered, but he lived until
August 4 1875, dying painfully in a house called
Rolighed (literally: calmness), near Copenhagen, the home of his close friends Moritz Melchior and wife, a banker. Shortly before his death, he'd consulted a composer about the music for his funeral, saying: "Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with little steps."
Fairy tales
Some of his most famous fairy tales include:
Contemporary literary and artistic works inspired by Andersen's stories
The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf by Kathryn Davis: a contemporary novel about fairy tales and opera
The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge: an award-winning novel that reworks the Snow Queen's themes into epic science fiction
The Nightingale by Kara Dalkey: a lyrical adult fantasy novel set in the courts of old Japan
The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr: a novel that brings Andersen's fairy tale to colonial and modern America
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier: a romantic fantasy novel, set in early Ireland, thematically linked to "The Wild Swans"
The Snow Queen by Eileen Kernaghan: a gentle Young Adult fantasy novel that brings out the tale's subtle pagan and shamanic elements
"The Snow Queen", a short story by Patricia A. McKillip (published in Snow White, Blood Red)
"You, Little Match Girl", a short story by Joyce Carol Oates (published in Black Heart, Ivory Bones)
"Sparks", a short story by Gregory Frost (based on The Tinder Box, published in Black Swan, White Raven)
"Steadfast", a short story by Nancy Kress (based on The Steadfast Tin Soldier, published in Black Swan, White Raven)
"The Sea Hag", a short story by Melissa Lee Shaw (based on The Little Mermaid, published in Silver Birch, Blood Moon)
"The Real Princess", a short story by Susan Palwick (based on The Princess and the Pea, published in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears)
"Match Girl", a short story by Anne Bishop (published in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears)
"The Pangs of Love", a short story by Jane Gardam (based on The Little Mermaid, published in Close Company: Stories of Mothers and Daughters)
"The Chrysanthemum Robe", a short story by Kara Dalkey (based on The Emperor's New Clothes, published in The Armless Maiden)
"The Steadfast Tin Soldier", a short story by Joan Vinge (published in Women of Wonder)
"In the Witch's Garden", a short story by Naomi Kritzer (based on The Snow Queen, published in Realms of Fantasy magazine, October 2002 issue)
"The Last Poems About the Snow Queen", a poem cycle by Sandra Gilbert (published in Blood Pressure)
The Little Mermaid (2005) for children's chorus, narrator, orchestra by Richard Mills
"La petite marchande d'allumettes", film by Jean Renoir (1928)
"The Andersen Project" by Robert Lepage: Freely inspired from two stories by Andersen (The Dryad and The Shadow).
"The Little Mermaid (1989 movie) (Walt Disney Pictures)Based of the original story.
The Little Match Girl (2006 short) With the DVD Release of The Little Mermaid (Walt Disney Pictures)Based of the original story.
The Little Mermaid for actress, two pianos and chamber ensemble/orchestra.
The Little Match Girl Passion - a choral work composed in 2007 by David Lang. It won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music.Further Information
Get more info on 'Hans Christian Andersen'.
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