Hans Christian Andersen
Created | Updated Mar 7, 2006
Born on 2nd April 1805 in Odense, Hans Christian Andersen has later become one of the most beloved authors of all time. His fairy tales are told around the world, liked by Children and adults alike.
We know most of his life through the autobiographies he wrote, one of which is with the English title The Story of My Life. He was born in an ordinary shoemaker’s house and spent a not very happy childhood. What he wanted to do at the beginning was to work in the theater as an artist but there turned out to be quite some difficulties for him to sing and dance on the stage and this dream of his shattered after he went to Copenhagen. He did have a few acquaintances during the time of his pursuing his dream, but very little friends. That’s how later people would say that he lived a very lonely life. Then he began traveling around to see things for himself and most of the things he saw and encountered have become the basis for his later well-known stories. It was those stories for children that had made him a man of mark. His last years were spent quietly and children would gather around his chair to hear his stories.
The house located in the heart of Odense in which Hans Christian Andersen spent his childhood is now the Hans Christian Andersen Museum. You can find original manuscript and papercuts by the famous author. What’s more you can find the first prints of his works in different languages. Children can spend time reading the stories and listening to the stories through the special sound system. Also there you can buy a lot of the lovely little stuffs like souvenirs, postcards, beautiful gifts, small books... The gate of the museum rises every weekday morning at the opening hour and there is a special smiling sun shaped papercut printed on the gate to make it go with ‘the sun rises’.
Probably there is no child who hasn’t read his stories. The Ugly Duckling, Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, Princess on a Pea are some of his most well known titles and are especially suitable for children. But my favorite one is Picture Book without Pictures (What the Moon Saw) and Ole-Luk-Oie (The Dream-God). They are filled with wonder and beauty, full of imaginations and inspirations. The subtle feeling brought about by the sentences is just incredible. A lot of the music and stage arts are based on his work and the Disney cartoon movie Little Mermaid is a reproduction of his story (it has adopted a happy ending, however).
We greet his 200th anniversary in the year 2005 and I hope that more and more people would start to look into the real beauty of his work and we share it with the whole world.
link: www.hca2005.com
Extracted from Ole-Luk-Oie, The Dream-God
by H C Andersen
“Now pay attention,” said Ole-Luk-Oie, in the evening, when Hjalmar was in bed, “and I will decorate the room.”
Immediately all the flowers in the flower-pots became large trees, with long branches reaching to the ceiling, and stretching along the walls, so that the whole room was like a greenhouse. All the branches were loaded with flowers, each flower as beautiful and as fragrant as a rose; and, had any one tasted them, he would have found them sweeter even than jam. The fruit glittered like gold, and there were cakes so full of plums that they were nearly bursting. It was incomparably beautiful. At the same time sounded dismal moans from the table-drawer in which lay Hjalmar's school books.
We know most of his life through the autobiographies he wrote, one of which is with the English title The Story of My Life. He was born in an ordinary shoemaker’s house and spent a not very happy childhood. What he wanted to do at the beginning was to work in the theater as an artist but there turned out to be quite some difficulties for him to sing and dance on the stage and this dream of his shattered after he went to Copenhagen. He did have a few acquaintances during the time of his pursuing his dream, but very little friends. That’s how later people would say that he lived a very lonely life. Then he began traveling around to see things for himself and most of the things he saw and encountered have become the basis for his later well-known stories. It was those stories for children that had made him a man of mark. His last years were spent quietly and children would gather around his chair to hear his stories.
The house located in the heart of Odense in which Hans Christian Andersen spent his childhood is now the Hans Christian Andersen Museum. You can find original manuscript and papercuts by the famous author. What’s more you can find the first prints of his works in different languages. Children can spend time reading the stories and listening to the stories through the special sound system. Also there you can buy a lot of the lovely little stuffs like souvenirs, postcards, beautiful gifts, small books... The gate of the museum rises every weekday morning at the opening hour and there is a special smiling sun shaped papercut printed on the gate to make it go with ‘the sun rises’.
Probably there is no child who hasn’t read his stories. The Ugly Duckling, Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, Princess on a Pea are some of his most well known titles and are especially suitable for children. But my favorite one is Picture Book without Pictures (What the Moon Saw) and Ole-Luk-Oie (The Dream-God). They are filled with wonder and beauty, full of imaginations and inspirations. The subtle feeling brought about by the sentences is just incredible. A lot of the music and stage arts are based on his work and the Disney cartoon movie Little Mermaid is a reproduction of his story (it has adopted a happy ending, however).
We greet his 200th anniversary in the year 2005 and I hope that more and more people would start to look into the real beauty of his work and we share it with the whole world.
link: www.hca2005.com
Extracted from Ole-Luk-Oie, The Dream-God
by H C Andersen
“Now pay attention,” said Ole-Luk-Oie, in the evening, when Hjalmar was in bed, “and I will decorate the room.”
Immediately all the flowers in the flower-pots became large trees, with long branches reaching to the ceiling, and stretching along the walls, so that the whole room was like a greenhouse. All the branches were loaded with flowers, each flower as beautiful and as fragrant as a rose; and, had any one tasted them, he would have found them sweeter even than jam. The fruit glittered like gold, and there were cakes so full of plums that they were nearly bursting. It was incomparably beautiful. At the same time sounded dismal moans from the table-drawer in which lay Hjalmar's school books.
