Andersen succeeded in writing for a dual audience with his children’s literature, appealing to parents who read the stories aloud to their children in addition to the children themselves. His original fairy tales were received better than his updated folk tales, and they became favorites among children as well as adults. He began writing original fairy tales of his own invention, such as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “Thumbelina,” “The Nightingale,” and “The Snow Queen.”
Andersen fleshed out the tales, adding paragraphs of description, dialogue, extra backstory, and a few plot variations.īut Andersen took a step beyond updating folk tales. While the original folk tales were relatively bare bones - they tended to be plot-driven, without much description, background, or character development. Another folk tale, “The Riddle,” inspired Andersen’s story “The Travelling Companion.” His tales is based on the folk tale “The Blue Light” (which, incidentally, is included in the Grimm collection I bought at Barnes & Noble). One example is Andersen’s story “The Tinderbox.” The story tells of a soldier who encounters a witch on a road and retrieves an object that grants him three wishes. Hans Christian Andersen took fairy tales one step further by writing new, updated versions of them. Yesterday I mentioned the Brothers Grimm collected folk tales and compiled them in volumes. April 2 is his birthday, and that date is also designated as World Children’s Book Day.
This month is an especially appropriate time to acknowledge Hans Christian Andersen.
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