Hans Christian Anderson was a dreamer, who migrated between fantasy and reality world while becoming one of the world’s most famous fairy tale writers.
Are He died on August 4, 1875 in Copenhagen, but their stories live in children’s rooms, theater stels and movie screens.
His greens often have characters that are rejected by the society. They are stories of human weakness, pain and craving, but so much beauty.
The author’s children’s stories are their greatest legacy, and the Hans Christian Anderson Award is the highest international recognition given to the author and Illustrator of children’s books.
There are five reasons here that Hans Christian Anderson remains relevant 150 years after his death.
1. From childhood to the artist who struggled
Born on 2 April 1805, Anderson grew up in humble conditions in a city Odense in Southern Denmark. His father was a cobbler, his mother was a laundress and an alcoholic. Her aunt ran a brothel. During Anderson’s childhood, his family struggled to eat at the table. He attended a local school for poor children. He loved books and theater and started writing his first stories.
At the age of 14, he went to Copenhagen and met the director of the Royal Danish Theater, who took Anderson under his wing and nurtured his talent. By the time the author turned 30, the whole of Europe was fascinated by his poems, plays, two novels and the first section of “Fairy Tales for Children”.
But Manyata withdrew her home in Denmark, where critics took their fairy tales as “harmful” and “non -protected”.
But Anderson’s mythological stories reduced his global fame and Denmark eventually celebrated his talent as he received protection and travel grants from the Danish king.
2. Subtle social criticism to protest against justice
Look behind the fairy tale sheen of Anderson’s stories, you will often find criticism of subtle satire or power, pride and social injustice.
“The Emperor’s new clothes” is a parable about pride and fear of contradictory rights – a subject that is more relevant than social media ages.
The stories of some children are as touching as the story of a little girl trying to sell the match on the eve of the new year of a cold. The next day she met on the road, frozen and namless for death.
Anderson did not just write “The Little Match Girl” to feel us. This is as a social criticism: a silent opposition against poverty and apathy towards the victim’s indifference.
“Ugly ducking,” is often interpreted as autobiographical, belongs to the success story of an insulted outsider, a misunderstanding girl’s life, despite many failures, fulfills his dream and turns into a beautiful goose. As Hans Christian Anderson once said: “It doesn’t matter that you are born in a duck yard, so unless you are composed of a goose egg!”
“The Little Marmed” is a metaphor for craving for another world and a desire to sacrifice someone’s own for love. In this story, the main hero falls in love with a prince and sacrifices his voice to live with him as a human. But he marries something else. Finally, she dissolves in the sea and becomes a “daughter of air”, gave an opportunity to earn an immortal soul through good works.
Stories give the family of emotions tune to people, whether they are in the world, where they are: the discovery of love and identity, the hope of recognition, the power of personal change. And the fact is that life does not always give us a pleasant end. Thesis messages are timeless.
3. Life marked with fear and eccentricity
Anderson was a Kolaofen character, highly sensitive and filled with idosyncrasies at the same time. He was suffering from ecstasy, mood swings and hypocondria. Hey what is afraid of dogs and robbery. When he made a bad review, he roamed the floor in anger. While traveling, he always takes a rope with him so that he can get out of burning hotels in an emergency.
Anderson was suffering from a clear fear of being buried alive, so it is known as teffobia. Fearing that when he slept, he could be wrong for the dead, he left notes on his bedside table with words: “I only appear dead.”
Originally planned as a letter for Charles Dickens’ house in London, which was a five -week long long time for the British writer’s Chagrin, which left the unique guest finally. On a mirror in the guest room, Dickens said: “Hans Anderson used to sleep in this room for five weeks – which seemed at the age of the family!”
4. Fairy tales with a deep message for young and old
Anderson did not write to entertain children with stories about beautiful princesses and great knights. Their stories of animals and magical creatures have a complex story with many layers of subjects and emotions, which discovers as a longing, loss, death and identity.
Thesis is often a moral message in fairy tales. At the same time evil is being punished, goodness, kindness and compassion are rewarded. The author tried to strengthen positive values and morality positively during his stories.
5. A heritage that spreads the world
The works of Hans Christian Anderson have been translated into more than 150 languages, and motifs from his stories can still be found in theater, music, ballet, comics and films.
Disney made her fairies’ stories world famous: films like “The Little Marmed” are based on the story of Dane of the same name; While wildly successful “Frozen” franchise was inspired by “The Snow Queen”.
His characters have become a global icon – from the Marmed statue in Copenhagen to the memorial dedicated to him in the Central Park in New York.
150 years after Anderson’s death, his stories live on it because they are more than just fairy tales: they catch a mirror for human fall – and change.
This article was original in German.
