The Elf Of The Rose

The Elf Of The Rose
By Hans Christian Andersen

The title gave me the impression of sweet delicate things, but the tale is a rather grisly nightmare.  There is betrayal, deception, murder, and violent revenge which seems to be touted as legitimate justice: a head for a head. It's a bit difficult this was ever considered a suitable story for children.

The Old House

The Old House
By Hans Christian Andersen

What a lovely story about a young boy who befriends an old man, a neighbor he thinks is lonely, and in his own later years shares the joy of remembering with his wife when she finds the tin soldier he shared with the man years ago.  The main message of the story is articulated by the tin soldier near the end of the story: "It is delightful not to be forgotten."

One of the delights for me in this story is the description of the house.  At least twenty percent of the tale tells of the house and all its archaic but captivating details, some of which speak for themselves to the little boy.  This is much like how I viewed the world when I was a little girl:  everything had a personality, a hidden life, and a voice for my ears.  The themes of loneliness, friendship, belonging greatly resonated with me when I was very little, and still do to this day.  It is also satisfying that structurally the story winds back on itself.  Even thought the old man has died, and we don't know where they have buried him, there is a sense that all is how and where it needs to be because the kind boy has become a man and has brought love into the house with his newly wedded wife.

The Wild Swans

The Wild Swans
By Hans Christian Andersen

Beginning with "Far away in the land to which the swallows fly..." to "all the church bells rang of themselves, and the birds came in great troops," this fairy tale abounds with beautiful imagery.  However the story-line and any intended symbolic meaning sail high over my head.  To help me gain some insight, I sought a formal analysis, and found several sites citing this story.  The most interesting read, by Katherine Odom-Tomchin, can be found at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature.  The article includes many examples of some uniquely beautiful illustrations by Thomas Aquinas Maguire.  

The Ugly Duckling

The Ugly Duckling
A Tale by Hans Christian Andersen
Read from Booss' Scandinavian Folk & Fairy Tales

I remember hearing this story read by my mother from another collection of tales by Hans Christian Andersen, and I don't remember the details of the story being exactly as they are told in Booss' edition.  Two things that struck me in this version are: 1) Even the mother duck eventually was unkind to the ugly duckling and "said she wished he had never been born"!  Either that detail was not written in my childhood version of this tale, or my mother edited it out!  2) The ugly-duckling-turned-swan doesn't return to his duck family.  My recollection of the ending of this tale is that the swan either returns to his first home or his first family finds him swimming and they all recognize what a beautiful creature he is.

These differences make for a very different experience of the story and whatever "moral" it might be teaching.  My memory of the version my mother read to me was that all the characters in the story learn the truth about the swan and are transformed somehow by this revelation.  It's a very happy ending because, not only does the swan discover who he is and that he belongs somewhere, but the others who were unkind to him recognize his dignity as well.  For my child's heart, this piece of justice (that others' who once denied the swan's value, now recognize it) was very important.  I think it was important to my mother as well.  The memory (and value) deeply ingrained in my heart is that my mother used this tale to teach respecting and valuing everyone.

I'm not sure I would have internalized so powerfully the meaning my mother conveyed to me if the story had been told as I read it here.  Booss' version seems to mean: go out into the world to seek and find your identity and with whom you can experience belonging, and it might mean leaving your family, end-of-story! 

I must say, I like my mother's version better!  However, the telling of the tale here might be a truer expression of what most people experience!

Northern Tales Anthology

Scandinavian Folk & Fairy Tales, Edited by Claire Booss, published by Avenel Books of Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1984; 688 pages
Here's a picture I took of the book jacket:

This is my source for the folk and fairy tales I'll be reading next.  The book is organized by Country, with various other subsets.  I'll be starting with the tales by Hans Christian Andersen just because they are the ones with which I am most familiar.  After that I'll read other (older) tales from Denmark.  And then I'll probably read the tales in the order in which they are presented in the book.

From the back of the jacket:

The back flap credits the jacket illustrations to Swedish artist John Bauer, courtesy of the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm.