Issue #14: The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen; The Father of the Modern Fairy Tale
While Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were scouring the German countryside for fragments of folklore, a gangly Danish boy was listening to the stories told by elderly women as they did their daily work in the sewing room of an insane asylum. During the time the Grimm brothers polished and published their collections of folklore, that Danish boy grew into a man who would become one of the most important figures in the field of fairy tales and folklore—Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). Over the course of his lifetime, Andersen wrote more than 200 original fairy tales including such all-time favorites as “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Little Match Girl,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Nightingale,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Red Shoes,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Steadfast Tin Soldier,” “The Tinder Box,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Wild Swans.”
In many ways, the story of Hans Christian Andersen’s life reads like one of his fairy tales. He was born into poverty as the son of a cobbler and a washerwoman, but through the combination of wry wit and sheer determination, Hans Christian Andersen rose to great heights in Danish society as a celebrated storyteller and a national treasure. Although his fame is directly linked to his children’s stories, Andersen also earned acclaim during his lifetime for his other literary work, including six novels, five travel journals, three autobiographies, and numerous poems and plays.
Andersen spent much of his youth dreaming of a life far removed from the poverty he’d been born into. Inspired by the oral folk tales told by the women in the asylum and the Arabian tales found in The Thousand and One Nights (one of the few precious books owned by Andersen’s father), he began writing at a young age. However, as much as he enjoyed telling stories, his first true love was the theater. He was known as the Nightingale of Odense, a nod to the young boy’s clear soprano voice, and was invited to perform at the homes of the town’s most wealthy residents. In 1816, his slight rise in fortunes was dashed when his father died, leaving his family even further impoverished. His mother remarried two years later, but Andersen wanted more than the life he’d led in Odense and, at the age of 14, Andersen journeyed to Copenhagen where he was determined to make his fame and fortune.
When he arrived, Andersen attempted to find work at the Royal Theatre, but was denied access to the stage. He eventually secured enough patronage to survive while he struggled to make it into the spotlight. At the age of 17, when his voice finally changed and his gangly frame outgrew ballet, Andersen was summarily dismissed and barred from a career on the stage. However, during this same time Andersen happened to catch the attention of the Royal Theater’s financial director Jonas Collin, a powerful court official who interceded on the boy’s behalf.
After reading one of Andersen’s plays, Collin felt a formal education was the key to unlocking the young writer’s literary pursuits. Collin arranged for Andersen to attend a boarding school and, later, invited Andersen into the Collin’s family home where he was able continue his education while working on what would become the foundations of a rich, literary life. Although Jonas Collins offered unwavering support of the young writer, Andersen was always aware of the class distinction between himself, an impoverished cobbler’s son, and the Collin’s family, who moved and moved in the highest circles of the Danish court.
Andersen made his literary debut in 1829 with the publication of his book A Walking Tour from the Holmen Canal to the Eastern Point of Anger and the production of his play Love on St. Nicholas Tower at the Royal Theater. Encouraged by this early success, Andersen stepped away from his studies and concentrated his attention on his writing career. Between 1830 and 1833, he published three books of poetry, which were met with praise and great interest in literary circles abroad even though his work had received unsympathetic reviews from local critics.
In May of 1835, Andersen’s work took a new direction with the publication of a volume containing his first released fairy tales: “The Tinder Box,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “Little Claus and Big Claus,” and “Little Ida’s Flowers.” He followed this up in December with a second volume containing “Thumbelina,” “The Saucy Boy,” and “The Travelling Companion.” The results were sensational.
Unlike the preaching, didactic tales written at the time for children, Andersen’s stories were filled with magic and fantasy. There are elements of Danish folklore in some of Andersen’s earlier fairy tales, but his stories went in different directions than expected. These original tales are filled with the fantastic and the strange. Unlike fairy tales taken from oral folklore that take place in dark forest of the distant past, Andersen’s stories occurred in contemporary times with events taking places in Copenhagen and other familiar settings. His informal narrative style and whimsical imagination took the literary world by surprise, and before long he was one of the most celebrated Scandinavian writers of his day.
Many of the darker elements found in Andersen’s fairy tales have been edited out of the numerous translations, adaptations, and retellings of his work. However, a closer look at the original tales reveals Andersen’s critique and commentary of the social structure of his times. Andersen’s fairy tales plumb the depth and breadth of the human condition: treachery and terror, love and loss, death and desire.
“My life will be the best illustration of all my work,” Andersen exclaimed in The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography.
And he was right. He even met Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, eventually exchanging communication with the brothers and their Cassel circle of folklore enthusiasts—once upon a time.
Andersen published his last collection of fairy tales in 1872. He died on August 4, 1875. However, nearly 150 years later, his fairy tales continue to inspire writers and artists around the globe, a continuing illustration of the life of a man whose legacy lives on.
Carina Bissett

Guest Editor
Carina is a writer, poet, and educator working primarily in the fields of speculative fiction and interstitial art. She is currently a candidate for an MFA in Creative Writing at Stonecoast and has studied with such popular writers and poets as Elizabeth Hand, Nancy Holder, David Anthony Durham, Theodora Goss, Ted Deppe, Cara Hoffman, and Cate Marvin. Her short fiction and poetry has been published in multiple journals including the Journal of Mythic Arts, Mythic Delirium, NonBinary Review, Timeless Tales, Enchanted Conversations, and The Horror ‘Zine. Her work can also be found in numerous anthologies including Hath No Fury, an anthology where women take the lead. She also fosters her passion of fairy tale and folklore through creative non-fiction including her research work at the Mythic Imagination Institute and contributions to the three-volume set American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore.

In addition to teaching creative writing at Glendale Community College and Arizona State University, she has participated in the Colorado Writing Project and works with educators to develop writing instruction in the secondary school classroom. She has taught Science Fiction Fairy Tales workshops at The Brainery as well as offering workshops focused on story generation in workshops at The Storied Imaginarium. Her fiction has been nominated for the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award and has garnered an Honorable Mention from the Ron L. Hubbard Writers of the Future Awards, her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award, and she was awarded the 2016 HWA Scholarship from the Horror Writers Association.

Hans Christian Andersen (cover)
MANDEM is a media-fluid artist conglomerate. Their work on disability poetics, the visceral body, gender and childhood is in critical dialogue with art history, religious iconography/mythology, and various -punk aesthetics. MANDEM serves as art editor for The Deaf Poets Society journal (deafpoetssociety.com). They have recently been artist-in-residence at Il Palmerino (Florence, Italy) and Negative Space Gallery (Cleveland, Ohio). MANDEM’s current painting series, Hypermobility, is documented online at www.MANDEMart.com/hypermobility.

A Child For Twelve Shillings
Sarah is a writer in Florida, currently working on a Masters in Library Science. She enjoys fairy tales and tracking down the origins of folklore. Her short fiction has appeared in Liguorian Magazine.

The Little Match Girl
Claire works as a tour guide, which means she tells mostly true stories by day, and mostly fictional stories by night. She has published several short stories under her given name.

Graffiti Tears
A.J. is a digital artist and graduate of the Stonecoast MFA writing program. Her fiction has previously appeared in Chantwood Magazine and the anthology Twice Upon A Time: Fairytale, Folklore, & Myth.

Climate Change Myths
Amy is a Lecturer in Writing at Boston University, where she teaches classes with the theme of fairy tales. She is a published poet and a playwright whose works have been staged around the Boston area.

The Downside to Being a Mermaid on Land
Christine’s work has appeared in The Normal School, River Styx, and Southeast Review, among others. She is the editor of Gingerbread House Literary Magazine.

Karen to Mother
Shari is the author of Advice from a Siren. Her work can be found at Gulf Coast, Zoetic Press, Blue Lyra Review, and Deluge and is forthcoming from Timber. She has worked on the VIDA Count, and at Sugar House Review and Soundings East.

Snow Queen
Tina has published poems in Dark Mountain Review, Black Lawrence Press, bosque(the magazine), and Blue Mesa Review, among others, and is the author of Ground, Wind, this Body, published March 2017 by UNM Press.

Transformations
Laura writes about travel and fairy tales, and she enjoys subtly queering everything she touches. Her previous work has appeared in Global Impressions, Go Overseas, and Renaissance Magazine.

Tinderbox
Jenn’s poems and stories have appeared in America, Parabola, and NonBinary Review’s own A Study in Scarlet issue (“Pinker’s Study”) and Write Like You’re Alive anthology (“In retrospect”). She teaches English in Paris.

The Two Nightingales
Sara and Brittany are co-founders of The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic. Their work can be found in Liminality, Uncanny, recompose, Goblin Fruit, Apex, Faerie Magazine, and Through the Gate.

The Princess and the Prince
Rachel’s work has been published in Adelaide Literary Journal, Halfway Down the Stairs, Metamorphoses, Aether & Ichor, Manawaker Anthology, and ‘Nuff Said.

Unaccounted For
Christina holds an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University, and her fiction has previously appeared in NonBinary Review, Jabberwock Review, Rose Red Review, and others.

Thumbelina
Gray is a queer writer and occasional performer who often writes in the boundary between flash-fiction and poetry. Her writing has been published in journals such as Firewords Quarterly, Northwords Now and Litro.

The Shoes
Deborah was raised in Reno, Nevada, but she received her MA in English from Penn State. She currently lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and son. For more about her work, please see www.edda-earth.com.

I Set My Ship to the Brightest Star
J.R. is an active SFWA member. She has been seen in Escape Pod, Mothership Zeta, Eclectica, and The MFA Years. Dawson has a forthcoming story in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Rekinding
Kelsey’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of literary publications, such as Liminal, concis, Cicada, and Spark Anthology. Her YA story “Starfishing” is available on audible.com.

Thumbelina Leaves
Barbara is founding editor of the Baltimore Review. Her fiction and poetry have been published in Quiddity, Potomac Review (Best of the 50), Measure, Little Patuxent Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, NANO Fiction, Per Contra, Thrush Poetry Journal, Tishman Review, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Red Shoes
Roberta’s poems have appeared in Antioch Review and The Gettysburg Review, among others. Her second chapbook Herald won the 2016 Coal Hill Review Chapbook Contest, and was published by Autumn House Press in 2017.

The Tin Platoon
Jeff’s fiction has appeared in the Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Journal, Shenandoah, the Saturday Evening Post, So It Goes by the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, Deep South Magazine, East Bay Review, and Steam Ticket.

Snowblinded
Lisa’s essays, journalism, fiction, and poetry have been in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, HealthyLife, The Jewish Daily Forward, POEM, Stand, West Wind Review, Lullwater Review, and the anthology Mermaids in the Basement (Sundress Publications).

Солнце, Mermaid, кай и снежная королева, Волшебница, and королева
Kin’ko, a Ukrainian painter, studied in the school of art in Nikolayev and later Academy of Arts in Kharkov, Ukraine. Lives and works in Kharkov and Moscow. She has illustrated 21 books.

Sea Legs
Milo’s poems appear or will soon appear in The Kenyon Review, The Grief Diaries, The Fem, Crab Fat Magazine, Potluck Magazine, and Anomaly. He is an MFA candidate at Mills College. You can follow him on twitter @miloemilyg.

Charlotte Asleep, Wild Swans, Queen Whispering
Yvonne has worked with major publishing companies, magazines, design groups and advertising agencies worldwide. Yvonne’s provocative and innovative record sleeve for Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” was recently chosen by “Q” magazine to be one of “the 100 Best Record Sleeves of All Time” and termed a “Design Classic” by BBC Television. Yvonne’s work has won many major national and international awards and her originals sell in galleries both in the UK and the USA. Her work is held in private collections including those of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the late H.R.H. Princess Margaret, Larry & Barbara Seeborg and Monica Seeborg.

Yvonne has the rare accomplishment of having been invited to illustrate and design three sets of postage stamps for the Royal Mail in the United Kingdom; Christmas 1984, Arthurian Legends 1985, and Christmas 1994. These have led to her being awarded the following international awards: Il Franco Bollo d’Or (The Golden Stamp Award), Gran Premio del’Arte Filatelica (The World’s Most Beautiful Stamp).

The Princess and Her Pea
Jack is a librarian in Kansas.

Unalloyed
Stephanie is a 4 time Pushcart Prize nominee and a flash fiction prize winner for her Little Red Riding Hood reboot, “Red.” Her fabulist novel The Puppet Turners of Narrow Interior appeared in 2015 with Urban Farmhouse Press.

On Account of the Living
David has had stories published in Flame Tree Publishing, Cast of Wonders, Elder Signs Press, Zoetic Press/NonBinary Review, Drunk Monkeys Literary, and Dark Chapter Press. He is working on his first novel.

The Leap Frog
Dean has had poems published in Talking Stick, Native Realities, and Garbaj; an essay in the anthology Unraveling the Spreading Cloth of Time, and a short story in the anthology When Spirits Visit.

Sambucus canadensis
Sonja has work in the Best American Poetry blog, BOAAT, Epiphany, and The Writer’s Almanac. She is a contributing editor at the Eastern Iowa Review, and the author of Impossible Dovetail, all those ragged scars, and Trees in Our Dooryards.

The Nightingale Incident
Kate writes non-fiction, speculative, and dark fiction, as well as the occasional children’s book. Her work has appeared in New England Post, HyperInk, and Activity Maine.

How to Catch a Princess: Method 117
Sarah writes poetry and short stories, and reviews for For Books’ Sake, which champions women’s writing. She loves storytelling, from personal anecdotes to spine-chilling tales, preferably in a tent.

The Guilty Victim
Catherine is a polyamorous queer trans woman living in Niagara Falls, NY with her girlfriend Alice. Her poetry has appeared in Rabbit Ears: TV Poems, The Lake, The Opiate, and One Sentence Poems.

Don’t Forget the Tinderbox
Jennifer teaches English at Central New Mexico Community College. She has published work in Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Necessary Fiction, and Gingerbread House Literary Magazine among others.

The Long Night of the Last Swan Prince
Marie is an writer, editor, jewelry designer, ordained EGC priestess, and… her work has been published in Gargoyle, Nonbinary Review, Orbis, and other journals. Her new chapbook, Fourth Planet From the Sun, will be published in Autumn 2017 by Rum Razor Press.

Water Damage
Tanis is the author of three books of poetry, including Rue the Day. Recent poems have appeared in The Mondegreen, FreeFall, Canthius, and Poetry is Dead. Her next poetry book, Mobile, is coming out soon.

Shovels & Ladders
Matt writes short fiction in the Thousand Oaks library until the staff makes him go home, or at least to the 24 hour Jack in the Box. His short story “Unseen Among Kings” received a 2016 Pushcart Award nomination.

Elsewhere
Marietta’s award-winning haiku, haibun and haiga appear in journals and anthologies and have featured on Japanese television. She belongs to the Australian and British Haiku Societies, and the Haiku Society of America.

Eleven Times Elisa
Toti’s work has most recently appeared in Masque & Spectacle, Feminine Inquiry, Indiana Voices, and Italian Americana.

Oooo LA LA: or The Empress Liang Chi’s New Clothes
Julia is the author of Appalachian Odyssey, and Boris Vian Invents Boris Vian. New essays-stories-poems appear in Uproooted, Poet Showcase, and Zoomorphic.

Emperor
Laura is editor of Virga Magazine. Her work has appeared in Rust + Moth, Crab Creek Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and HYPERTEXT. Her chapbook, Children, Apostates, is available from Dancing Girl Press.

The Anglerfish Strategy
Irene’s love of speculative fiction can be traced back to her first grade teacher, who read the Neverending Story to the class. Her work has appeared in Electric Spec, and is upcoming in Gaslandia: a Dieselpunk Anthology.

In the Field of Flowers, The Little Tree
Brian is an illustrator who uses different media: watercolors, pen and ink, etchings, block prints, digital and mixtures of all of these. His on-line portfolio is at https://www.brianquinnstudio.com/

The Wicked Child
Erin graduated from Lycoming College where she studied history and creative writing and how to combine the two. She has had a poem published in “The Snow Queen” issue of Timeless Tales Magazine.

The Snow Queen’s Daughter
Sean writes science fiction and fantasy.He has been a professional fire breather, spelunker, horse-back rider, and cat dad. You can find him (with growing frequency) on Twitter @Kesterian This selection originally appeared in Metaphorosis (January 2016).

The Child in the Cradle-Grave
B.E. is the author of numerous novels, short stories, poems, and articles. Published work, interviews, and odd scribblings can be found at bescully.com.

Witches’ Hearts
Tamara is a widely published writer living in Bainbridge Island, WA. She works as a sleep health educator, full-time healthcare journalist, and MS activist.

Cut Down the Tall Poppies
Samantha has published work in Conjunctions, DIAGRAM, and other magazines.

Dear H.C. Andersen
Heather is a speculative fiction writer who has been featured in Curiosity Quills anthologies Gears of Brass and Cast No Shadows, as well as in Enchanted Conversation. She is the managing editor of Newtown Literary.

The Tide
Nathan is a writer living in Portland. His work has appeared in many publications including Drunk Monkeys, Five2One, Red Fez, and Hobo Camp Review. He’s the author of four chapbooks, including Lullabies to a Whiskey Bottle.

Swan Song
Jourdan has a Masters in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Her work has been published in the Abundant Grace anthology. She is sporadically on Twitter @JourdanBlue.

Little Match Girl 2017
Jane is the author of over 360 published books, mostly for children, but at least 9 published poetry collections for adults from such publishers as Algonquin, Harcourt, Holy!Cow, others. She is the 2017 Damon Knight Grandmaster of ScienceFiction and Fantasy given by the SFWA organization.

Girl and Womanhood
Laura placed as a finalist in the Montana Book Festival’s 2017 Regional Emerging Writer’s Contest and her work can be seen in The Manifest-Station, Trib Talk, and Sundog Literary Magazine.

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