The Complete Fairy Tales
Page 123
THE GARDENER AND HIS MASTER was neither known nor published before it appeared in this collection. It is a story of our time, and that, I believe, accounts for its success. It has been read aloud and dramatized and on all occasions has met with immediate approval. In my youth it was usual for one of the numbers at a concert to be a recitation—almost always a poem. The excellent actress Miss Jorgensen from the Royal Theater was the first person who attempted to read aloud one of my fairy tales as part of such a program. Since then many of my stories have been read in concert halls, especially CLOD HANS, THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES, THE COLLAR, and IT IS PERFECTLY TRUE!
At Christmas, 1872, came the second booklet, which later was part of the third volume of New Fairy Tales and Stories, with a poetic dedication to “Rolighed.”
Outside of Copenhagen near the limekiln is the estate, Rolighed (Quietude). In the older parts of the building there lived, many years ago, the wife of General Hegermann-Lindencrone. This woman had written a play about Eleanora Ulfeldt and some short stories. Later H. C. Oersted lived here. The present owner is a businessman. Moritz Melchior; and he has rebuilt the old house so that it now resembles the little royal castle, Rosenborg. Here I have been given a summer home, and here many of my later stories and fairy tales have been written. All of the four in the present little booklet were written at Rolighed:
THE STORY OLD JOHANNA TOLD
THE FRONT DOOR KEY
THE CRIPPLE
AUNTIE TOOTHACHE
I can make a few remarks and give some explanations concerning these too. In my childhood I saw in Odense a man who looked like a skeleton; his complexion was sallow and he was only skin and bone. An old woman, who often told me fairy tales and ghost stories, explained to me why he looked so dreadful: “The pot was put on to boil for him while he was in a foreign country.” When a young man was traveling abroad, even though he was far away, his sweetheart—when she could bear his absence no longer—would go to a wise woman and persuade her to put “the pot over the fire for him.” In this there was a witch’s brew, and it boiled day and night. No matter where in the world the young man was, he would have to get up and go, as fast as he could, back to the sweetheart who was longing for him. When he finally arrived home he would be only skin and bone; and sometimes he would remain so for the rest of his life. That was what had happened to the man I had seen. The story made a very deep impression upon me, and it is the basis for THE STORY OLD JOHANNA TOLD.
In THE FRONT DOOR KEY, I have also used superstition’s knowledge. Not so many years ago, also in Copenhagen, the “dancing table” played a role. Many people tried it, even folk of intelligence and intellectual standing; and some actually believed that there were spirits in tables and other furniture. In Germany, on a large estate owned by enlightened, intelligent people, I was made acquainted with the spirits of keys. Keys could tell about everything, and many people believed what they said. I have in the story THE FRONT DOOR KEY explained the way this worked and its importance, although I have set the story some years before my own initiation into “key knowledge.” The visit, which the grocer who lives in the cellar makes in the middle of the night to the councilman, in order to discuss his daughter’s “education for the theater,” is an incident I experienced.
THE CRIPPLE is one of the last stories that I have written—and perhaps ever will write; and I believe that it is one of my best stories. As a kind of homage to the fairy tale as a literary form, it might have been a fitting close to the whole collection, but AUNTIE TOOTHACHE was the last to be conceived and written down.
My Complete Fairy Tales and Stories have been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. Both in my native land and far out in the world, they have been read by young and old alike. No greater blessing could be given any man than to have experienced such happiness in his own life. I have now lived to be an old man—the Bible’s “three score and ten”—so the happy performance must be nearing its end. At this Christmas, I bring together what remains of my wealth: 156 fairy tales and stories. Let my last words be the violinist’s remark in THE PEN AND THE INKWELL: if what I have accomplished has any value, “The honor is God’s alone!”
Rolighed, 1874 H. C. Andersen