COURSE OF THE FOREIGN LITERATURE

FAIRY TALES 

by H.C. Andersen

Project Presentations

“Don’t trust pot plants. They have spent too much time with people.”

Hans Christian Andersen

As today, in Hans Christian Andersen’s day, opinions were also divided about the tall, gangly person from the provinces. He might not have fitted in exactly, but he also insisted on sticking out. Hans Christian Andersen was and is something special, full of contradictions, nuances and facets.

Throughout his life, the poet devoted his enormous talent to a crucial task; to understand oneself and what it means to be human. His life and art make the world a richer, deeper and more wonderful place.  

Without comparison, Hans Christian Andersen is the most famous Dane in the world, and even in his own day, he achieved tremendous fame. As today, opinions about him were divided back then – especially in Denmark.

He was not just a writer. He was also a paper cutter, an illustrator, a singer and a flower arranger. He was multi-talented with a special eye for the potential offered by materials. Almost everything he touched turned to art.

Restlessness drove Andersen towards new horizons. An impatient man, he always longed to be elsewhere, explaining how he became one of the most widely travelled people of the 19th century. The world and his trunk were his home.

Hans Christian Andersen was an innovator and an inventor. Words, paper clips, photography – everything was potential material for his innovative play. Literature was revolutionized, and proverbs and expressions we take for granted today were invented by him.

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