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Tollit referrentur contentiones an sed. Ius tacimates defini tione, quoprimatum dicunt labitur te. Te debet tibique.
Is talent born, brewed, or borrowed?
Reading Time: 7 minutes | Age Limit: 8-12 | Country Origin: Denmark
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“Hans Christian Andersen: From Struggles to Fairy Tales”
Meet our dreamer:
The inspiring true story of a boy named Hans Christian Andersen, who dreamed big even when nothing seemed to go right. From a clumsy singer to a rejected playwright, his journey was full of failure—but also full of stories. Follow his magical rise from a lonely, bullied child to the legendary author of fairy tales like The Ugly Duckling and The Little Match Girl. A heartwarming reminder that sometimes, the greatest talents bloom from the deepest struggles.
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The Tale of the Tale-Maker
Is talent born, brewed, or borrowed?
. Long ago, there lived a lanky boy in the cold city of Odense, Denmark. He was slender with such long nose and bigger dreams, that you wouldn’t miss him in a busy street. He loved stories more than toys, and imagined whole worlds just by looking at theatre posters.
His parents were poor but kind. His shoemaker father read him tales from faraway lands, and his washerwoman mother was illiterate, and couldn’t read any books. So, she told him stories from Danish folklores. His father made him a little theatre for puppet shows, and this fueled little boy’s imagination.
When his father died, the boy moved with his mother to the grand city of Copenhagen. He had been fascinated by the theatre from a young age, and had delighted in seeing a live performance on the rare occasions when he had gone to the theatre with his parents. He hoped to become an actor, singer, or dancer at the royal theatre.
But no matter how hard he tried, singing, dancing or acting nothing worked. His voice cracked, his feet stumbled, and the judges shook their heads.
Do you think the little boy had any talent?
Still, he didn’t give up. He worked at the theatre doing small jobs and started writing little plays. he wrote two plays, and submitted them in the hopes of seeing them performed. The theatre managers rejected both the plays, but summoned Andersen, and told him that his work needed to be refined.
. They offered to send him to grammar school on a grant from the state so that he could get a basic education. His writing wasn’t perfect, but a few kind people saw promise. He joined the Grammar School, where he had to start learning right from the beginning, in a class with much younger students. He was mocked and bullied by the other students, and treated harshly by the headmaster.
After his studies in the University in Copenhagen, a few of his first writings were first published. With the grant money he received, he used it to travel across Europe, collecting strange, beautiful stories of those places. He kept writing, writing, writing—plays, poems, and novels—but none became famous
Then one day, he wrote a story that he had created using his imagination as a child. The new shoes he was given for his first Communion were transformed into the red shoes in the story of the same name. Then he wrote another story about his mother’s flower-boxes with their flowers and herbs in a story of a Snow Queen. Then another. And another. They were full of magic, sadness, and hope—like the story of a poor girl with a match box in the snow, or an odd duck who became a swan.
Then one day, he wrote a story that he had created using his imagination as a child. The new shoes he was given for his first Communion were transformed into the red shoes in the story of the same name. Then he wrote another story about his mother’s flower-boxes with their flowers and herbs in a story of a Snow Queen. Then another. And another. They were full of magic, sadness, and hope—like the story of a poor girl with a match box in the snow, or an odd duck who became a swan.
The world loved them. Readers young and old began to treasure these tales, never knowing that the boy behind them had once failed at everything he tried. The world came to know him as the remarkable story teller, but not everyone knew that he was also an enthusiastic amateur paper cutter.
. And that is how a boy named Hans Christian Andersen—once a poor dreamer with no success—became one of the greatest fairy tale writers the world has ever known. Andersen wrote his stories just as he would have told them. “The real ones come of themselves,” he said. “They knock at my forehead and say, ‘Here I am.”
. And that is how a boy named Hans Christian Andersen—once a poor dreamer with no success—became one of the greatest fairy tale writers the world has ever known. Andersen wrote his stories just as he would have told them. “The real ones come of themselves,” he said. “They knock at my forehead and say, ‘Here I am.”
If he failed at everything, how did the boy discover his magical gift of telling fairy tales?
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“Hans Christian Andersen: The Weaver of Tales and Paper”
Meet the storyteller:
He is known all over the world as the author of over a hundred and sixty popular children’s fairy tales, including famous stories like ‘The Ugly Duckling,’ ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, and ‘The Princess and the Pea.’ His work has been translated into more than one hundred and fifty languages. But the celebrated author, Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was so much more than just a writer of fairy tales.
The world knows him as the remarkable story teller, but not everyone knows that Hans Christian Andersen was also an enthusiastic amateur paper cutter. While he was telling stories to entertain his friends and their children, he would fold a sheet of paper and keep cutting it, creating fantastic scenes filled with masks, clowns, ballet dancers, angels, swans, and palm trees. None of Andersen’s cut-outs illustrated his published tales. They were meant to communicate their own whimsical narratives. Andersen sold his paper cutwork to raise funds for the families of fallen Danish soldiers during the Second Schleswig War of 1864.
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