Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1888)Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Mrs. H. B. PaullReminiscences of Hans C. Andersen

The Fir-Tree

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HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.

REMINISCENCES OF HANS C. ANDERSEN.

“A prophet has no honour in his own country.” To no one can this bitter proverb be more truly applied, in the early part of his career, than to the author of “Fairy Tales,” now so well known and read in many languages, not only in the Netherlands but in all civilized countries.

Hans Christian Andersen was not descended from the high and noble in the land. The only child of poor parents; he was born at Odense, on the island of Funen, on the 2nd of April, 1805. This town of Odense has been immortalized by Andersen in one of his tales, the “The Bell-Deep,” which is no doubt founded on a legend he had been acquainted with from his childhood.

Hans Andersen’s father was a shoemaker, who, it is said, had not the means of giving him much education, but he sent him to the grammar school in the town, and the boy’s natural abilities and love of reading made him take advantage of the instruction he there received.

Not, however, for long; his father’s death in 1814, left his mother a sorrowing widow, in poor circumstances, with an orphan boy of nine years. It therefore became necessary for him to leave school, and try to help his mother in earning a home for them both. An opportunity for him to work at a factory in the town was offered to his mother, and eagerly accepted by her, and for some years the now famed and renowned poet and author, worked as a factory boy.