The retired Danish historian Esben Brage says he has discovered, he believes, a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen that had been unknown until the moment.
The historian said on Thursday he found the text of six pages in early October while conducting a search in the Danish National Archives recording boxes that had belonged to wealthy families in the city of Odense in central Denmark, the birthplace of the writer H.C. Andersen.
Brage tells that, in the face of such an exceptional discovery, he went ecstatic and got immediately on to the Heritage curator of the library. “I never imagined this.” Said Mr. Brage.
The handwritten story is entitled “Tallow Candle“, and is dedicated to the widow of a vicar named Bunkeflod who had lived nearby Andersen’s house. The fairytale had apparently been left in the bottom of an archive box of 15 kilos.
The tale tells the story of how a candle who doesn’t find it’s place in the world. The candle seeks the help of a tinder box to be able to lights itself, and finally, when the candle gets ignited, its inner beauty is revealed..
The main curator of the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense, Stig Ejnar Askgaard, said the work is probably one of the first fairytales written by the author seven years before his official debut in 1830.
“We often get calls about writings someone believes was Andersen’s hand. Most of the time, it is not. This time I was very excited.” Said Stig Ejnar Askgaard. “This is a very early attempt at prose by Andersen when he was only 18 years old. A sensational discovery. Firstly, because it must have been the first tale of Andersen, and second, because we can see that he controlled the short story genre in a very early age, before beginning his writing career. ”
Mr. Askgaard clears up that Andersen knew well Bunkeflod’s widow and visited her regularly, reading and borrowing books from her, even moving to Copenhagen to study at the university.
“The text is not at the level of more mature fairy tales we know of the later work of Andersen,” said Mr. Askgaard. “I have no doubt … this was written by Andersen.”
Hans Christian Andersen wrote some 160 fairy tales in his entire life, including such classics as The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid. He has also written dozens of novels, poems and travel diaries.
