Skip to 0 minutes and 9 seconds Welcome to an open on-line course that has the author and writer of fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen and his works as the subject. The researchers you will meet here – and who are looking forward to meeting you – represent the Center of Hans Christian Andersen at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense in Denmark. We hope you will enjoy the course. I would like to quote the first lines of one of Andersen’s
Skip to 0 minutes and 38 seconds best-known fairy tales: ‘A soldier came marching along the highway: left, right! left, right! He had his knapsack on his back and a sword at his side, for he had been out fighting a war, and now he was on his way home.’ That is how ‘The Tinder-Box’ begins. It dates from 1835, which makes it one of the earliest fairy tales he wrote. As the quotation demonstrates, Andersen, using very simple means, was able to build up a distinctive universe in his writing.
Skip to 1 minute and 15 seconds For this is exactly how a soldier has to move: left, right! left, right! Every child understands this logic, and it is equally clear that we are talking about a soldier when he marches left right, left right! What do soldiers do? Well yes, they go out to fight wars, and then long for home! The mind of a child can grasp this, and in that way the story is now ready to unfold. Something is bound to happen, something remarkable,
Skip to 1 minute and 50 seconds for here comes a soldier, ready for the unexpected: left right, left right! A scene has been set, a universe created and a foundation laid that set the powers of the imagination going and open up the story. There are many readers and many different readings of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories and fairy tales in the world. We look forward to meeting some of them here. In particular, we look forward to exploring Hans Christian Andersen’s artistic universe together with you and your reading of his fairy tales. Welcome!
