Saturday, December 15, 2012

Hans Christian Andersen's 1st Fairy Tale Found


The Tallow Candle, thought to have been written by schoolboy Andersen, has been discovered in private archives by a Danish historian.

From a story in the Guardian...


The Tallow Candle was discovered by local historian Esben Brage in the dense private archives of the Plum family, revealed Danish paper Politiken, which printed the story in its entirety today. Brage was in the reading room at the National Archive for Funen in Odense when he stumbled across a small, yellowing piece of paper at the bottom of a box and realised it might be important. Two months later, experts have now confirmed that the story was written by Andersen.

"This is a sensational discovery. Partly because it must be seen as Andersen's first fairytale, and partly because it shows that he was interested in the fairytale as a young man, before his authorship began."

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