Items related to Thumbelina
"Thumbelina" (Danish: Tommelise) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Traveling Companion" in the second installment of Fairy Tales Told for Children. "Thumbelina" is about a tiny girl and her adventures with appearance- and marriage-minded toads, moles, and cockchafers. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size. "Thumbelina" is chiefly Andersen's invention, though he did take inspiration from tales of miniature people such as "Tom Thumb". "Thumbelina" was published as one of a series of seven fairy tales in 1835 which were not well received by the Danish critics who disliked their informal style and their lack of morals. One critic, however, applauded "Thumbelina". The earliest English translation of "Thumbelina" is dated 1846. The tale has been adapted to various media including song and animated film. Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805 to Hans Andersen, a shoemaker, and Anne Marie Andersdatter. An only and a spoiled child, Andersen shared a love of literature with his father who read him The Arabian Nights and the fables of Jean de la Fontaine. Together, they constructed panoramas, pop-up pictures, and toy theatres, and took long jaunts into the countryside. Andersen's father died in 1816, and from then on, Andersen was left to his own devices. In order to escape his poor, illiterate mother, he promoted his artistic inclinations and courted the cultured middle class of Odense, singing and reciting in their drawing-rooms. On 4 September 1819, the fourteen-year-old Andersen left Odense for Copenhagen with the few savings he had acquired from his performances, a letter of reference to the ballerina Madame Schall, and youthful dreams and intentions of becoming a poet or an actor. After three years of rejections and disappointments, he finally found a patron in Jonas Collin, the director of the Royal Theatre, who, believing in the boy's potential, secured funds from the king to send Andersen to a grammar school in Slagelse, a provincial town in west Zealand, with the expectation that the boy would continue his education at Copenhagen University at the appropriate time. At Slagelse, Andersen fell under the tutelage of Simon Meisling, a short, stout, balding thirty-five-year-old classicist and translator of Virgil's Aeneid. Andersen was not the quickest student in the class and was given generous doses of Meisling's contempt. "You're a stupid boy who will never make it," Meisling told him. Meisling is believed to be the model for the learned mole in "Thumbelina". Fairy tale and folklorists Iona and Peter Opie have proposed the tale as a "distant tribute" to Andersen's confidante, Henriette Wulff, the small, frail, hunchbacked daughter of the Danish translator of Shakespeare who loved Andersen as Thumbelina loves the swallow; however, no written evidence exists to support the theory.
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From the Inside Flap:
Once upon a time there was a woman who was sad because she had no children. One day she planted a magic seed and from the seed grew a flower. Inside the flower was a tiny, exquisite girl no bigger than the woman's thumb. Her name was Thumbelina.
About the Author:
The two lived happily together until an ugly old toad snuck in and snatched Thumbelina away. So began Thumbelina's adventures in a world full of dangers for little people. Luckily, size isn't all that matters, and Thumbelina's kindness and courage bring her long-lasting happiness.
About the Author: Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories, called eventyr in Danish, express themes that transcend age and nationality. Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages,[1] have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well.[2] Some of his most famous fairy tales include Thumbelina, "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling", "Thumbelina", and many more. His stories have inspired ballets, animated and live-action films, and plays. About the Artist: Lin Utzon is a qualified art-craft worker and textile designer. Her art is wide-ranging and extends from bone china collections for Rosendahl and Royal Copenhagen, to scenography and costumes for the Royal Danish Ballet, architectural embellishments for Jørn Utzon s church in Bagsværd and Volvo s headquarters in Gothenburg, among others. Her poetic style is often inspired by nature and there is a distinct Northern flavor to all her works of art.
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- PublisherCreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 1493790404
- ISBN 13 9781493790401
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages26
- Rating
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