Outside the capital, you can also visit the writer’s childhood home in his home town of Odense. In Copenhagen harbour, not far from Churchill Park, there is a bronze statue of the famous character in the waters of the Kattegat. The Danish capital erected many statues of the author, such as the one in Rådhuspladsen Square or the one at City Hall, but also of his most popular work: The Little Mermaid. Although he may have been mocked by his peers during his lifetime, this great friend of Charles Dickens enjoyed worldwide success in posterity. Hans Christian Andersen died in Copenhagen in August 1875 after leaving his mark on the capital and on Danish culture. The Little Mermaid, a work forever linked to Copenhagen

It is not her love for the prince that drives her to leave the ocean, but her desire to be immortal. Hans Christian Andersen portrays a young woman who idealises her future and sacrifices everything to get there, without taking into account the risks and warnings.

As she throws herself into the sea, ready to accept her fate, she joins a metaphorical paradise, “the women of the air,” as a reward for her good deed. But at the last moment, Ariel finally decides to spare him. In a fit of despair, urged on by her sisters, the young woman decides to stab Prince Eric, her only means of breaking her curse and becoming a mermaid again. The prince falls in love with another woman, and decides to marry her, so Ariel knows she is doomed to have her heart broken, literally, and to be turned into sea foam. Similarly, you’ll find no “happily ever after” for Hans Christian Andersen. Once again, the Danish author’s story is much less squeamish than Disney’s: the Little Mermaid has her tongue cut out by the witch and the “creation” of her legs is so painful that every step she takes feels as if she is being “pierced by knives.” In Andersen’s story, the young mermaid learns that the souls of humans are eternal and decides to go to the witch to get legs so that she too can acquire this “ability” by marrying a human. In the original tale, the Little Mermaid fell under the spell of a human whom she saves from drowning, but unlike Disney’s adaptation, she was not driven to wish for legs out of curiosity for life on earth, or her love for the princes. In fact, in 1837, the author of the Danish tale published Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid), a story that is very different from the one retold by the animation studio. Although Disney opted to make it a love story, this very much not the plot of the original story as written by Hans Christian Andersen.

Hans christian andersen stories