King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: The Ugly Duckling

author: Hans Christian Andersen

published: 1844

genre: short story/fantasy/classic/fairy tale


source: http://www.americanliterature.com/

first line: It was lovely summer weather in the country, and the golden corn, the green oats, and the haystacks piled up in the meadows looked beautiful.




In this classic children's fairy tale, a mother duck waits for her eggs to hatch.

All but one large egg have hatched and she begins to wonder if it's not a turkey egg. When the egg finally hatches, an 'ugly duckling' emerges.
She thinks he is not so ugly, and takes him into society to introduce him to the other animals on the farm.


The other animals begin to pick on the ugly duckling saying he does not belong with them because he looks different.
The bullying is so bad, he runs away.

"He is too big," they all said, and the turkey cock, who had been born into the world with spurs, and fancied himself really an emperor, puffed himself out like a vessel in full sail, and flew at the duckling, and became quite red in the head with passion, so that the poor little thing did not know where to go, and was quite miserable because he was so ugly and laughed at by the whole farmyard. So it went on from day to day till it got worse and worse. The poor duckling was driven about by every one; even his brothers and sisters were unkind to him, and would say, "Ah, you ugly creature, I wish the cat would get you," and his mother said she wished he had never been born.

He stumbles upon an old woman living in a cottage. She is half blind and doesn't see how different the duck looks, so she takes him in. Three weeks pass and he decides he wants to set off and explore the world. He comes upon beautiful swans and can't believe his eyes. He wants to be just like them.

One evening, just as the sun set amid radiant clouds, there came a large flock of beautiful birds out of the bushes. The duckling had never seen any like them before. They were swans, and they curved their graceful necks, while their soft plumage shown with dazzling whiteness. They uttered a singular cry, as they spread their glorious wings and flew away from those cold regions to warmer countries across the sea.

The ugly duckling endures a harsh and lonely winter, almost freezing to death in the water and nearly starving.

When Spring finally arrives, he stretches his wings and comes upon beautiful swans again. He swims to them and bows his head, asking them to kill him.
But when he bows his head, she sees his reflection in the water. He himself has become a beautiful swan and is welcomed by the others.

He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome.

The ugly duckling appreciates everything he has now, because of all he has suffered.

..he was so happy, and yet not at all proud. He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds.

I think the story of The Ugly Duckling is timeless. Many of us can relate to going through that awkward phase in life and coming out stronger because of it, myself included.
This is one of my favorite fairy tales.



This is a statue in Central Park, NYC, of Hans Christian Andersen.







About the author:

During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.

title: The Little Mermaid


author: Hans Christian Andersen


genre: short story/fantasy/classic/fairy tale


published: 1837


first line: Far out in the ocean the water is as blue as the petals of the loveliest cornflower, and as clear as the purest glass.


source: http://www.americanliterature.com/






The original story of The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite fairy tales. As a child I watched an animated version (non Disney) and enjoyed the beauty and sadness of the story.

This bittersweet fairy tale is about a little mermaid who gives her life up in the sea for the chance to have a human soul and to be with her true love, a Prince.






In Hans Christian Andersen's version, the little mermaid lives in the ocean with her father, grandmother and five sisters.

They were six lovely girls, but the youngest was the most beautiful of them all. Her skin was as soft and tender as a rose petal, and her eyes were as blue as the deep sea, but like all the others she had no feet. Her body ended in a fish tail.

When she sees a young Prince, and saves him from drowning, the little mermaid falls in love with him and cannot think of anything else. She longs to have human legs and live on shore with her Prince.


I found it sad how the mermaid longs to be something she is not. After she rescues the Prince, she often visits the shore just outside his home in hopes of seeing him.

Many evenings and many mornings she revisited the spot where she had left the Prince. She saw the fruit in the garden ripened and harvested, and she saw the snow on the high mountain melted away, but she did not see the Prince, so each time she came home sadder than she had left. It was her one consolation to sit in her little garden and throw her arms about the beautiful marble statue that looked so much like the Prince. But she took no care of her flowers now. They overgrew the paths until the place was a wilderness, and their long stalks and leaves became so entangled in the branches of the tree that it cast a gloomy shade.

The little mermaid goes to the sea witch and asks her to make her human. This part of the story was creepy. The witch agrees to give the mermaid a potion that will give her human legs....but for a price. The witch wants her beautiful voice in exchange for the potion.

The witch tells the mermaid that her human legs will be always unbearably painful, like walking on knives. She also tells her that if the prince doesn't love her completely and marry her, she will die.

If he marries someone else, your heart will break on the very next morning, and you will become foam of the sea.

Despite all of this, the mermaid agrees and the sea witch cuts off her tongue and gives her the potion.





The little mermaid takes the potion and finds her Prince. He does end up loving her, but eventually he marries someone else. She gave her life and her family up for him and she saved him from the shipwreck, but the little mermaid can't explain herself to him, since she is now mute.



All she can do is watch the wedding ceremony brokenhearted, knowing that this will be her last night alive. She was always taught that mermaids do not go to heaven after they die, there is no afterlife for them.



Her sisters appear to her that night and give her one chance to save herself. The cost would be to stab the prince with the sea witches knife. The little mermaid cannot kill her true love, so the following morning, she becomes the foam on the sea.



But when she dies, the mermaid becomes a spirit, because of the selfless act she committed by not stabbing the Prince to save herself.
She now has a chance of going to heaven if she does good deeds for 300 years. So the little mermaid gets a chance at her happy ending after all.





For me this is the most moving moment in the story since mermaids cannot cry because they have no tears. However after the little mermaid dies and becomes a spirit, she can finally cry:

The little mermaid lifted her clear bright eyes toward God's sun, and for the first time her eyes were wet with tears.

Hans Christian Andersen's story is beautiful, sad and scary all at once. I enjoyed the descriptive storytelling, and found myself easily able to imagine the mermaid's undersea world. The part where the sea witch chops off her tongue was creepy, I would think young children would be scared by that.





One thing I wasn't thrilled with was the part at the end where the little mermaid would get to heaven after 300 years of helping children. Seems a bit harsh no?
I would have thought she had already redeemed herself by sacrificing herself instead of the prince.




All in all, this is a favorite fairytale of mine and I enjoyed reading it.

Moral of the story? Perhaps that we shouldn't try to be something we are not? Or maybe that selfless acts will grant us a spot in heaven?












The photo above is of the Little Mermaid statue located in Copenhagen, Denmark.







This has been a part of Once Upon a Time