Is that this Danish metropolis the fairy-tale capital of the world?
Hans Christian Andersen once wrote stories to make children dream.
His most famous stories – “The Little Mermaid”, “Thumbelina”, “The Emperor in a New Dress” and “The Ugly Duckling” – still enchant the stage and screen long after their creation in the 19th century. In Frozen, the film adaptation of Andersen’s “The Snow Queen”, it is no coincidence that the main characters – Hans, Kristoff, Anna, Sven – reproduce his name.
Now there is a new way of recognizing his genre-defining stories. After years of ambitious development, a $ 64 million museum is opening in Andersen’s hometown of Odense, Denmark. The attraction, as the creative director of the museum Henrik Lübker puts it, is not an epitaph for Andersen’s bygone era, but “an homage to the ever-current and contemporary world of fairy tales”.
On August 19, 2015, visitors will experience a performance in the open-air theater on the grounds of Hans Christian Andersen’s parents’ house.
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HC Andersen’s Hus, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, opens on June 30th and stages the author’s fairy tales through a Willy Wonka-like series of complex architecture, sound and light installations both indoors and outdoors. “The fairy tale world is not linear, but a curve,” says Lübker. “It’s about hiding things from you, and that’s how the museum is presented, through secret rooms and curves that leave you guessing.”
In an installation that is reminiscent of the Little Mermaid’s longing to be part of the world from above, visitors look up at the sky through a transparent pool of water. On the top floor of the museum, families can make potions, put on puppet shows, build a swan’s nest, or have a signature barber put on a wig.
But in many ways what is shown is irrelevant, because the museum’s real claim is to convey belief in the power of the imagination. “Fairy tales open up the possibility of transformation in the real world of the reader,” says Dame Marina Warner, novelist, mythographer and current President of the Royal Society of Literature. “Bad things happen, of course, but that is always overcome. There is a constellation of encouragement in the very fiber of the fairy tale. “
(Fairy tales are much older than you think.)
A city of legends
Andersen was born in 1805 and grew up in Odense, two hours west of Copenhagen, and its streets inspired his greatest works. It’s hard to cross a square or go to a festival in Denmark’s third largest city without stimulating your imagination. It is the perfect expression of a sham city with witch hat towers, winding streets, pastel-colored townhouses, royal gardens and a snow-white palace.
Cobbled streets line Odense, a Viking Age town steeped in mythology and fairytale charm.
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The story of Odense on the island of Fyn reads like a twisted Nordic fairy tale. According to legend, the city of the Vikings was home to Odin, the mythological god of wisdom, war, poetry and magic; its ramparts lined the riverbanks to defend the city from coastal invaders. The remains of these fortresses are buried under the city, as are the remains of Denmark’s last Viking king, Knut IV, who was murdered in the city’s St. Alban’s Church in the 11th century. The appeal here is scattered Viking remains and picture-book heritage, not innovative Danish design or new Nordic cuisine.
(The ancient DNA reveals the true genetic diversity of the Vikings.)
Follow the cobbled streets of Andersen’s childhood, from his dandelion-yellow parents’ house in Munkemøllestræde to the riverbank, and discover Eventyrhaven (literally: the fairy tale garden) with its clipped hedges, pergolas and bridges. Nearby, an Andersen-inspired fairy-tale sculpture trail with a bronze by the writer begins on the Odense River, before moving past sculptures of a paper boat, rainbow-colored butterflies, wild swans, a seahorse, a shepherdess, a chimney sweep and darning needle to a petite mermaid. In a way, the city acts as an atlas of Andersen’s imaginary characters.
For visitors, HC Andersen’s Hus serves as the keystone of this literary map, a project that came into being when the Odense City Council decided on a far-reaching plan to redesign the city center. They not only wanted to rethink the area around Andersen’s birthplace, but also position the city as the world fairytale capital.
How do Odense and a small kingdom like Denmark do this? The answer lies in the storytelling tradition and the hygge obsession of the citizens.
(The Norwegian concept of ‘friluftsliv’ is all about being outdoors.)
Lasting influence
The Danish cultural concept of hygge has long been an integral part of the nation’s psyche. But it has established itself as a lifestyle trend and is becoming a peculiar combination of cultural tropes to promote cosiness and mindfulness – lighting candles, cuddling with a cup of cocoa or sitting by the fireplace with a book. According to Professor Lasse Horne Kjældgaard, director of the Hans Christian Andersen Center in Odense, Andersen is more responsible for the hygge concept than many Danes are aware of.
Egeskov Castle on the island of Funen, not far from Odense, was one of Hans Christian Andersen’s favorite places.
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“Fairy tales are meant to be read by the fire in a family setting, and this tradition began in Denmark in the 1830s,” says Kjældgaard. “Those were bad years in our history because we were on the wrong side in the Napoleonic Wars. After that there was a tendency to look inward and focus on family life instead of focusing on the rest of the world. “
As Kjældgaard puts it, it was during this period that Andersen wrote many of his most widely read fairy tales and unconsciously became a driving force in forging the origins of Hygge. “The irony is natural,” says Kjældgaard, “his lyrics are often frightening and full of ‘unhygge’!”
(Fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm were never intended for children.)
Kjældgaard, who researches Andersen’s influence around the world, says the writer is also a surprising cultural touchstone in China. “He was one of Mao Zedong’s favorite authors and remains an integral part of the Chinese curriculum,” he says.
One academic theory claims that stories like “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Little Match Girl” were viewed by the ruling Communist Party of China as charges against capitalist society. “That explains, in a way, why Odense has an influx of Chinese visitors each year looking for fairy tales,” says Kjældgaard.
Tourists take pictures of the statue “The Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen on May 14, 2015. The figure on the Langelinie promenade is one of the most famous homages to Andersen’s works.
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Not every country is blessed with a landscape suitable for fairytale characters to inhabit, but Denmark is one such place. Travelers can discover the many seams of Andersen’s great stories, from the heather dunes of Skagen to the deer-filled oak forests of Jægersborg Dyrehave. In the country you will find the Gisselfeld Monastery, the royal estate that inspired the idea of ”The Ugly Duckling”, and the fossilized cliffs of Stevns Klint, where Andersen wrote “The Elf Hill”.
Also keep an eye out for Andersen when visiting Copenhagen’s Nyhavn Canal (where the writer once lived), Tivoli Gardens (the inspiration for “The Nightingale”) and the rocky figure of the Little Mermaid on Langelinie Promenade.
Back in the writer’s homeland, Funen is home to 123 castles and mansions, including the 450-year-old Egeskov Castle, which is a Andersen favorite because of its geometric hedge mazes.
(This country has the most castles in Europe.)
“If you were to create a map of the world, not with political or geographical borders, but to represent a fairytale tradition, you would have a huge contour around Scandinavia with Odense in the center,” says Warner.
Andersen’s fairy tales are perhaps more important than ever. “Children face so many problems – from political repression to climate change to domestic violence – and fairy tales help them give hope,” says Warner. “That is the pillar of the fairytale spirit and why will you and Hans Christian Andersen continue to exist.”
Mike MacEacheran is a travel writer from Edinburgh. Follow him on Twitter.
The Disney film Frozen was adapted from Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Snow Queen”. The Walt Disney Company is the majority owner of National Geographic Partners.
