Andersen’s Fairy Tales

‘How have you been able to find the way hither? And who has helped you?’ ‘OUR LORD has helped me,’ said she. ‘He is merciful, an ...

So they went into Death’s great greenhouse, where flowers and trees grew strangely into one another. There stood fine hyacinths ...

Then he will be afraid! He is responsible for them to OUR LORD, and no one dares to pluck them up before HE gives leave.’ All at ...

flowers close by, with each hand, and cried out to Death, ‘I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in despair.’ ‘Touch them no ...

‘That I will not tell thee,’ said Death; ‘but this thou shalt know from me, that the one flower was thy own child! it was thy ch ...

THE FALSE COLLAR There was once a fine gentleman, all of whose moveables were a boot-jack and a hair-comb: but he had the finest ...

‘Don’t come so near me, I beg of you!’ said the garter. ‘You look so much like those men-folks.’ ‘I am also a fine gentleman,’ s ...

‘I know it,’ said the scissors. ‘You deserve to be a baroness,’ said the collar. ‘All that I have, is, a fine gentleman, a boot- ...

down! I shall never forget MY FIRST LOVE—she was a girdle, so fine, so soft, and so charming, she threw herself into a tub of wa ...

THE SHADOW It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the people become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in th ...

In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out on all the balconies in the street—for one must have air, ...

sound of music. The learned foreigner thought it quite marvellous, but now—it might be that he only imagined it—for he found eve ...

the wind, and he thought that a strange lustre came from the opposite neighbor’s house; all the flowers shone like flames, in th ...

between the flowers. The door stands half-open: now the shadow should be cunning, and go into the room, look about, and then com ...

there and told his story, they would say that he was imitating it, and that he had no need to do. He would, therefore, not talk ...

One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle knocking at the door. ‘Come in!’ said he; but no one came in; so ...

‘Something common, is it not,’ said the shadow. ‘But you yourself do not belong to the common order; and I, as you know well, ha ...

wherever you may meet me, you will never say to anyone here in the town that I have been your shadow. I intend to get betrothed, ...

‘Do you know who lived in our opposite neighbor’s house?’ said the shadow. ‘It was the most charming of all beings, it was Poesy ...

knowledge I have, not to speak of my position in life, my excellent circumstances—I certainly wish that you would say YOU* to me ...