Han's tales for children:

A legacy from an unhappy life

By Amal HEWAVISSENTI

The statue of little mermaid gazing mysteriously over the vast expanse of water at the harbour of Copenhagen makes anyone relive his memories of childhood of fairy tales. Yet, ironically Hans Christian Andersen who created this imaginative fairy world for children, was doomed to live a life of tragedy - a life made bitter by a sharply defined sense of unfulfillment. The man who illuminated the world of children and provoked a general interest in adults for reading by his fairy tales and novels, himself experienced a horrifying childhood that developed into an unappealing life.

What children miss

How did he save children throughout the world from depressing childhood? Generally childhood is a unique experience in which a child readily grasps the appealing aspects of tales and gets his imagination enriched in a creative or inventive way.

Therefore, fairy tales are substantially essential components for the development of a child.

A child who sinks into sound sleep with the impressions gradually instilled by tales told by an adult wakes up surprisingly refreshed and feels that his life is as pleasant and light. Yet this is not to encourage a futile trend for children to enjoy tales and forget the fundamental realities of life or to be a worthless person with no capacity for initiative.

Hans Andersen clearly perceived the basic premise that a child should have the capacity to appreciate the aesthetic aspects everything in order to be a man of satisfaction and fulfilment.

The impressions created by tales are bound to promote his identity and sharpen new dimensions of his taste and creativity.

Today, with the extended family transformed into a nuclear family, children lamentably miss the healing company and the warmth of grand parents who are indispensable for bed time stories.

Even the parents are inextricably trapped in a busy life style which prevent them from playing with their kids or warming them until they fall asleep.

The best guide

Hans Christian Andersen who is generally agreed to be a master of fairy tales lived a life that virtually resembled a horrifying tale with mystery, tragedy and interest.

Han's father, a cobbler by profession, envisioned small Hans as a promising and liberal artist.

To achieve this dream end, he often took special care to be Han's best companion and closest advisor. Hans felt greatly impressed by the captivating properties of tales told by his father who used to educate the child with everything they did together.

This intimate association with his father ultimately filled him with an unsatiable desire to be an influential writer and a story teller.

As he later acknowledged, Hans Andersen drew immensley from tables by Lapontevian and Arabian nights which had a telling effect on him.

Consequently Hans managed to get a glimpse of the formate of every type of imaginative fiction involving magic, adventure and mystery.

Thus he invented his own tales and offered them for his father's criticism which in turn lavished praise on his creative calibre.

His house in the old city of Odence of Denmark was more or less a little hell for a child. Their's was a small house with scanty furniture - one bench, a book shelf, a decayed bed and a broken chair. Hans was never blessed with a systematic education. Yet he evinced a particular liking for and mastery of music which intermittently became his ruling passion in life. As a child, he vehemently refused playing with his peers but he preferred moments of his pensive mood. The remarriage of his mother following her husband's death in the battle-field precipitated total misfortune on him and he began to realise that his love for and dependence on his mother were being gradually narrowed down.

In this domestic hell, a blanket of depression hovered over him at the earliest stages of his life. Hans soon became a neglected child in abject poverty as a consequence of the father's death and mother's flagrant failure to see to his needs. Even in his vagrancy, Hans made no discriminations as to what should be learnt from a number of teachers. In this confusing atmosphere, he made every possible effort to explore various subjects and branches of art while being a small businessman. Meanwhile he studied dramatics and music that popularized him in the city of Odence as a youth talented both in music and drama. He soon departed from business life as a result of his failure that sprang from his utter lack of enthusiasm in the business.

Touched by misfortune

However, Hans found himself in a terrible situation as he had to fight a constant battle against his solitariness even though he had already been a popular singer. It was blatantly obvious to him that no friend, no relative was to accompany him even in his success as a musician. Yet his repeated unqualified success at multiple singing competitions brought him certain level of satisfaction and consolation and this change redoubled his passion for music.

The bitter life of this famous singer at Copenhagen, was well characterised by poverty, cold and sleepless nights. Unfortunately Hans was fatefully rejected by experts on drama eventhough he burnt midnight oil on writing drama scripts. He personally believed that failure and defeat were beginning to be the theme of his life but he was determined to find a way out through education. Here he was able to turn a new leaf of his life when John Collins, a politician opened the doors of the "Institute of Language Studies" at Slagless under the permission of the king of Denmark.

Travel changes him

Han's latent potential began to blossom up in his travels to different countries. His landmark tour to Rome truly revolutionised his solitary, monotonously regular life. The environment in Italy basically inspired him to write his first novel titled "Impostor" and to engage in writing continuously.

In short the experiences he collected in his travels did much to enhance the intuitive calibre still unexploited by him. His monumental tour to Germany brought him an encounter with Adelbert Von Hanso, a famous writer of romance in Germany.

The official announcement by the king of Denmark to grant an annual allowance of 70 pounds for Hans Andersen really registered a memorable landmark in his life.

It was during his historic tour to Germany that he composed "Travel silhouettes" based on his impressions on the landscape of Germany.

In 1835, Hans Christian Andersen published his first collection of fairy tales and more tales were published in subsequent volumes.

Strangely enough, he highly preferred travelling though he had made a mark in the art of writing fairy tales for children.

He toured the cities in the countries such as Turkey, Rome, England, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Germany and Scotland. Furthermore, his penchant for writing novels and producing dramas eclipsed his liking for story telling which earned him a massive popularity and a fame. Hans came to be a public figure with the publication of volumes of fairy tales.

His tales had not occupied an outstanding popularity among the readers of Denmark at the period of publication. But later a mania for Hans tales was rampant in Denmark and throughout the world. His success of writing novels or dramas could not surpass that of writing fairy tales - a trend which Hans strongly protested. He personally dreamed to be a perfect dramatist and a novelist rather than a story teller.

Legacy from childhood

However much did Hans write, he was ever poor. He had no fixed house to live or place to sleep but he wrote continuously with or without a writing stand. He managed to live on the allowance granted by the king of Denmark but he had immense pressure of economic problems. Hans contribution to the art of fairy tales for children is acclaimed by many.

He did not forget to register his protest against the weaknesses of the contemporary society through his characters in the tales.

He was an unfortunate person to have missed out the happiness that should characterise the childhood. He penetrated the world of children and wrote for the benefit of children even though he had the most ill-fated childhood. Though he has endowed the universal children's literature with a memorable collection of tales much less is known about his works in Sri Lanka.

The message he conveyed through his works holds good not only for children but likewise for adults.