In the Magic World of Story Land

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 122, 25 May 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

In the Magic World of Story Land

EVERYONE has passed through it—the enchanted forest where the little folk play; they have danced about on the forest's borders until, gaining confidence, they have tripped on deeper into its heart; and about them there is a joyous echo of happy laughter and the merry chatter of baby tongues. The Littlest One runs hand in Land with Cinderella, and crows and chuckles at the Golden Goose; and the Dancing Princesses and the Woodcutter's child, the Frog Prince and Tom Thumb troop along, a. laughing band beside him. But when the outskirts of the forest are reached, when the trees have thinned and the flowers grown rarer and less lovely, the Littlest One pauses. He is older, a wee bit graver, and his joyous laugh has in it a touch of wistfulness. "Good-bye, dear, dear storyland peoplo," he calls, and he sighs a tiny sigh, or perhaps he does not. He is not quite certain where he is going, but he knows he shall never, never again pass through the forest of enchantment. Magical land —made possible by a mother's good-night story round a cosy fireside, when baby, leaning on mother's knee, listens to the tale of Tom Thumb or King Grisly-beard, and, standing very quiet in the dim glow of the firelight, sees his own wee fairy in mummy's eyes. Magical world—made possible by men and women who, remembering their own adventures in the forest, they loved, have spent their lives in weaving all that is gay and fanciful for the little children who must follow after and pass through it in the years that lie ahead. Of these men were the brothers Grimm. In the first half of the last century there lived in Germany Jacob Grimm and his younger brother Wilhelm. These two brothers were not in the least like the sort of people one would expect to be fond of telling fairy tales. As a matter of fact, they were sober, industrious scholars whose whole lives were devoted to literary studies and teaching, both of them becoming professors at the university of Berlin. Grave and learned men they were, whose greatest concern was to produce books, of a kind that only students read, yet they quite unconsciously made themselves famous for ever by collecting the old German fairy stories into a book which has been translated into all the principal languages of the world, and has made the name of the brothers Grimm as well known in America and England as it was in their native land. They went out together, these two scholars, among the country people of Germany., and induced them to' tell such stories as they knew of the fairies. What a charming occupation, and how delightful were the results. To those who can lose themselves in the world of storyland, who can, by stream or forest glade, or before the glow of the fireside, find a wealth of magic in the pages of Grimm's- fairy tales —then for him, too, there opens up yet another realm of enchantment in the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. For the name of Hans Andersen, the great Danish writer, stands side by side with the names of the Grimm brothers in story I

I What delight is associated with the names of I Tom Thumb and Hansel and Gretel; what a ; world of pleasure in following the adventures I of the Frog Prince or Rumpeletiltskin, the Queen : Bee or the Fisherman's Child. This year is celej brated the centenary of the publication of Jacob Grimm's famous "German Mythology," and in Berlin high official honours have been paid to the memory of these two famous brothers who j I spread before the little folk of the world so I ] enchanted a vista of etoiyland magic. j I , i

fame. But really, and here is a secret, Hans Anderson was a much more wonderful man and an abler writer than the Grimms. For Huns Andersen knew the fairies, and most of his wonderful stories—stories of Little Klaus and Big Klaus, the Ugly Duckling and the White Swan, were told to him, not by the peasant folk, but by the fairies of his own brain. It is almost true to say that, while Hans Andersen knew the fairies, the brothers Grimm only knew the folk who knew the fairies. A wonderful and strange man was Hans Andersen. The son of a poor cobbler, lie was born in the year 1805 in the ancient city of Odense, in Denmark. The poor cobbler was a learned man in his way, and used to 'read books at night with his son Hans, who was growing up a long, lanky lad. As a small boy Hans was sent to a public school where there was a tiny girl who told him that her ambition was to be a dairymaid at a large, country house. "You shall be a dairymaid at my castle when I am a gentleman," said the boy, and he drew upon his slate a rough picture of what his castle .was like. The little fairies of his brain were already at work prompting him to tell stnjnge stories about himself. So lie went on to assure the child that lie was really , of noble birth, but that the fairies had changed him in his cradle. But many a sad and hungry day had this little boy to endure before his delightful tales were to win him fame and fortune. Ho was a poor man where business was concerned, and made so little money from his stories that he had grown into an old bachelor before he could afford to marry. So he never had any children of his own to listen to his fairy tales, but his friends' little sons and daughters would gather about their "dear Mr. Andersen" and listen with wide and wondering eyes, to tales of the Snow Queen and the Wild Swan, and Little Klaus and Big Klaus. Hans Andersen also wrote plays and poems and books of travel, in the course of time building for himself a great reputation in his native land. But nobody seems ever to have thought that his simple stories for children would one day form his real title to fame. It was some years before the world became aware how great a treasure it possessed in these fairy tales told by the poor cobbler's son. When Hans Andersen died at the age of 70 in 1875 his name was honoured in every part of the civilised world, and his wonder tales had become a treasured volume in every home library. A joyous and merry company have these great men given us—a company of little immortal friends (Who will live; with us for ever in tlm enchanted i forest of childhood.