GREAT FAIRY TALES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20105, 26 March 1928, Page 5

GREAT FAIRY TALES

HONOUR FOR ANDERSEN CONSTRUCTION OF A PARK. Copenhagen, intent on keeping its memory of Hans Christian Andersen ever green, is constructing a beautiful park in his honour. The park is to be adorned with 40 figures representing characters in his tales, ad two sculptors arc busy on the work. It is a task calling for a high degree of skill and artistry, for Hans gave to inanimate things a voice in keeping with their kind. The group can scarcely ignore the Snow Queen, the Ugly Duckling, the Nightingale, which, with a u burst of lovely song,” brought hope and comfort to an Emperor; the Girl Who Trod on a Loaf —and paid the penalty in consequence—or the Moon who told what it saw. What a world of fantasy to draw upon! Once the sculpture garden is completed it is to be hoped that Copenhagen will sec its way to invite children to participate in the dedicatory ceremony, for it is to children that Hans makes his greatest appeal. Had he had his say in the matter, no doubt he would have seen to it that mon and women were present, too, for ho never wanted to be considered a story-teller for children only. When a statue showing him tolling tales to children was being erected in his honour in Copenhagen he protested that it was not representative enough, holding that it should include adults as well.

Hans was the son of a peer shoemaker. But ho aspired to be an actor, au oper-singcr, a playwright, a novelist, a poet, and least of all a story-teller for children. Yet it was his tales that brought him fame. It was his stories that carried him into the hearts of people and constituted an enduring monument in his memory. Hans should not be approached in a critical or carping mood. He never tried to draw real likenesses of things, but told what ho saw when the Moon took him on “rapturous journeys high above the world to get an enchanted view of things.” He felt that what tho children said about his tales was the only thing that mattered. One is inclined to apply tho same test to the sculpture garden in Copenhagen, and to hazard a guess that what they will say will be something nice.