HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN The Ugly Duckling and Other Fairy Tales Hans Christian Andersen THE UGLY DUCKLING AND OTHER FAIRY TALES Retold by: Britt'Katrin Keson Illustrations: Kirsten Hansvig Hans Christian Andersen (1805' 1875) was a master of the art of telling stories, and today his fairy tales are read by children and idults all over the world. The son of a poor cohMer, H7C. Andersen used his great talent to write plays, fairy tales, novels and poems. He enjoyed travelling and wrote several autobiographies about his life in Denmark and travels in Europe and the Middle East. By the time he died, his name was already famous in many countries. H. C. Andersen is best-known for his fairy tales. These sto­ ries, written between 1835 and 1872, showed a new and very original style for the time. Unlike other authors before him, H. C. Andersen wrote fairy tales to be enjoyed by both children and adults alike. H. C. Andersen’s own life had not always been a happy one, as he was often lonely and felt like an outsider. He was not afraid to write about the lessons that his life had taught him, and hence many of his stories are thoughtful and sad as well as exciting and full of imagina­ tion. Among his most famous fairy tales are The Ugly Duckling, The Princess and the Pea, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, The Tinderbox and The Nightingale. The Ugly Duckling 4 The Princess and the Pea 14 The Emperor’s New Clothes 18 The Little Mermaid 29 The Tinderbox 41 The Nightingale 52 Questions 62 3 The Ugly Duckling It was a wonderful, sunny day out in the country. It was summer, and the corn was already turning yellow in the fields around the old farm. Beyond the fields was a forest, and in this forest there was a clear, blue lake. 5 Yes, it really was a beautiful day in the country! In the farmyard of the old farm, a duck was sitting on her nest, waiting for her eggs to hatch. She had been sit' ting there for many days now, and she was getting a bit ugly, not beautiful duckling, a young duck nest, what a bird lays its eggs in hatch, (of a young bird) to come out of an egg 4 tired of waiting. At last the eggs began to hatch under her. »Peep, peep,« the little yellow ducklings said as they looked out of the shell »Oh! How big the world is!« »Do you think this is the whole world?« their moth- 5 er asked them. »This is only the farmyard! The world goes on beyond those fields and those trees you see over there. One day I will show it to you. I hope you have all hatched now.« She started to count the ducklings and saw that the largest egg in the nest still had not 10 hatched. She sat down on her nest again. »I think I’d better sit on this egg a little longer. I’ve sat so long on | shell, see picture, page 6 5 my nest now that I can sit here a few more days.« Finally the last egg hatched as well »Peep, peep,« said the last duckling as he looked out from the egg­ shell The mother duck looked down at the duckling. 5 He was very big and grey. »That really is a rather large duckling,« she said to herself. The next morning the sun shone on the old farm again. The mother duck decided to take her ducklings down to the lake and teach them how to swim. Splash! 10 The mother duck jumped into the water. »Quack, quack!« she said. »Come now! I’ll show you how to swim.« Splash, splash, splash, splash! One by one the little ducklings jumped into the water and swam after their mother. The ugly grey duckling followed them. 15 Afterwards, the mother duck took her children back to the farmyard. The other ducks, the chickens and the geese that lived in the farmyard came over to look at her little ducklings. 6 » Those are really very nice-looking ducklings you have there,« an old duck said to her. »All except that big one over there. Can’t you change him somehow ?« »That can’t be done,« said the mother duck. »I know he is not very pretty, but he is a good duckling 5 and he swims as well as my other children. In fact, he swims better than the other ducklings! I think he will grow up to be prettier one day. He stayed inside his egg too long, so he doesn’t look quite right yet.« But the other birds in the farmyard would not leave jo the ugly duckling alone. »You’re too big! You’re too big!« they said and pushed him around the farmyard, biting him in the neck. Even his brothers and sisters started telling him he was too big and too ugly to live in the farmyard together with them. 15 So the duckling decided to leave the farm. He ran across the fields towards the forest. As he ran, the noise he made frightened some little birds that flew up over his head. »Those birds are also leaving me because I am so ugly,« the duckling thought sadly. By 20 the time he got to the edge of the forest, he was very tired, so he closed his eyes and fell asleep. The next morning some wild ducks came over to where he was sleeping. »What sort of duck are you?« they asked him. »You really are an ugly duck! But we 25 don’t really mind as long as you don’t marry anyone in our family!« When the ducks had left, two wild geese flew down to have a closer look at him. »Listen, friend,« they said to him. »You’re so ugly that we like you. Will you come 30 and fly south together with us?« | frighten, make afraid 7 Bang, bang! The duckling heard two shots in the air above his head, and the geese fell down dead. Then there were more shots, and a cloud of blue smoke rose up behind the trees. Suddenly several big black dogs 5 came running out of the forest. One of the dogs put his cold, wet nose against the duckling and showed him his teeth. The frightened duckling quickly put his head under his wing. The dog went over to pick up the dead geese. 10 »Oh, thank God!« the duckling said. »I am so ugly that the dog didn’t want to bite me!« And so he sat very, very still while he heard more shots all around him. At last, late in the afternoon, it was quiet again, but the poor little duckling did not 15 dare to get up. When it started to get dark, he finally got up and ran across the fields to a little house by the edge of the forest. The door was open and he went inside. In this house lived an old woman and her cat and 20 chicken. The cat could stretch his back and purr, and the chicken was very good at laying eggs. The old wom­ an loved them both as if they were her own children. In the morning the cat and the chicken found the duckling asleep in the corner of the room. »What’s 25 this?« they asked. The old woman could not see very well and thought the duckling was a little fat duck. »Oh, this is nice!« she said. »Now I can have a duck’s egg for breakfast every morning!« shot, the sound of a gun wing, what birds use to fly with dare, not be afraid to do something stretch, make longer purr, make the sound of a (happy) cat 8 For three weeks the old woman waited for the duck­ ling to begin laying eggs, but no eggs came. »Can you lay eggs?« the chicken finally asked the duckling. »No.« 5 »Then you should just be quiet and do as I tell you.« »Can you stretch your back and purr?« the cat asked. »No.« »Then you should be quiet and do as I say.« And so the duck sat down in a corner and was quiet. 10 Outside, the sun was shining. Every time the duckling looked out through the open door, he wanted to go swimming on the lake. »What would you want tq do that for?« asked the chicken. »In this house you should either purr or lay 15 eggs!« »But it is so nice to swim on the water!« the duck­ ling said. »And it is even nicer to dive down to the bot­ tom of the lake!« »Oh yes, what a nice thing, indeed! I think it is very 20 clear that you have gone crazy I« the chicken said. »Ask the cat - he is a very clever animal Ask him if he would like to swim on the water or dive down to the bottom of the lake! Ask the old woman - nobody in the world is more clever than she is! Ask her if she feels like div- 25 ing down to the bottom of the lake!« »You don't understand me,« said the duckling. »We don’t understand you? Who could possibly understand you? You should learn how to do something important like stretching your back, purring or laying 30 dive, jump or swim down into the water crazy, not right in the head 9 eggs. Those are the only things that matter in the world!« »Well, then I think I will leave,« said the duckling. »Yes, you do that! Go away!« the chicken and the 5 cat said. And so the duckling went outside. He swam on the lake and dived down to the bottom, but none of the other ducks wanted to talk to him, and he was always alone. 10 Soon autumn came and then came winter. The leaves in the forest turned yellow, red and brown and then fell to the ground. The air was very cold now, and snow began falling from the clouds above. One cold winter evening, some swans flew down to 15 the lake where the ugly duckling lived. They were as white as snow and had very long necks. They were the most beautiful birds the duckling had ever seen! He felt very sad as he watched them stretch their great white wings and fly away together. He swam round and round 20 in the water and stretched his little neck out towards them. Oh, he would never forget those beautiful birds! How he wished he could be one of them! The winter became colder and colder and now there was ice on the lake. The duckling had to swim round 25 and round to keep the water from freezing. But every night the hole he swam in became smaller and smaller. One night the ice closed the hole completely around the duckling. Early the next morning a man came by and saw the autumn, one of the four seasons of the year (before winter) freeze, turn into ice 10