Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/277

Rh er's eyes and ears were more impressed with the grand and striking traits; their views of life are as different as the two regions of which they sang are varied in their natural aspects.

(1805-75) was the son of poor parents, who could not afford to give their eager and talented boy a suitable education. In his fourteenth year he left his native town, Odense, and went to Copenhagen, where he hoped to realize the dream of greatness and honor which from early childhood he had continued to cherish. At first he tried his fortune as an actor, but proved a complete failure. In the meantime he had the good fortune of falling in with people who took an interest in him, and thus he was able to enter the university in the year 1828. At that time he had already written several very pretty poems, among which "Det döende Barn" (the dying child), and from this time his genius developed rapidly and revealed its great powers in a number of compositions. His first more ambitious work "Fodreise fra Holmens Kanal til östpynten af Amager" (a journey on foot from the Holmen Canal to the eastern point of Amager) a humorous fantasia in Hoffmann's style, and a collection of poems, appeared in 1829, and in the same year his first dramatic work, the vaudeville "Kjarlighed paa Nicolai Taarn" (Love on the Nicolai Tower), was produced on the stage. Then followed in quick succession romances (among them the best he ever wrote, such as "Improvisatoren" and "Kun en Spillemand") and dramas, and in 1835 was published the first volume of his fairy tales—those poetical compositions by which, together with his "Billed-bog uden Billeder" (Picture book without pictures) and his "Historier," his old dreams of fame and fortune were to be abundantly realized, for they were at once translated into almost all the languages of the world, and carried Andersen's name to every land on the globe. Not only the children for whom his fairy-tales were primarily written, but also grown people, and that too even in a higher degree, could enjoy these tales, which