THE AMERICAN-SC AN DIN AVIAN REVIEW 
7 35 
are woven in a most unusual way into the mesh of the story; pur¬ 
chases are made, bargains struck, a trip taken to the inn or the town, 
the Sunday best is donned and the family attends church. Matter-of- 
fact every-day life mixed with fairy-tale magic results in the curious 
form which Andersen originated for his children’s stories. 
In these two last-mentioned tales the author gives us the very 
essence of his own personality, 
for he was then, in his own 
opinion, the fairy-tale hero of the 
fairy-world of poetry. In The 
Pi'incess on the Pea , however, he 
gives us a vivid, playful im¬ 
pression of sensitive womanhood. 
In Little Ida's Flowers , Hans 
Christian Andersen chose a little 
girl friend of his who consoled 
him for the coolness of the 
grown-up members of her sex, 
and used her as the central figure 
in his picture. He shows us him¬ 
self as the story-telling, humor¬ 
ous student, with his little lady 
by his side. 
Quite as homogeneous in stvle 
as the first little volume of tales 
is the collection which appeared 
the following year, but the style 
itself is quite another. Andersen 
uses here a very different color 
tone, one that reflects sensibilitv 
_ •/ 
and emotion. In the earlier tales 
he had coaxed beaming smiles 
from the children’s eyes, now he 
makes them thoughtful and wise, perhaps even wrings out a little tear. 
The principal tales in this collection are Tommelisa and The Travelling 
Companion. The latter may, as far as its content is concerned, be com¬ 
pared with The Tinderhooc , but the difference in form of the two 
is vast. The charming story, Tommelisa , is based on the old popular 
belief that swallows lie dormant in the ground in winter, with sugges¬ 
tions from the fairy-tale figure, Tom Thumb , and a sketch of a little 
hump-backed maiden of his acquaintance. In his emotional style, as 
in his brighter vein, Andersen quietly and effectively employs stirring 
adjectives to arouse the feelings of his youthful readers. 
After 1840 we find the poet no longer confining himself to epi¬ 
sodes but drawing complete pictures from life in which his own con- 
Hans Christian Andersen in Later Years. 
From a Woodcut in the Intern ationae 
Edition of His Fairv-tales 
