Following her husband's death in 1816, she remarried in 1818. Andersen's mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, was an illiterate washerwoman.
His certificate of birth was not drafted until November 1823, according to which six Godparents were present at the baptising ceremony: Madam Sille Marie Breineberg, Maiden Friederiche Pommer, shoemaker Peder Waltersdorff, journeyman carpenter Anders Jørgensen, hospital porter Nicolas Gomard, and royal hatter Jens Henrichsen Dorch.Īndersen's father, who had received an elementary school education, introduced his son to literature, reading to him the Arabian Nights. Hans Christian Andersen was baptised on 15 April 1805 in Saint Hans Church (St John's Church) in Odense, Denmark. Danish historian Jens Jørgensen supported this idea in his book H.C.
Although it has been challenged, a persistent speculation suggests that Andersen was an illegitimate son of King Christian VIII. His father, also named Hans, considered himself related to nobility (his paternal grandmother had told his father that their family had belonged to a higher social class, but investigations have disproved these stories). Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805. One of Copenhagen's widest and busiest boulevards, skirting Copenhagen City Hall Square at the corner of which Andersen's larger-than-life bronze statue sits, is named " H. His stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action films. His most famous fairy tales include " The Emperor's New Clothes", " The Little Mermaid", " The Nightingale", " The Steadfast Tin Soldier", " The Red Shoes", " The Princess and the Pea", " The Snow Queen", " The Ugly Duckling", " The Little Match Girl", and " Thumbelina".
Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.Īndersen's fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes and translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Hans Christian Andersen ( / ˈ æ n d ər s ən/, Danish: ( listen) 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen (København)