History Creator / HansChristianAndersen

* AnAesop: Often a SpaceWhaleAesop as in "The Rose Elf" (don't kill your sister's beloved, or the spirits that live inside the blossoms will murder you in your sleep).

Born on April 2, 1805 (which is now "National Children's Book Day"), Hans Christian Andersen grew up to become to fairy tales what Creator/{{Shakespeare}} became to drama. His works range from the simple to the epic, are full of complex but meaningful symbolism, and span the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. They also are overtly Christian and these bits usually get taken out in adaptations.

Remember that bedtime story about the ugly duckling who became a swan? The image of a princess sleeping on a ton of mattresses... and a pea? The FairyTale about a mermaid who sold her voice to a sorceress to try to win the love of a human prince? Meet the Danish author of all the saddest and sweetest of the fairy tales we all grew up with, tales seen referenced in pop culture so frequently that many people have no idea they were written by the same author.

%%* TheFairFolk: The Ice Maiden, among many others.
%%* FairyTale

%%* RipVanWinkle (without the snapback): The end of "The Marsh King's Daughter".

%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* {{Disneyfication}}: A lot of his works has been adapted into animated features for kids, most of them naturally being done by Disney.

%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample** ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' went even further.

%%* LeafBoat: "Thumbelina" is probably the UrExample.

* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Several of his stories feature boys who fall in love with female friends who move away, usually ending with the boy never marrying:

* SinisterMinister: Olaf Glob, title character of "The Bishop of Børglum Cloister and His Kinsmen," is solely interested in increasing his temporal power and material wealth. He's introduced having the survivors of a shipwreck murdered so he can [[SalvagePirates claim the right of salvage]], then gets the Pope to excommunicate a widowed noblewoman and seizes her husband's estate.

* GossipEvolution: "It's Perfectly True" shows how the true story evolves into so many different versions with every teller still insisting that it's perfectly true.

* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: [[spoiler:George from "The Janitor's Son"]] is a rare example where Andersen ''does'' let the protagonist marry his childhood friend.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: "The Wicked Prince", who full on declares war on God.

%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* EvilVersusEvil: Describes the story and relationship between the titular characters in "Big Claus and Little Claus".

* IllGirl: "Five Peas from the Same Pod" features one as a major character. [[spoiler:She gets well in the end, seemingly helped by watching the pea grow and blossom outside her window]].

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: "The Wicked Prince", who ful on declares war on God.

* EvilVersusEvil: Describes the story and relationship between the titular characters in "Big Claus and Little Claus".

* {{Disneyfication}}: A lot of his works has been adapted into animated features for kids, most of them naturally being done by Disney. ''WesternAnimation/{{Thumbelina|1994}}'' also fell into this, [[FollowTheLeader despite being done]] by Creator/DonBluth.
** ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' went even further; it outright ignores what Anderson wrote.

* CreatorBreakdown: [[invoked]] Rumors abound that several of Andersen's works are a result of dealing with his own romantic and sexual issues. The Nightingale was allegedly a tribute to a singer known as "The Swedish Nightingale", Jenny Lind, who did not reciprocate Andersen's romantic feelings. "The Little Mermaid" was a similar case, of Andersen dealing with 'losing' a close friend (one he had feelings for) to marriage.

* AccentuateTheNegative:
** An important point in the tale "Something", where a {{caustic critic}} is "something" because he does that constantly.
** The Snail in "The Snail and the Rosebush".
** The Devil in "The Philosopher's Stone".

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: More than one of his characters ponder this, with ''truth'' as the third platonic entity in the mix. "The Philosopher's Stone" plays it straight.

** ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' went even further; it outright ignored what Anderson wrote.

* TheFool: The farmer and his wife in "What Father Says is Always Right." The farmer makes a series of terrible barters, starting the day with horse and ending up with a bag of rotten apples, and thinking he's getting the better end of each deal, but because his wife praises his reasoning instead of hitting him for being so stupid, they win a huge amount of gold and silver in a bet.
* GossipEvolution: "It's Perfectly True" shows how the true story evolves into so many different versions with every teller still insisting, it's perfectly true.

** The early English translations did their best to remove anything deemed inappropriate for children, such as FamilyUnfriendlyDeath and violence in general, less than moral behavior by protagonists, adultery, and any appearances by the Devil (who in some cases was replaced by "a most wicked magician"). This, in combination with the generally poor quality of the translations, which were often based on German translations rather than the original Danish text, gave Andersen a reputation as harmless childrens' entertainment and nothing more in the Anglosphere until a long time into the 20th Century.
%%* BreakTheHaughty: "The Wicked Prince"

* CrankyNeighbor: A mild variety, mostly on the subject of UsefulNotes/{{Denmark}} and UsefulNotes/{{Norway}}. Mostly in "The Rags", where the two nationalities lash out towards eachother, with an ironic twist. Also in "The Elf Mound", where the Norwegian Troll King is trying to get a bride from the more Danish fairy stock. She finds the Norwegian trolls rude.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: As the writer of so many beloved fairy tales, his works fall right off the idealistic end of the scale. A couple of his stories, however (Such as "Literature/{{The Shadow|Fairy Tale}}") turn out to be surprisingly cynical.