From my children's book cabinet - Hans Christian Andersens Märchen

"Since I was a child, I loved Andersen's fairy tale about the little mermaid. Of course I always had to swallow my tears when I came to the end. Many of his tales are so bittersweet and I myself am really drawn to happy endings, if not in life, then at least in stories.
I make an exception for Andersen, though."

"Andersen's fairy tales - it was a gift from my godmother. It doesn't contain all of his fairy tales, but the ones I love most (maybe because they were the first for me?). I see the illustrations before my inner eye when thinking of these tales. I wonder why my favorites are all the sad ones ..."

"... maybe magic flowers that can heal, or dancing and talking flowers like the ones in Andersen's fairy tale "Little Ida's Flowers" which I love very much, but now I could have told Ida how to make her flower friends last a little longer ..."

"Have you ever wondered what mermaids are doing all day? ... Andersen's tale is one of my favorites."

"A mermaid - and I just can't help thinking mermaid when thinking of ocean, probably because Andersen's fairy tale has been a (sad) favorite of mine since childhood - could well wear long earrings in her flowing hair."

These are all quotes from my blog. Wow. I guess I love Andersen's fairy tales?
This is the book I got from my godmother about 55 years ago. As you can tell, it was not a book that was kept on the shelf, but one that was read - a LOT. I also have an English edition which contains more tales, but when I need some Andersen, this is the one I grab from my shelf.

Hard to see, especially in that
light, but it's blue. You should see
the spine and the cut edges.

I loved the tales and I loved the beautiful illustrations by the Polish artist Janusz Grabiański. I don't see Arielle when I think of the little mermaid, I see this picture of her as a wonderfully ethereal daughter of the air at the end.

This post was inspired by another book, by the way. During storytime at a bookshop, the main character reads "The Little Match Girl" to the children. If you don't know the tale, after having beautiful visions the little match girl freezes to death in the end and her soul goes to Heaven where her grandmother is and she is found in the morning with a happy smile on her face.

The children totally lose it as do their mothers, but one girl stays behind saying it was very sad, but she liked it, so her mother buys the book for her.
That made me wonder how I reacted to it when I was a child. I mean I have always been a pro at crying, and I'm sure I didn't just do it over the little mermaid.

Now there are of course loads of interpretations for and about fairy tales. They were warnings for children, they are supposed to teach children about emotions, about the world, about relationships, about right and wrong and consequences, they stimulate children's fantasy and their identifying with others, and much more.
That's not what I want to talk about, though.
I want to know why are all the sad ones my favorites? Okay, I also love some of those with a happy ending. Thumbelina, for example. The Snow Queen. The Ugly Duckling. But what about ...

... The Steadfast Tin Soldier?

"The next day, when a servant took up the ashes she found him in the shape of a little tin heart. But of the pretty dancer nothing was left except her spangle, and it was burned as black as a coal."

... The Fir Tree?

"Then a lad came and chopped the tree into small pieces, till a large bundle lay in a heap on the ground. The pieces were placed in a fire under the copper, and they quickly blazed up brightly, while the tree sighed so deeply that each sigh was like a pistol-shot."

... The Angel?

"Every time a good child dies, an angel of God comes down to Earth. He takes the child in his arms, spreads out his great white wings, and flies with it all over the places the child loved on Earth."

... The Red Shoes?

"The bright warm sunshine streamed through the window in the pew where Karen sat, and her heart became so filled with it, so filled with peace and joy that it broke. Her soul flew on the sunbeams to Heaven, and no one was there who asked after the red shoes."

... and of course "Little Ida's Flowers"?

"Ida first kissed the flowers, and then she closed the box and laid it in the earth. Adolph and Jonas shot their crossbows over the grave, for they had no guns or cannons".

And now we could also talk about Andersen and why he wrote so many sad stories. We could talk about his childhood, about his social awkwardness, his difficult personality, his queerness and unrequited love, but this post is not about that, either.

So, why do children also need sad and scary stories? The world IS sad and scary and happy and surprising. Fiction reflects that and allows children to learn how to cope with that in a safer space.
Fairy tales are very good at being sad and scary. I read a lot of fairy tales as a child - I loved the big shelf at the library with the collection of international fairy tales whose volumes had such pretty spines and beautifully patterned covers - and those weren't the "cleaned up" versions that we often see today. Compared to some of those, the ones I read were ... ugh, I'm fighting it, but I can't resist ... very grim(m). Ouch. I'm sorry.
It's true, though.
And some of them also traumatized me more than Andersen's stories.

So if you excuse me now ... I think I'm going to grab my fairy tale book and get a bit sad.