HANS BRIX OM SNEDRONNINGEN 4. HISTORIE / SNOW QUEEN 4TH STORY

 

Hans Brix om Snedronningens fjerde Historie, "Prins og Prinsesse"

Under Udformningen af Grantræet — 4 Dec. 1844 — havde han (HC Andersen), som ovenfor vist, bestemt sig til at sammentrænge »Klods-Hans« — der jo vilde have staaet altfor grelt til sine Omgivelser — til en enkelt Linje. Til Gengæld har han Dagen efter — 5 Dec. — indflettet dette det eneste Eventyr han kunde i Snedronningen. Dette er naturligvis ikkegjort i et ørkesløst Lune. Andersen har for at komme udover det døde Punkt i Fortællingen valgt at skildre Oplevelsen fra 1822 med Søsteren i Eventyrforklædning. Hun drog fra Odense til København i den Tro at finde Broderen som Aladdin i et Slot; men hun — og han — tog fejl; han var ikke Aladdin, og havde ikke fundet Lykken. Om hans Angest for hende i den første Tid derefter minder Skov-Kragens Ord till Gerda: Saadan en lille Pige som du faar aldrig Lov til at komme ordentlig ud. — Det morsomme Indfald med Tjeneres Tjenere, der holder Dreng, er dannet over en Rejseerindring, der fortælles i Mit Livs Eventyr: I Bøhmen havde han hørt en Jøde sige, at han vilde ikke være Konge, det var saa svært, men nok en Konges Kammertjener, ligesom En han havde kendt, der var bleven saa tyk, at han ikke kunde gaa, men maatte atter holde sig igen en Kammertjener. — Hele Skildringen af Hoffet er i det hele gjort med megen Omhu og stort Kendskab; Andersen var bleven en forfaren Mand, siden han sidst havde skildret højere Steder i Eventyrene. —

Hvad Eventyreren selv angaar, da er han ingen Klods-Hans; en saa grotesk Figur lod sig ikke passe ind i denne Ramme; han er derimod en gammel Bekendt, nemlig Soldaten fra Fyrtøjet; han kommer ganske frejdig marcherende lige op til Slottet med sin Ransel paa Ryggen; til Lakajerne nikker han og siger: »Det maa være kedeligt at staa paa Trappen, jeg gaar heller indenfor.«

...

Her (i syvende Historie) træffer Gerda gamle Bekendte, men hverken hun eller Broderen giver Agt paa de Tegn, der møder dem: ... og Prinsen og Prinsessen er rejst til fremmede Lande. — Det vil sige, at det er ikke blot Aarstiden der er draget forbi, men at en Aarrække er gaaet. —

22 Juli 1843 (H.C. Andersens antegninger): Heiberg skrækkeligt medtaget af »Dagen«. Kørt Tur forbi Turebyholm! Skyggespil paa Buskene, idet vi kørte1. Fortalt Eventyr. Grev Moltke Nutschau indtruffet.

1. Cfr. Prinseparrets Drømme i Snedronningen.

Sandra Dermark's Translation, 27th of November 2022

Hans Brix on the Making of the Snow Queen's Fourth Story, "Prince and Princess" 

- We've got the inspiration behind the Prince (we know the Princess may be drawn from Shakespeare's Portia, but here's where her consort came from) as well as the inspiration for there being a hierarchy of gentleman courtiers and their valets and valets' valets - ditto court ladies and their maids and maids' maids. And most importantly the date for the making of this subplot... the 5th of December 1844. So why not make the 5th of December unofficial Fourth-Story-Prince-and-Princess Day and celebrate it by reading the subplot aloud, watching versions of it, looking at illustrations, perusing Maria Tatar's and Hans Brix's analyses (both on this blog), and eating the food mentioned in the subplot: bread and butter (smørrebrød), sugar pretzels (sukkerkringler) and gingerbread nuts/gingersnaps (pebernødder). You can buy the two latter foods, which are the pastries in the golden carriage, at Flying Tiger of Copenhagen in December, since they are Christmas pastries in Denmark.

During the creation of "The Spruce Tree" (AKA "The Christmas Tree") on the 4th of December 1844, Hans Christian Andersen had decided to sum up the Nordic folktale "Simple Simon" ("Klods-Hans"), which would have seemed too lurid and garish for the people of his society surroundings, in a simple, streamlined fashion. On the other hand, on the next day (the 5th of December), he nested this folktale, the only one he could, into The Snow Queen. Naturally, this has not been done in an effortless mood. Andersen has, in order to overcome a dead point or writer's block in his telling of The Snow Queen, chosen to depict the experience with his sister in 1822 in fairytale guise. She came from Odense to Copenhagen with the hope of finding her brother, like Aladdin, at a castle or palace, but both siblings were wrong; Hans Christian was not Aladdin, and he had not found his fortune yet. His anxieties about her in the time shortly afterward are recalled by the forest crow's words to Gerda: "Such a little maiden as you will never be allowed to enter (the royal castle) properly."

The witty irruption about the gentleman courtiers' valets' valets, who keep a pageboy apiece, is created from a memory of his travels, that Andersen tells in his memoirs, The Fairytale of My Life: In Bohemia (the present-day Czech Republic), he had heard a Jew say that he did not want to be king, for that was too difficult, but only a king's valet, like one he had known, who had put on so much weight that he could not walk, but was forced to keep a valet of his own. 

The whole description of the royal court is generally done with lots of care and lots of knowledge about the subject; Andersen had become an experienced man since the last time he had depicted such high places in his tales.

When it comes to the young adventurer himself, he is no Simple Simon; such a grotesque character would never fit into this frame; he is rather an old acquaintance, namely the soldier from "The Tinderbox" (AKA "The Lighter," or "The Firelighter"); he comes rather confidently marching straight up to the castle with his knapsack on his back; to the lackeys on the staircase he nods and says: "It would be tiresome to stand all day on the stairs; I'd rather go inside."

... (Nothing said about the death of the redshirt servants/entourage of the golden carriage)

Here (in the Seventh Story) Gerda meets old acquaintances, but neither she nor her playmate (Kai) pay attention to the signs that they meet: ... and the Prince and the Princess are travelling through foreign lands. 

This means that not only has a season passed (winter changed into spring), but that a whole year cycle has come and gone.

One year and a half before, and we get a possible inspiration for all the dreams of riders haunting the royal castle while HCA was working on a story he called "The Cygnet" ("Ugly Duckling" in the present day):

22nd of July 1843: Heiberg frighteningly shocked by "The Day" (a newspaper). Drove a while by Turebyholm! Shadowplay on the bushes, as we drove our carriage1. Told magic tales. Met Count Moltke Nutschau.

Annotation 1 for "Shadowplay on the bushes:" Compare the dreams of the Prince and Princess in The Snow Queen.