FOREIGN SPEAKERS IN ANDERSEN'S TALES

Exactly what it says on the tin. A short review on foreign-language speakers in Andersen's fantasy production. I wrote this analysis a couple of years ago:

*Court ladies in “The Swineherd” are francophone:
'Superbe! charmant!' exclaimed the ladies; for they all used to chatter French, each one worse than her neighbour.
*The princess in The Snow Queen (Fourth Story) and presumably her fiancé:
In the kingdom wherein we are now sitting, there dwells a princess, a most uncommonly clever princess. All the newspapers in the world has she read, and forgotten them again, so clever is she.
*An owl in a telephone game story (The francophone male owl to his mate, after she has told
him a story that might be unsuitable for the owlets):
"Prenez garde aux enfants!" said father owl; "children should not hear such things”.
*Medieval clergyman to Victorian time traveller, in “Shoes of Fortune”
"Modestia is a great virtue," said the stranger; "moreover, I may add to your speech, mihi secus videtur; though, in this case, I willingly suspend my judicium."
"I am a Baccalaureus Scripturæ Sacræ."
"This is no locus docendi," observed the stranger; "yet, I wish you would favour us with your conversation.
They stared at each other, and when they could not get on at all, the baccalaureus spoke
Latin, in hopes of being better understood; but it was of no use.

Long story short: in his fairy tales, Andersen uses multilinguism as a mark of power and erudition, to connotate the cultural level that comes with a certain social status.

THE ADVANTAGE OF A MAGICAL GIFT

In popular folktales, magical items galore crop up: subjugating potions, cloaks of invisibilty, magic wands, hens and geese that lay eggs of gold... The list is endless!

In the Edwardian era, U.S. comedian/poet Guy Whetmore Carryl wrote parodies in verse of both renowned and obscure fairy tales. My favourite part, in particular, is this little excerpt:

Every tongue he could readily speak:

French, German, Italian, Greek,

Norwegian, Bulgarian,

Turkish, Bavarian,

Japanese, Hindustanee,

Russian and Mexican!

He was a lexicon,

Such as you seldom will see.

His knowledge linguistic gave Ollendorff fits,

And brought a hot flush to the face of Berlitz!

Yes, "Berlitz" as in the famous phrasebook series!

And yes, the gift of languages exists in real life, and it has brought me out of many a predicament...

PASSIONS EXPLAINED

I recently read a fairytale by yet another obscure Victorian writer, about a princess whose parents had given her no tutors or education to control her and make her completely subservient.
Then, one of her suitors dethroned her father and liege (had him locked away, after the coup, in a lunatic asylum) to subsequently summon the intelligentsia of the land to court, to instruct her:

History acted its deeds before her on their lips. Strange nations lived and spoke

 to her; and as she spoke to them she learned their language.

My interest in the past is far newer than my philological vein. 

I was once told that learning about the past would help 

me comprehend the present and even the future, as demonstrated in the many

 historical allusions scattered throughout this very blog.

As a child, I was interested in languages being a third-culture child from a multicultural background. I was told stories and sung to in English, in Swedish, Spanish, Catalan, even in German and French. The prospect of strange nations and fantasy worlds was tempting for a hinterland outsider like me... but the first thought I had was of changing this world (present-day Earth) for better, stopping all crimes, wars, and religious conflicts. I was also curious about learning where words come from, why there are cognates and false friends across languages (that discipline is called onomasiology)... With the pass of years, those wishes gave way to sheer passion: philology for the sake of philology. So it is to the present day and the come-of-age university student.
And yes, royal children, like cadets and wannabe diplomats, had to be multilingual in the olden days.
Still into our days, that is a skill that shapes history, raising bridges across nations/cultures and revealing hidden secrets. I think of Luther, having learned Latin and Greek at Erfurt, being able to understand the original Bible and kickstart the Protestant Reformation... and of the diplomats behind Westphalia and many other relevant peace treaties.
Needless to say that Gustavus Adolphus and his daughter Christina were both multilingual, and so were Charles V, Luther, and many others.

WHY WAS JESUS LIKE KARL MARX?

Because the doctrines of both work only on paper, since they conflict with the natural self-centeredness of the human individual.
For instance, Jesus said "Give the Caesar (or the Kaiser, or the worldly authority du jour) what belongs to worldly authorities, and give God what belongs to God".
It would be wonderful if ambitious and/or hypocritical clerical authorities had not started to covet, then to get, then to abuse worldly power.
Which brought the end of the tolerant, individualistic, and epicurean Hellenistic worldview. Medieval universities became male-exclusive, unlike their Age-of-Empire counterparts. Clever women and open-minded thinkers (Hypatia was both!) were persecuted, prosecuted, and subsequently executed.
Then the world changed. The lieges of nobles (kings, kaisers, czars, electors) ironically also helped the process of putting an end to the Dark Ages when they claimed the power and lands of the feudal gentry.
In those unpredictable days, somewhere in the Thuringian Forests, in the Electorate of Saxony, a dapper young student of Law at Erfurt was struck by lightning.
This incident was, for Martin L., like leaping down the rabbit hole. He was merely returning from a visit to his own hinterland birthplace when a thunderstorm surprised him in the middle of the woods.
He made it to Erfurt. He left university for a religious order. Then, Friar L. was sent to the Curia (the Pope's court) in representation of the Saxon Augustines.
It (the Curia) was Sodom and Gomorrah. No joke.
Upon returning home, Martin L., having discovered the darkest side of Catholicism (which still exists to this very day), left the cloister with some crystal clear ideas. For instance, that popes, cardinals, and their cronies do not live up to what the Bible says, for instance to the precept "Give the Caesar (or the Kaiser, or the worldly authority du jour) what belongs to worldly authorities, and give God what belongs to God".
He wanted the Bible translated and services to be given in Germanic languages.
Both the Pope and the Kaiser wanted his head on a platinum platter.
The Elector, however, saved his life and conveyed him to the safety of the fortified Wartburg. Some years later, Martin L.'s translation of the Bible was printed in Leipzig. The translator had obviously made use of a nom de plume not to be recognized by imperial authorities.
He encouraged Europeans to read and to sing, and to see Earth as a glen of smiles rather than a vale of tears. A revolution had just broken out, and it spread through Northern Europe like wildfire.
You know the rest: the Catholics counterattacked through the Society of Jesus and the Inquisition, a war broke out because the Kaiser wanted to convert or massacre his Protestant subjects, said war lasted for three decades and left it all in ruins, then the ideals of the Hellenistic period reappeared in the Northern nations with a name that had to do with light...
Minorities like women, children, foreigners, disabled people and non-human animals were empowered and given equal rights. The Church loosened its grip on both the State and the common people. And the long-forgotten words "rara temporum felicitate" (i.e. "due to the strange happiness of these times [when one can say whatever s/he pleases without risking penalty]") were resurrected, to live on to this very day.
Today, Northern Germans are celebrating the moment when Martin L. nailed his famous and notorious rant to a certain church door.
In his spiritual retirement, an elderly former Kaiser Charles V, reduced to kaiser of clockwork making and beer drinking, is said to have said: "Why didn't I kill Luther?"
It was already too late.
And, should he have had the reformer executed, I bet His Imperial Majesty would have fallen in battle against the electors and their vassals, seeking revenge for the death of their spiritual leader.