Reading the Classics discussion

In keeping with our November Weekend Shorts theme of Magic & Fantasy, I offer this tale from 1835.

"The story traces the trials of Poor John. After his father falls ill and fails to recover, Poor John begins to travel and meets and befriends a mysterious and magical companion who helps him negotiate a deadly courtship with an evil princess."

https://americanliterature.com/author...

Well, that quite full of magic!

I had an easier time reading the story at this website

http://hca.gilead.org.il/travelng.html

Where do we discuss the story?

Right here! :)

The first thing that struck me about this story was that it is so dense with vivid imagery. I think an illustrator could have a great time with painting this story.

Secondly, I loved that the imagery is drawn almost exclusively from nature. I don't really know much about Hans Christian Anderson's stories. Are we supposed to assume the stories are all ancient tales, retold?

Thirdly, the idea of "3" questions is central to the conflict in the story. I wonder when and where magical sets of "3" first appeared in western literature.

3 witches - Macbeth
3 wishes - many and sundry
3 riddles - ditto
3 lives
3 sons
Shakespeare's works are full of threes.

"3" must be a magical number that is deep in western psyche.

That was a nice little tale of magic! Though it was very odd. Anderson's usual simple, descriptive style of writing seems almost ironical to the actual story. His sunshiny words and generally merry tone is so much at odds with the actual content of the story; dead men travelling and then vanishing, gardens of corpses, witchcraft and perhaps even a touch of misogyny. I wonder what Anderson was thinking of while writing something like this.

Anderson's stories were meant to convey lessons of virtue and resilience. He was regarded as a novelist for much of his life, but became better known for his fairy tales. I read a lot of his work and that of the Brothers Grimm when I was young, and I remember much of it being very dark. Fairy tales are often dark, I imagine so they will capture a child's imagination, maybe to render the lesson more memorable? I am guessing.

I also very much enjoy this story. It teaches lessons of humility, charity, and honor, suggesting that good deeds will be rewarded.

L_Gail wrote:
""3" must be a magical number that is deep in western psyche."

I hadn't thought of this, but realized you must be right! I can think of numerous examples from stories I read long ago (for example, The Three Little Pigs. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, etc).

So I did some digging. Here's one brief piece on that:
https://fairytalez.com/blog/the-power...

... and another a bit more lengthy (and rewarding!):
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/vie...

Thank you for mentioning that. I've learned my one new thing for the day :)

Thanks for the links Brian.

There is so many ideas and images in this short tale.

I found quite a bit of infoermation on H C Anderson at this Danish website. The english version is sparse but has some good information.

https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/registe...

The index lists his fairy tale publication dates. "The Traveling Companion" is among is earliest publications.

L_Gail wrote: "I found quite a bit of infoermation on H C Anderson at this Danish website. The english version is sparse but has some good information.

https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/registe...

The in..."

Thanks, I will explore.

I read that he met Charles Dickens, and then about 10 years later went back to England to visit Dickens and his family. Problem is he overstayed his welcome. Eventually Dickens told him to get out already, and then stopped all communication. Apparently he was an annoying houseguest :)