Hans Christian Andersen: Father of the Modern Fairy Tales
漢斯.克里斯蒂安.安徒生：現(xiàn)代童話之父

By Terri Windling 譯/辛獻(xiàn)云

It's commonly supposed that all fairy tales are stories from the folk tradition, passed through the generations by storytellers since the dawn of time. While it's true that most fairy tales are rooted in oral folklore, many of the best-known stories actually come to us from literary sources. In nineteenth century Denmark, the writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805~1875) penned some of the best-loved fairy tales of all time: The Little Mermaid, The Wild Swans, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, and many others.

Although today Andersen is primarily known as a writer of stories for children, during his lifetime he was also celebrated for his other literary works, including six novels, five travel journals, three autobiographies, and numerous poems and plays. The modern image of Andersen is of a simple, innocent, child-like spinner of tales. Letters and diaries by Andersen, however, draw the picture of a very different man: a sharply intelligent, ambitious writer with a hardscrabble past, a love of high society, and a tortured soul. Likewise, Andersen's fairy tales, when read in the original Danish, are far more sophisticated and multi-layered than the simple children's fables they've become in all too many translated editions. The writer was no innocent na?f recounting fancies whispered by the fairies; he was a serious artist, a skillful literary craftsman, a shrewd observer of human nature and of the social scene of nineteenth century Denmark.

Chasing the Dream of Acting on Stage

Andersen's fairy tales can be read simply as magical adventures, but for the discerning reader they contain much more, bristling with characters drawn from Andersen's own life and from the many worlds he traveled through in his remarkable life's journey. Like the ugly duckling, born in a humble duck-yard, Andersen was born the son of a poor cobbler in the city of Odense, where the family shared a single room and lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Tall and gawky, ill at ease with other children, the boy spent most of his time reading and dreaming. Odense, at that time, was a provincial city still rooted in its rural past, with a living tradition of Danish folklore and colorful folk pageantry. Andersen learned Danish folk tales in his youth from old women in the spinning room of the insane asylum where his grandmother worked.

Andersen began writing at an early age, but his true ambition was to go on stage as an actor, dancer, or singer. At the age of 14, three years after his father's death, he left home and Odense altogether, traveling alone to Copenhagen to make his fame and fortune. Determined to join the Royal Theater, he presented himself to the theater's director, who bluntly advised the uneducated youth to go home. Growing desperate, Andersen pestered every luminary he could think of until he met Weyse, an accomplished composer. Weyse had risen from poverty himself, and he took pity on the boy. Weyse promptly raised a sum of money that enabled Andersen to rent a cheap room and to study with Siboni, director of the Royal Choir School.

Thus began a new period in Andersen's life. By day he studied and loitered in the theater, rubbing shoulders with some of the most famous men and women of Denmark's Golden Age; by night he lived in a mean little room in one of the city's most squalid neighborhoods, often going without meals and spending what little money he had on books. He practiced scenes from famous plays and began to study dance at the Royal Theater's Ballet School. But by the age of 17, his voice had changed; his gawky physique had proven unsuited to ballet. He was dismissed from school and informed that he had no future on the stage.

A youth other than Hans Christian Andersen might have crumbled under this blow, but throughout his life he possessed a remarkable degree of confidence and never lost faith in his worth, no matter how often he faced rejection.

Dreaming of Becoming a Playwright

Determined to find success in Denmark's theater but barred from a performance career, Andersen focused on his remaining talent: he’d become a writer of plays. He’d already submitted one play to the Royal Theater, which had promptly been turned down. Now the boy dashed off another play. It, too, was turned away. Yet the play had shown a glimmer of promise, and this brought him to the attention of Jonas Collin, the financial director of the Royal Theater. Collin decided to do something to solve the problem of Andersen, arranging an educational fund to be paid by the King of Denmark.

Andersen was sent away to a grammar school in the town of Slagelse. Four years later he returned to Copenhagen, where he lived in a small, clean attic room, studied with private tutors, and took his meals with the Collins and other prominent families. A year later, Andersen wrote his first book, A Walking Tour from the Holmen Canal to the Eastern Point of Anger. The book was a hit, quickly selling out its entire print run. He then wrote a play, which, to his delight, was accepted at the Royal Theater. Now Andersen concentrated on writing and publishing his first collection of poems.

Despite this bright beginning, the early years of his career were rocky ones. It was not until his books and poems began to excite attention abroad that critics started to take him seriously in his native land. This mixture of praise (from abroad) and censure (at home) was hurtful and confusing to Andersen. He grew into a man with two distinct and conflicting sides to his nature. In his talents he was supremely confident, speaking candidly of his high ambitions and rhapsodizing over each success. Yet he could also be sensitive, emotional, and hungry for approval to a debilitating degree.

A Different World of Fairy Tales

Andersen began to write fairy tales at the age of 29, with great excitement. His earliest stories are more clearly inspired by Danish folk tales than his later works—yet none are direct, unadorned retellings of Danish folk stories. Rather, these are original fictions that use Danish folklore as their starting point and then head off in bold new directions, borrowing further inspiration from The Thousand and One Nights, the German tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, and so on.

It's impossible today to fully understand the sensation these little stories caused, for nothing quite like them had ever been seen in Danish literature. The tales were revolutionary for several reasons. Across Europe, the field of children's fiction was still in its very early days and was still dominated by dull, pious stories intended to teach and inculcate moral values. Andersen's magical tales were rich as chocolate cake after a diet of wholesome gruel, and the narrative voice spoke familiarly, warmly, conspiratorially to children, rather than preaching to them from on high. And unlike the folk tales collected by the Grimms, set in distant lands once upon a time, Andersen set his tales in Copenhagen and other familiar, contemporary settings, mixed fantastical descriptions with common ordinary ones, and invested everyday household objects with personalities and magic. Even the language of the stories was fresh and radical.

Becoming Famous All Over the World

When Andersen was 33, the specter of poverty was banished from his life forever. Now he no longer depended on friends, or on the ficklewhims of the reading public; now he was free to write as he liked—and for a time he put aside the writing of novels, which had been his bread and butter, and concentrated on fairy tales. Andersen wrote two hundred and ten fairy tales in all, published over the course of his life. The tales were translated across Europe, then made their way around the world, making him the best-known Scandinavian writer of his age.

But the lack of sophistication in the English text caused Andersen to be labeled as a writer for children only. Andersen himself railed against the notion of being viewed as a man whO'd spent his life with children. "I said loud and clear that I was dissatisfied ... that my tales were just as much for older people as for children, who only understood the outer trappings and did no comprehend and take in the whole work until they were mature—that naiveté was only part of my tales, that humor was what really gave them their flavor."

Though Andersen's humor is indeed a salient characteristic of the tales, what many readers remember most about Andersen's work is its overwhelming sadness. The little match girl dies, and the little mermaid is betrayed by her prince. Even tales that end happily—The Ugly Duckling, The Wild Swans—are heart-wrenching in their depiction of anguish endured along the way. People may find reading Andersen's tales a particularly wrenching experience—and yet they read them over and over, both attracted to and disturbed by their unflinching depiction of pain.

In 1867, when he was 62 years old, Hans Christian Andersen returned to Odense. A choir sang, and the entire city was illuminated in his honor. "A star of fortune hangs above me," Andersen once wrote. "Thousands have deserved it more than I; often I cannot understand why this good should have been vouchsafed to me among so many thousands. But if the star should set, even while I am penning these lines, be it so; still I can say it has shone, and I have received a rich portion." Andersen died in 1875, and his stories live on.

人們通常認(rèn)為，所有的童話故事都源自于民間傳說(shuō)，從古至今，一直靠講故事的人代代相傳。的確，大多數(shù)童話故事都扎根于民間口頭傳說(shuō)，但許多廣為流傳的故事能為我們所知，實(shí)際上是通過(guò)文學(xué)作品這一途徑。在19世紀(jì)的丹麥，作家漢斯·克里斯蒂安·安徒生（1805~1875）就創(chuàng)作了有史以來(lái)最膾炙人口的一篇篇童話故事：《小美人魚(yú)》《野天鵝》《皇帝的新裝》《丑小鴨》等等。

今天，安徒生主要是以兒童文學(xué)作家的身份而聞名于世，但在世之時(shí)，他的其他一些文學(xué)作品也備受推崇，包括六部小說(shuō)、五部游記、三部自傳以及眾多的詩(shī)歌和戲劇。在現(xiàn)代人眼中，安徒生單純、天真，充滿童稚之心，擅長(zhǎng)講故事。然而，安徒生的書(shū)信和日記卻刻畫(huà)出一個(gè)完全不同的形象：一個(gè)絕頂聰明、抱負(fù)遠(yuǎn)大的作家，早期家境貧寒，向往上流社會(huì)，靈魂飽受折磨。同樣讓人不曾想到的是，在丹麥原文中，安徒生所寫(xiě)的童話故事內(nèi)容復(fù)雜高深、精煉老辣，往往包含多重寓意，遠(yuǎn)非為數(shù)眾多的翻譯版本所呈現(xiàn)出的單純兒童故事所能比。安徒生絕不是一個(gè)單純的鸚鵡學(xué)舌者——只會(huì)重復(fù)仙子們輕聲細(xì)語(yǔ)的奇幻故事；他是一個(gè)嚴(yán)肅的藝術(shù)家、一個(gè)技藝嫻熟的文學(xué)巨匠、一個(gè)目光敏銳的觀察者——對(duì)人性和19世紀(jì)丹麥的市井百態(tài)體察入微。

少年的舞臺(tái)夢(mèng)想

你可以把安徒生的童話單純當(dāng)做魔幻歷險(xiǎn)故事來(lái)讀，但對(duì)于富有洞察力的讀者來(lái)說(shuō)，它們的意義遠(yuǎn)非如此。童話里那一個(gè)個(gè)鮮活的人物都來(lái)自安徒生的親身經(jīng)歷，來(lái)自他非凡的生命旅程中所游歷的眾多情境。和出生在簡(jiǎn)陋鴨圈里的那只丑小鴨一樣，安徒生出生于歐登塞市一個(gè)貧窮的鞋匠家庭，一家人擠在一間屋里，度日艱難。小時(shí)候的安徒生個(gè)子很高，舉止笨拙，和其他孩子相處時(shí)總是顯得不自然，多半時(shí)間都是在讀書(shū)、幻想。歐登塞市在當(dāng)時(shí)還是一個(gè)植根于農(nóng)業(yè)傳統(tǒng)的閉塞小城，有著鮮活的丹麥民間故事傳統(tǒng)以及多彩的民間露天演出習(xí)俗。在青年時(shí)期，安徒生就從在精神病院織布房工作的老婦人們那里聽(tīng)到了許多丹麥民間故事，他的祖母就曾在那里工作。

安徒生雕像

安徒生在很小的時(shí)候就開(kāi)始創(chuàng)作了，但他真正的志向是要登上舞臺(tái)，成為一名演員、舞蹈家或歌唱家。14歲那年，也就是他父親去世三年之后，安徒生離開(kāi)家，離開(kāi)歐登塞，只身一人來(lái)到哥本哈根，打算闖出一番名氣，賺取財(cái)富。他一心想加入皇家劇院，便找到劇院經(jīng)理毛遂自薦，經(jīng)理毫不客氣地告訴這位沒(méi)有受過(guò)教育的青年：回家去。絕望之下，安徒生不停地去煩擾他所能想起來(lái)的每一個(gè)頭面人物，直到他最終遇到魏塞——一位功成名就的作曲家。魏塞本人出身貧寒，對(duì)安徒生充滿同情。他很快籌集了一筆錢(qián)，使得安徒生能夠租下一間廉價(jià)的小屋，并跟隨皇家歌唱學(xué)校的負(fù)責(zé)人西博尼學(xué)習(xí)歌唱。

安徒生的生活由此掀開(kāi)了新的一頁(yè)。白天，他在劇院里學(xué)習(xí)、漫步，與丹麥黃金時(shí)代最著名的一些人物擦肩而過(guò)；夜晚，他待在哥本哈根一個(gè)最為骯臟的社區(qū)中，住在一間小小的陋室里，經(jīng)常忍饑挨餓，卻把僅有的一點(diǎn)錢(qián)花在買(mǎi)書(shū)上。他模仿著名戲劇中的一些場(chǎng)景來(lái)不斷練習(xí)，并開(kāi)始在皇家劇院的芭蕾舞學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)舞蹈。但17歲那年，他的聲音發(fā)生了變化，而且笨拙細(xì)長(zhǎng)的身材也不再適合芭蕾舞表演。學(xué)校讓他退學(xué)了，并告訴他在舞臺(tái)上他沒(méi)有前途。

遭受這樣的打擊，若是換成另外一個(gè)年輕人，很可能就一蹶不振了，但在漢斯·克里斯蒂安·安徒生的一生里，不管被拒絕多少次，他始終保持著一份超乎尋常的自信，從未對(duì)自己的價(jià)值喪失過(guò)信心。

劇作家之夢(mèng)

原本要在丹麥的劇院中闖出一番事業(yè)，卻被舞臺(tái)表演拒之門(mén)外，安徒生只好專注于自己余下的才能：他要成為一名劇作家。他之前已經(jīng)向皇家劇院投過(guò)一部戲劇的劇本，但很快就被退了回來(lái)。于是他又匆匆趕出了另一部戲劇，結(jié)果皇家劇院還是沒(méi)有采用。然而，這部戲劇展現(xiàn)出的一些閃光之處引起了皇家劇院財(cái)務(wù)主管約納斯·科林的注意?？屏譀Q定為安徒生做些事情來(lái)幫他解決問(wèn)題：他為安徒生爭(zhēng)取了一筆由丹麥國(guó)王提供的教育基金。

就這樣，安徒生被送往位于斯勞厄爾瑟鎮(zhèn)的文法學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)。四年后，他回到哥本哈根，住在一間干凈的小閣樓里，跟從家庭教師學(xué)習(xí)，在科林和其他名門(mén)望族的家里用餐。一年后，安徒生寫(xiě)出了他的第一本著作：《從霍爾門(mén)運(yùn)河到阿邁厄島東角步行記》。這本書(shū)取得了巨大成功，很快銷(xiāo)售一空。接著，他又寫(xiě)了一部戲劇，這部戲劇被皇家劇院采用，這使他喜出望外。很快，安徒生又開(kāi)始專注于第一部詩(shī)集的寫(xiě)作和出版。

盡管有一個(gè)良好的開(kāi)端，安徒生寫(xiě)作生涯的初期仍然充滿坎坷。直到他的著作和詩(shī)集開(kāi)始在國(guó)外引起關(guān)注，國(guó)內(nèi)的批評(píng)家才開(kāi)始嚴(yán)肅地對(duì)待他。這種（國(guó)）外熱（國(guó)）內(nèi)冷的狀況讓安徒生感到受傷和困惑。漸漸地，他變成了一個(gè)具有兩面?zhèn)€性的人，兩方面截然不同又相互沖突。在才華方面他一直非常自信，直言不諱地談?wù)撟约哼h(yuǎn)大的理想，津津樂(lè)道于每一次成功。然而，有些時(shí)候他又非常敏感和情緒化，迫切地想得到人們的肯定，程度之甚簡(jiǎn)直讓他為“名”消得人憔悴。

不一樣的童話世界

29歲時(shí)，安徒生開(kāi)始滿懷激情地進(jìn)行童話創(chuàng)作。他的早期作品比晚期作品更加明顯地受到丹麥民間故事的影響，但沒(méi)有一篇是丹麥民間故事直接的、不加修飾的復(fù)述品。相反，這些原創(chuàng)作品以丹麥民間故事為起點(diǎn)，然后大膽地朝著新的方向演繹，往往從《一千零一夜》和德國(guó)格林兄弟的童話故事等中進(jìn)一步獲得靈感。

今天，我們很難完全理解這些小故事所引發(fā)的轟動(dòng)，因?yàn)樗鼈冊(cè)诘溛膶W(xué)史上是前所未有的。這些故事在多個(gè)方面都具有革命性。從整個(gè)歐洲來(lái)說(shuō)，兒童文學(xué)領(lǐng)域還處于剛剛起步的階段，占主導(dǎo)地位的還是那些枯燥的、以道德說(shuō)教為目的的宗教故事。安徒生的童話故事充滿了魔力，讀起來(lái)就像吃膩了粗茶淡飯的人突然吃到美味的巧克力蛋糕一樣。故事中的敘述者不是居高臨下地向兒童進(jìn)行說(shuō)教，而是以親切、熱情的語(yǔ)氣竊竊私語(yǔ)般地向兒童傾訴。而且，這些故事和格林兄弟搜集的民間故事也不一樣，它們不是發(fā)生在很久很久以前一個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)的國(guó)度里，而是發(fā)生在哥本哈根和其他一些人們所熟悉的當(dāng)代場(chǎng)景中，玄妙奇幻的描寫(xiě)中夾雜著現(xiàn)實(shí)主義的普通描寫(xiě)，普普通通的家庭用品被賦予各種人格和魔力。即使在語(yǔ)言上，這些故事也是不拘一格的，令人耳目一新。

一舉成名天下知

安徒生33歲時(shí)，貧困的幽靈徹底從他的生活中消失了。這時(shí)，他已不再依靠朋友為生，也不再去迎合讀者那變幻無(wú)常、難以捉摸的趣味；他已可以隨心所欲寫(xiě)自己想寫(xiě)的東西——他曾一度撇開(kāi)自己賴以糊口的小說(shuō)寫(xiě)作，專心致志地進(jìn)行童話創(chuàng)作。安徒生一共創(chuàng)作了210篇童話故事，發(fā)表時(shí)間貫穿他的一生。這些故事先是被翻譯成歐洲各國(guó)的文字，然后從歐洲走向世界，使他成為當(dāng)時(shí)最著名的斯堪的納維亞作家。

《野天鵝》英文版封面

然而，由于英語(yǔ)譯本缺乏原文所特有的成熟，安徒生僅僅被歸類為一個(gè)兒童文學(xué)作家。安徒生本人也強(qiáng)烈反對(duì)別人把他看做是一個(gè)終生與兒童打交道的人?！拔以靼谉o(wú)誤地大聲說(shuō)過(guò)我的不滿……我的故事不僅是為兒童而寫(xiě)，也同樣是為成年人而寫(xiě)。兒童只能夠理解其外在的東西，只有當(dāng)他們成熟以后才能夠理解、吸收作品的全部——童趣只是故事的一部分，幽默才是真正成就其深味的關(guān)鍵所在?！?/p>

《賣(mài)火柴的小女孩》英文版封面

雖然幽默的確是安徒生童話的一個(gè)顯著特征，但許多讀者記憶最深的卻是安徒生作品中處處彌漫的憂傷情緒。賣(mài)火柴的小女孩死去了，小美人魚(yú)遭到了王子的背叛。即使那些結(jié)尾皆大歡喜的故事，如《丑小鴨》和《野天鵝》，在描述主人公所經(jīng)歷的痛苦時(shí)，也會(huì)令人感到揪心的疼痛。人們也許會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，讀安徒生的童話是一種特別痛苦的經(jīng)歷，然而他們卻百讀不厭，安徒生對(duì)痛苦不加掩飾的描寫(xiě)既讓他們感到不安，又讓他們深深著迷。

《丑小鴨》英文版封面

1867年，62歲的漢斯·克里斯蒂安·安徒生回到了家鄉(xiāng)歐登塞。在唱詩(shī)班的歌聲中，整個(gè)城市張燈結(jié)彩，迎接他的歸來(lái)?！靶疫\(yùn)之星對(duì)我格外眷顧，”安徒生曾經(jīng)寫(xiě)道，“成千上萬(wàn)的人都比我更有資格得到它，我常常難以理解為什么在成千上萬(wàn)的人中它偏偏對(duì)我青睞有加。但如果幸運(yùn)之星真要隕落，即使就在我寫(xiě)這些話的時(shí)候，那就讓它隕落好了。我依然可以說(shuō)，幸運(yùn)之星曾經(jīng)閃耀過(guò)，我已得到它慷慨的眷顧?！?875年，安徒生與世長(zhǎng)辭，但他的作品卻永垂不朽。