Copenhagen - Assistens Cemetery, Squirrel, Hans Christian Andersen, Soren Kierkegaard, Nastasja Saad, Axel Hindberg

Assistens Cemetery

Copenhagen

An Assistens Cemetery means a burial ground established to assist a parish whose own grounds were full, especially in times of walled cities and crowded conditions, living and dead. First, the poor would be shunted there; but soon the Assistens Cemeteries became desirable and notables and others requested burial there.  A visit, a stroll, a family outing, a destination point, all take place at the Assistens Cemetery system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistens_Cemetery_%28Copenhagen%29

Beings, living and gone, watching.

• Here, the tombstone and photograph of Danish reggae and rap artist Natasia Saad, or Natasja Saad, 1974-2007, killed in Jamaica in a car accident, see her memorial site at http://www.myspace.com/tasjamusic/  Look up Calabria 2007.

Grave, Natasja Saad, Natasia Saad, Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen

And here:

1.  A Squirrel Nutkin excursion;
2.  Hans Christian Andersen grave
3.  Soren Kierkegaard grave.
4.  Axel Hindberg grave


1.  Squirrel Nutkin, Beatrix Potter 1866-1943. Read the Tale of Squirrel Nutkin at http://www.wiredforbooks.org/kids/beatrix/sn1.htm, and mind your manners next time.

Spot a red squirrel. Missed him. Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen.

Chase the red squirrel. Run! Lose him. Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen.

Got him! Snap the red squirrel. Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen DK

The European red squirrel.  This fellow cannot compete well with the larger gray squirrel introduced from North America.  It is extinct already in England and Wales, oh, my.  In other places, it is protected; or numerous (Central Europe).  It is mad when it waves its tale fast back and forth at you. See http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/euro_red_squirrel.htm 
This site, however, does not mention extinction for the red squirrel, but does note that the gray brought with it a disease that kills red squirrels; and that gray and red squirrels do not crossbreed, and the reddish gray squirrels are just variations of fully gray squirrels. http://www.uksafari.com/greysquirrels.htm

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2.  Hans Christian Andersen

Copenhagen statue, Hans Christian Andersen. He is buried at Assistens Cemetery.

Hans Christian Andersen, 1805-1875, was from Odense, Denmark, see http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2010/09/odense-hans-christian-andersen-homes.html

Grave, Hans Christian Andersen, Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen

The inscription is something like "DEN SJAEL GUD I SIT BILLEDE HAR SKABT / ER VFORKRAENNELIG KAN EI GAAE TABT / VORT JORDLIV HER EK EVIGHEVENS FRO / VORT  LEGEM DOER MEN SJARLEN KAN EJ DOE,"  H. C. A.

Grave inscription, Hans Christian Andersen, Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen. 

That best-efforts at the Danish for Hans Christian Andersen's grave inscription is wanting, but an online translation gives a gist:  "THE SOUL TO GOD IN HIS IMAGE HAS CREATED/IS VFORKRAENNELIG CAN EI CHRISTINE LOST/OUR JORDLIV HERE EK EVIGHEVENS IMPLY/OUR LEGEM DOOR BUT SJARLEN CAN NOT DOE", see http://www.microsofttranslator.com/

Read his own story, The Old Gravestone, at http://hca.gilead.org.il/old_grav.html.  Old Preben and Martha there - not to be forgotten.

Andersen had had a special and complex relationship-friendship with Edvard Collin; and Edvard Collin and his wife had been buried in the same plot with Hans Christian Andersen.  But in 1920, disputes arose among the living and the Collin man and wife were moved out.  See http://www.copenhagenet.dk/CPH-HCA.htm

Clues:

" *** Most complicated of all was Andersen's relationship with Jonas's son Edvard, who was not only Andersen's closest friend but also (Andersen scholars now believe) the great love of Andersen's life. Edvard's response to Andersen, by contrast, was stolid and unsentimental. *** "

Fair use from this biographical essay, Hans Christian Andersen, Father of the Modern Fairy Tale, by Terri Windling  http://www.endicott-studio.com/jMA03Summer/hans.html (why does an  "i" at the end of a name make the author look frivolous? is this a nickname, for Teresa, or the real? culture, culture)

The Windling essay is an excellent presentation of HCA's life.  

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3. Soren Kierkegaard 1813-1855

Theologian, philosopher, http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6172.S_ren_Kierkegaard


The quotations - a quick introduction, but not to be read speedily. This biography is detailed and so much is given in lumps that it is hard to retain - http://www.egs.edu/library/soeren-kierkegaard/biography/
This biography site, however, separates sections, see http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/ and navigating is easier.  Existentialism.  Takes time.

Grave, Soren Kierkegaard (lower left inscription tablet) and Kierkegaard family, Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen

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On our way out:

• Nestor on the grave of  Axel Hindberg.

This gravestone is in the form of a Viking runestone,with a fine cartoon on front.

"Multikunstner Pianist" Axel Ludvig Hindberg. He started as a banker and auditor, but left it.  Good choice.  He loved piano and strings - and fun.  Look closely at the figure on the stone -- Nestor, a cartoon fellow with downsloping eyes and long hair and white beard, playing a keyboard with two fingers, a la chopsticks. Pianist, bandleader, multi-artist. How or why did he even start in banking??

Meet him at www.danskefilm.dk, click on translate, or try: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.danskefilm.dk%2Fskuespiller%2F6350.htm

www.danskefilm.dk (click on translate)