Odense: Hans Christian Andersen, Later Childhood Home, Street Busybodies

 Who is Good for What

 Hans Christian Andersen wrote a story in 1853 - She Was Good for Nothing.  There were those saying that the now-deceased character, alcoholic and more, was good for nothing.  Is that true, cried the son.  No, says the servant who knew her. She was a good and worthy person, although there are those who say she was good for nothing.  Find it at ://hca.gilead.org.il/good_for.html/ How much autobiography is in writing. Rhetorical, of course.

The second home that Andersen lived in as a child, older now.  It looks substantial, with the half timber filled in with substantial bricking - that will last for centuries.  The Yuppie look is deceiving. This was a slum at the time.

Hans Christian Andersen, later childhood home, half-timber, brick-fill, Odense DK,

Now see the street, where, we are told, his mother walked down to the river to do the washing.  The road does slope right down into it, with cobbles making an underwater road-end for a while.  And so clean and peaceful now.

Odense DK, street scene, Hans Christian Andersen later childhood home

Note the slope away and up from the sidewalk - a build-in buttressing, as well as weight on the timbers.  His home is again the half-timber in white and brown.

Odense street leading to river, Denmark. Hans Christan Andersen's mother washed clothes there

On some of the houses here on the street where his mother walked to the river, are mirrored contraptions fixed to the window sides, and near doors.

Busybodies on windows, Odense Denmark

Odense DK, busybodies installed on windows

A busybody is installed on a window to reflect who is there at the door below, who is going up and down the alley, and the people on the street can be seen without the watcher even disturbing the curtains. 









They are seen frequently in Philadelphia, where it is said that Benjamin Franklin invented them. They are still sold today, see ://www.franklinbusybody.com/features.asp/  The Benjamin Franklin Busybody.  Read the Busybody history at ://www.franklinbusybody.com/history.asp/

Now:  did Franklin get the idea from his trips to Europe; was he in Denmark, for example; or did Europe get the idea from him?

Odense: Hans Christian Andersen; Birth Home; Life

Scrub, scrub, scrub the history.
Dig Deeper; and Admire the More.

Hans Christian Andersen grew up in poverty, hounded by his difference, targeted as well as ignored, seeking relationship, homely, ungainly, lonely and frustrated. His was a hardscrabble family, but he found his way from pillar to post, this benefactor to that benefactor, from time to time, just enough to keep going, and have his art recognized. Read the unsentimental biography, Hans Christian Andersen, The Life of a Storyteller, by Jackie Wullschlager, the Financial Times art critic.

What was the orientation of Hans Christian Andersen, and does it matter?  Obviously it does, because finding information that relate in that direction takes some digging, and going beyond Wiki.  Try his relationship with Harald Scharff, at page 376 plus or minus, at ://books.google.com/books?id=SZ50_q-diBwC&pg=PA379&lpg=PA379&dq=Harald+Scharff+and+Hans+Christian+Andersen&source=bl&ots=me-0xbM1QU&sig=wsW-zXFkyrHUqn5yQPuYdR2bHFE&hl=en&ei=9RS_TIj8G8G78gaIkPW8Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Harald%20Scharff%20and%20Hans%20Christian%20Andersen&f=false /  Scharff was a ballet dancer with the Copenhagen Royal Ballet, see ://shop.cosis.net/bookstore/book/3471013/0/COST/BOK/EN9786130838256/HARALD_SCHARFF.html?PHPSESSID=b923627b0b6d46f0173a1baf302f89aa/;  and Karl Alexander August Johann, Grand Duke of Saxony, etc.  Unrequited, requited, pendulum swings to unrequited, but our interest is only in the fact that feelings are human and why must we pretend in our cultures and to our children.

Check the original photos and accounts against the Disney-caged worldview. Admire the gift. Accept the original lifestyle. Why should Disney, and the rest of us, hide reality.

I.  Hans in the Square.

An idealized face, for a homely man.

Hans Christian Andersen #1, sculpture, Odense Denmark

Hans Christian Andersen sits at a highly visible place at the town square.  Now see the same basic photo a few minutes later:

Hans Christian Andersen #2, Odense DK.  Now with two heads. 

A shopkeeper added a second head of Hans, half a head, at Hans' toes.  It ruins everybody's picture; and all to lure a few tourist-Kronor into the saucer under the chin of the head.  Snap your wallet shut, O Tourist. Where is the town council when you need them?

Hans Christian Andersen #3, with admirer despite the two headed Hans. No way to get that foolish money head out of the picture.

Still, we took the picture. Moral:  Get to the Square early for your picture. The disembodied half-head is too heavy to move with your foot, out of the lens view. Paying street performers via their hats on the sidewalk is one thing.  An interloping free-loading shop-keeper is another.  Is there something here we are missing?

II.  Hans at Home

Here is the street where Hans Christian Andersen was born.  It is expanded into a museum now, with the museum entry behind, and a garden, and large addition at the back that is not seen from the street.  Find the museum at this fine site -- ://www.galenfrysinger.com/denmark_odense_anderson_museum.htm/  The site alludes briefly to the lifestyle. Appropriate also not to let that become a focus, when the art is so fine.

Hans Christian Andersen: born here, Little Yellow House, Odense DK

Then refer to reality.  From this cute setting, use your imagination for the filth around and despair of early 19th Century poor. Hans Christian Andersen told tough stories.  Children can take it.  Let them in on the secret here.  Add some text or photos of real 19th Century slums, to help educate our children.  Good things can come in conflicted packages, from demeaning sources.

Odense Denmark, Hans Christian Andersen birth home (now polished)

Hans Christian Andersen hus. The Yuppie setting again.

Hans Christian Andersen, early childhood street

III.  Hans in real life could teach us much more.

Bucolicism does us all a disservice by re-making history. We are only taking pictures of stage sets. Why not set up a stage set of a real slum from the times? Why teach fakery to children. Agenda over truth.

IV.  Hans Rumor

An Odense resident told us as we walked to the square that there have always been rumors that Hans was the son of the King, and that his mother received money from the King throughout her life.  Given the Wullschlager biography, that seems hardly likely.  Still, read this lesser-known story by Hans Christian Andersen from 1853, Everything In The Right Place, at ://hca.gilead.org.il/right_pl.html/

V.  Hans online

Read some of the tales now, before you forget. Click back and forth at the Gilead site, and read more stories by Hans Christian Andersen  How long has it been?