Hans Christian Andersen's first fairy tale (1805-1875) they believe Danish experts discovered in a handwritten text, written in ink, which was found in a local file. Entitled "The Tallow Candle" (The tallow wax), the manuscript was located in the historical archives of Funen Island, where the Danish writer was born. It was in the back of an archive where it was unearthed last October by local historian Esben Brage.
Two months later the historians decided, that the manuscript, which consists of six pages was actually written by Andersen, they even dated its writing to the middle of his decade 1820, when the author was in his late teens. "I have no doubt that it was written by Andersen", Ejnar Stig Askgaard of the Odense City Museum also told the Danish newspaper "Politiken". The newspaper has even translated and published the text in English.
On the first page of the manuscript one can read: "To Mrs. Bunkeflod from the devoted H. C. Andersen». It is about the widow of a vicar, who lived across the street from Andersen's childhood home and historians know that he often visited her to borrow her books. And as Askgaard said “The fairy tale was a gift to a woman, whose home was very important to him".
Afterwards, however, the Bunkeflod family sent the manuscript to another, who was closely associated with the Andersens, the Plum family, in whose archives the tale was finally found. A dedication even written on the document later in blue ink states: "To P. Plum Bunkeflod by his friend". Here experts believe, that the text found, possibly a copy _ by the author himself of course _ of his original manuscript, which had been lost.
The fairy tale, however, talks about a neglected and dirty candle made of animal fat, which finds happiness when a wimp sees its inner beauty and the glow in its wick. Despite the fact that the story is not on the level of Andersen's later works, it is nevertheless considered the most important find from the decade 1920, when the author's memoirs were discovered in the Royal Library.
"This is a shocking discovery. On the one hand because it should be considered as Andersen's first fairy tale and on the other hand because it shows that he was interested in fairy tales from his youth, before establishing himself as a writer", Askgaard adds.
Andersen's first fairy tales were published in 1835 while overall he wrote about the 160 stories, which have been translated into more than 100 languages.
