Just like the article mentioned, he has become almost synonymous with fairy tales associated with stories for kids, but for anyone who has ever read from a collection of his stories, a majority of them are most certainly not appropriate for kids. Some of them are incredibly sad, and as another comment says, the fate of the characters often can change for the worse in the last paragraphs, when you least expect it.
I can only recommend reading his works, they are deeply profound.
> for anyone who has ever read from a collection of his stories, a majority of them are most certainly not appropriate for kids.
That really depends on the culture you are coming from.
There is a deep divide between how European and USA culture views what is appropriate material for children.
Being from the nordics, H.C.A's whole collection was part of mine and every friends childhood, from as early as kindergarten, and I vividly remember feeling deep sadness and empathy towards some of his characters at an early age.
> a majority of them are most certainly not appropriate for kid
I did enjoy them as kid - as sad as they were. Many years after I can't think of a reason to consider them: "most certainly not appropriate". That's being overprotective.
In the light of the current events - they should introduce an age check verification to readers, right?
I agree with you that OP is being overprotective, but its natural that we all draw slightly different lines about what's appropriate when.
FWIW, when (spoiler alerts) the little girl gets her feet cut off in red shoes my 8 and 10 year olds were shocked at the turn events, but hardly shaken. Likewise when the little match girl died in the cold they were sad, but not permanently so.
It's the same deal with grimm fairy tales, or even pinocchio (pinocchio gets hanged).
Or the little mermaid, where she failed to get the prince to fall in love with her and fell into the sea, dying and turning into sea foam.
She doesn’t turn into sea foam though, she turns into an air spirit, getting the chance of an immortal soul, which is what she was after.
I clearly remember the version I read having her throw herself off of a cliff and turn into sea foam. It was a very sad ending that stuck with me.
It must have been an abridged version or something that skipped the redemption arc, like this:
"In the end, the Prince marries another, a girl he thinks is the girl that saved him, but of course, isn’t. And the little mermaid is given the opportunity to win back her life with her family, to return to life as a mermaid, if she can kill the Prince as he sleeps. But, she loves him, and so she can’t.
Instead as part of the bargain she made with the sea witch, she dies, turning into sea foam."
That left off the redemption arc:
But here, Andersen is able to deliver the ultimate judgment. Instead of simply perishing as sea foam as other mermaids do (we are told earlier that, unlike humans, mermaids do not have afterlives), the little mermaid becomes a daughter of the air. In exchange for her goodness, for her suffering, and her loyalty, she is given the chance to win immortality, to win an immortal soul.
https://thecuriousworthy.com/2017/03/30/the-original-little-...
I think that’s basically the ending in the Czech film version too
>grimm fairy tales
Indeed, Max and Moritz ending up in the meat grinder (literally). Also reminds me of 'little riding red hood' originally lacks a happy ending at any rate.
(As for age, I think I was 6-7 when I first read Han C. Andersen)
“Max and Moritz” is not Grimm but Wilhelm Busch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_and_Moritz
Thanks! Indeed! I guess I have read the stories together, same book pretty much.
Those are absolutely horrific endings. They would have given me nightmares as a kid. I guess if your kids can handle it then great there's no need to coat them in bubble wrap.
> They would have given me nightmares as a kid.
This is not always the easiest thing to guess. The things that gave me nightmares were people looking at me through mirrors (i.e., Snow White), animal brutality (which featured prominently in 90s family movies), and adoption (i.e. getting adopted into the "wrong", abusive family). Meanwhile I ingested astonishingly violent material and slept like a baby. I think it's hard to figure out what kids will identify as fantasy and what they'll see as a real, yet-unknown risk.
I had access to no entertainment and only selected books, but still regularly had nightmares -- about my parents.
Never mind the kids, "Story of a mother" is very much "adult fear".
I read The Steadfast Tin Soldier for the first time when I was a kid but it didn't have a special meaning for me until my late teens, when I first fell in love.
A story having a tragic twist doesn’t automatically make it inappropriate for kids.
I wonder what dr detroit did wrong to be bombed into oblivion; he is not fully wrong. As an example, the HCA story 'tinderbox' is clearly built from earlier borrowed cloth. As a dane myself, it is apparent that HCA didn't even have a danish term for the demon dogs, so he just calls them 'dogs' to avoid issues with his audience.
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