Fairy Tales Told for Children: Second Booklet

By Andersen's account the first booklet had been coolly received, but he went on.[1] The second booklet appeared just before Christmas 1835. Two weeks later, on 31 December, the Copenhagen newspaper Kjøbenhavnsposten mentioned it. The paper said that of the three new tales, Thumbelina in particular had won readers.[2]

The Travelling Companion had a history. In 1830 Andersen had printed a tale called Dødningen, which means The Dead Man, subtitled a folk tale from Funen, the Danish island where he grew up. Birger Frank Nielsen's standard bibliography of Andersen's Danish books calls it his first fairy tale. He reworked it for the second booklet under its new title.[2]

The Naughty Boy is only a few pages long. An old poet sitting by his stove on a stormy night lets in a small, wet, shivering boy with a bow and arrows. The boy is Cupid.[3] The booklet was reprinted in 1843.[2]

In Thumbelina, a woman who longs for a child gets a barley corn from a witch and plants it in a flower pot. A flower like a tulip opens, and in the middle sits a tiny girl, no more than an inch tall. She sleeps in a walnut shell. One night a toad hops in through a broken window pane and carries her off to marry its son.[3]

Thumbelina floats away on a green leaf and is snatched by a cockchafer, a large beetle. The other cockchafers call her ugly, so he drops her on a daisy. She spends the winter with a field mouse, who wants her to marry the rich, blind mole next door. The mole dislikes sunshine and flowers. In the mole's tunnel Thumbelina finds a swallow lying half frozen, and she secretly nurses it back to life.[3]

In The Naughty Boy, the old poet warms the boy, gives him wine and a roasted apple, and admires his bow. The boy tests the bow by shooting the poet through the heart. The poet warns all good children to keep away from him.[3]

In The Travelling Companion, a young man called John sets out into the world after his father dies. One night in a church he sees two men trying to throw a dead man out of his coffin. John gives them all the money he has to leave the body in peace. The next day a stranger joins him on the road. They reach a city where a princess sets three riddles for every suitor, and has those who fail hanged or beheaded. John falls in love with her.[3]