Andersen's Fairy Tales. Illustrated Edition

Author: Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: In the palace, in the grand halls adorned with blooming flowers, they spent their long days without boredom. The windows made of amber were always open, and fish swam before them, just as swallows would fly into our open windows. However, the fish kept swimming over to their hands, letting them stroke themselves. In the palace, there was a vast garden filled with plants, some bright red and others deep blue. The trees bore sparkling fruits that shone like gold; the flowers bloomed fiercely, as if burning; the branches swayed endlessly. Fine sand covered the ground tightly, but it was blue and shimmered, like the flickering light of sulfur burning. It was truly a strange world sparkling with blue light! When you arrived there, you would swear you were in the high sky, not the sea—both above and below were the blue of the sky. When the sea was very calm, looking out from the seabed, you could even see the sun, which resembled a purple flower, with rays of different colors shooting out from its heart. In the garden, each princess had her own small piece of land. In their own little gardens, they could plant whatever they wanted. Some decorated their gardens as whales, while others turned them into little mermaids. However, the youngest princess’s garden was arranged in a circle, like the sun. Moreover, her garden was filled only with fiery red flowers. This child was a bit strange, not fond of talking much, and always stayed quietly alone, as if deep in thought. The sunken ships brought them many strange things, and the other princesses decorated their gardens with what they had found. But the youngest princess only liked to plant flowers as red as the sun. Besides that, she wished only for a beautiful marble statue. It was the head of a very handsome man, carved from a single piece of white marble, which had sunk to the seabed with a shipwreck. Next to this statue, she planted a red weeping willow, like a crimson rose. The willow grew very lush, its tender branches hanging down to touch the blue sandy bottom. Its shadow appeared purplish-blue, swaying gently with the branches, as if the top and roots of the tree were playing with each other, like two people kissing. For the little princess, the greatest joy was listening to stories about the human world above. Her grandmother had to tell her everything she knew about the human world, including ships, cities, people, and animals. What she found most wonderful were the flowers on land, which could emit pleasant fragrances, but the flowers in the sea could not; and the forests on land, which were green, with the "fish""" (birds) singing beautiful songs that brought joy to people. In that world, the "fish" were actually birds, because if her grandmother hadn’t told her so, the little princess wouldn’t have been able to understand her stories—she had never seen any birds before. "When you turn fifteen," her grandmother said, "I will allow you to go to the surface of the sea. Then, you