To honor the world-renowned queer master of fairy tales, Denmark is remembering the great poet Hans Christian Andersen. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the creator of masterpieces such as “The Little Mermaid” and “The Ugly Duckling,” several churches across the country paid tribute a little after 11 a.m. with a parallel carillon ringing — roughly around the time Andersen died on August 4, 1875, in Copenhagen.
This also marked the launch of a multi-week homage to the Danish national poet. As part of the Andersen Forever initiative, the remembrance will focus especially in Andersen’s birthplace of Odense, with a slate of events through the fall, including theatre performances, lectures, and art projects.
H.C. Andersen was born on April 2, 1805, in Odense. His masterworks such as The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, and The Emperor’s New Clothes remain classics of the fairy-tale world, beloved in Germany as well.
Researchers today believe the Danish author was gay or bisexual — though he never acted on his attractions to the same sex.
