The Emperor's New Clothes

About the legend

Being

Emperor (literary creation)

Cultural meaning

This is a literary fairy tale: Hans Christian Andersen wrote it himself, using an idea from a much older Spanish story, and it feels as old as a folk tale. It became so famous that 'the emperor has no clothes' turned into a saying. People use it when everyone can see that something is not true, but nobody dares to say so until someone finally does.

Fun fact

In Andersen's first version of this story, everyone went on pretending to the very end. Just before the book was printed, he changed the ending and gave a little child the words that everyone remembers.

Cultural notes

'Keiserens nye Klæder' (in modern Danish 'Kejserens nye klæder') was published in Copenhagen by C. A. Reitzel on 7 April 1837, in the third booklet of Andersen's 'Eventyr, fortalte for Børn', together with 'The Little Mermaid'. Andersen built it on a Spanish story from the 1330s by Don Juan Manuel, which he read in a German translation. In that story three tricksters fool a king, and the man who looks after the king's horse, who has nothing to lose, tells the truth. Andersen made it two weavers, an emperor and a whole court too proud to admit what they could not see, and gave the truth to a child. In the original, the Emperor rewards the tricksters with knight's crosses and the title 'Vævejunker' (roughly 'weaver-squire'), and the courtiers praise the cloth with fashionable French words such as 'magnifique'. Andersen's fairy tales have since been translated into around 160 languages.

About this retelling

Literary adaptation A retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's literary fairy tale The Emperor's New Clothes (1837).

This retelling follows Andersen's tale closely, from the empty looms to the procession that goes on to the end. A few things are changed for children. In Andersen, the Emperor takes off all his clothes and walks in the procession with nothing on; here he keeps his long white underwear, and the child's words follow that. Andersen's weavers say their cloth is invisible to anyone unfit for their office or unforgivably stupid; the trick is kept, but the storyteller never calls anyone stupid. The father's exclamation, 'Good Lord, hear the voice of innocence', becomes 'Listen to what the child says!'. The child's name, Sofie, and the fountain she stands on were created for Nordic Tales. As in Andersen, the story ends with the procession going on and the chamberlains carrying a train that is not there, and we never learn what became of the weavers.

Sources

• Keiserens nye Klæder (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Tredie Hefte, 1837) — Hans Christian Andersen, Danish original
• Keiserens nye Klæder, work register no. 17 — H.C. Andersen Centre, University of Southern Denmark

Themes

• honesty
• courage
• integrity
• listening
• H.C. Andersen
• Keiserens nye Klæder
• Kejserens nye klæder
• emperor
• weavers
• invisible cloth
• procession
• honesty
• speaking up
• Denmark
• fairy tale
• literary fairy tale

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