The Ugly Duckling

About the legend

Being

Swan (literary animal tale)

Cultural meaning

The Ugly Duckling is a literary fairy tale: Hans Christian Andersen made it up himself instead of retelling an old folk tale. It is also an animal tale, where the duck yard and the old woman's cottage are like small human worlds, full of snobs and know-it-alls who judge others by red rags, spurs and tricks. In Danish, 'den grimme ælling' has become an everyday phrase for someone or something that is looked down on at first and valued later.

Fun fact

Young mute swans are grey-brown at first and turn all white only as they grow up. No wonder the big grey chick looked so different from the yellow ducklings!

Cultural notes

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) first published 'Den grimme Ælling' on 11 November 1843 in a small book called Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Første Samling, together with three other tales: 'Engelen' (The Angel), 'Nattergalen' (The Nightingale) and 'Kjærestefolkene' (The Sweethearts; or, The Top and the Ball). On 19 November 1843 the newspaper Fædrelandet praised the book and read the duckling as an allegory of the poet's own misunderstood worth. Andersen was so pleased that he later dated his breakthrough as a writer of fairy tales from that review, and the tale is still often read as his picture of his own youth. In Danish the cat is called Sønneke and the hen Kykkelilavbeen, after her short, low legs; here they are Sonny and Chicky Low-Legs. In 1984 the mute swan was chosen as Denmark's national bird in a viewer vote on Danmarks Radio.

About this retelling

Abridged literary adaptation A retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's literary fairy tale The Ugly Duckling (1843).

Andersen's tale is harsher than this retelling. In his version the mother duck stands up for the duckling at first but later wishes he were far away, his brothers and sisters wish the cat would take him, the girl who feeds the animals kicks him, and the farmer's wife strikes at him with the fire tongs. Hunters shoot the two young wild geese dead, the wild birds joke about marriage, and the duckling swims to the swans expecting to be killed. Here his mother defends him to the end, nobody kicks or strikes him, the hunt is only bangs and smoke as the geese fly away, and he expects the swans to chase him off. In Andersen he sees his reflection before the swans circle him and stroke him with their beaks; here the swans welcome him while he still believes he is ugly, and he sees his reflection only afterwards. Andersen's children first shout that a new one has come and then, with the grown-ups, call the new swan the most beautiful of all, and his narrator adds that a duck-yard birth means nothing to one who has lain in a swan's egg. Here the children only say that a new one has come, and the duckling's last thoughts of his mother were added for Nordic Tales, so that the ending is about being welcomed rather than about beauty.

Sources

• Den grimme Ælling (Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Første Samling, 1843) — Hans Christian Andersen
• Anmeldelse af Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Første Samling, Fædrelandet 19. november 1843 — H.C. Andersen-Centret

Themes

• kindness
• respect
• belonging
• humility
• H.C. Andersen
• Den grimme ælling
• ugly duckling
• swan
• duckling
• duck yard
• Mother Duck
• cat and hen
• Denmark
• fairy tale
• literary fairy tale
• animal tale
• winter
• spring
• belonging

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