Today, Claire Fontaine and TheGrandma have spent a day full of activities.
They have visited H.C.Andersen, an old Grandma's friend, best remembered for his fairy tales.
After a tour by boat, they have visited Tivoli Gardens and Den LilleHavfrue, a Copenhagen icon.
Finally, they have visited the Frihedsmuseet,the Museum of Danish Resistance, a must that remembers us everyday the great disaster that was the WWII, and how it affected the Scandinavian lands, especially Denmark and Norway.
Den lille Havfrue, in English The Little Mermaid, is a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen, depicting a mermaid becoming human. The sculpture is displayed on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is 1.25 metres tall and weighs 175 kilograms.
Based on the 1837 fairy tale of the same name by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and has been a major tourist attraction since its unveiling in 1913. In recent decades it has become a popular target for defacement by vandals and political activists.
Mermaid is among iconic statues that symbolize cities; others include: the statue of Pania of the Reef in Napier; Manneken Pis in Brussels; the Statue of Liberty in New York; Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro; Smok Wawelski (Wawel Dragon) in Kraków, Poland; or Nelson's Column and Eros in London.
The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre and asked the ballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled on August 23, 1913. The statue's head was modelled after Price, but as the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor's wife, Eline Eriksen, was used for the body.
The Copenhagen City Council arranged to move the statue to Shanghai at the Danish Pavilion for the duration of the Expo 2010 (May to October), the first time it had been moved officially from its perch since it was installed almost a century earlier. While the statue was away in Shanghai an authorised copy was displayed on a rock in the lake in Copenhagen's nearby Tivoli Gardens.
Copenhagen officials have considered moving the statue several meters out into the harbour to discourage vandalism and to prevent tourists from climbing onto it, but as of September 2022 the statue remains on dry land at the water side at Langelinie.
Today, The Watsons and TheGrandma have visited some of the most interesting places in Copenhagen like the TivoliGardens, the Amalienborg Palace,the Rosenborg Castle and DenLille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid).
It has been a wonderful experience. Tonight, they are going to visit TheNationalMuseum in a private visit.
Copenhagen has the essence of Vikings and the splendorous Middle Age in every corner of its streets. It is a unique experience that you must live at least once in your life but Copenhagen is also the city where lived and died Hans ChristianAndersen the most popular tales writer.
The family has wanted to homage him visiting Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid) that is, probably, the most popular symbol of this amazing city.
The Little Mermaid, in Danish Den lille Havfrue, is a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen, depicting a mermaid becoming human. The sculpture is displayed on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark.It is 1.25 metres tall and weighs 175 kilograms.
Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and has been a major tourist attraction since its unveiling in 1913. In recent decades it has become a popular target for defacement by vandals and political activists.
Mermaid is among iconic statues that symbolize cities; others include: Manneken Pis in Brussels, the Statue of Liberty in New York and Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. In several cases, cities have commissioned statues for such a purpose, such as with Singapore's Merlion.
The
statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of
Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in
Copenhagen's Royal Theatre and asked the ballerina, Ellen Price, to
model for the statue.
The
sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled
on August 23, 1913. The statue's head was modelled after Price, but as
the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor's wife,
Eline Eriksen,was used for the body.
Den Lille Havfrue, The Little Mermaid
The Copenhagen City Council arranged to move the statue to Shanghai at the Danish Pavilion for the duration of the Expo 2010 (May to October), the first time it had been moved officially from its perch since it was installed almost a century earlier.
While the statue was away in Shanghai an authorised copy was displayed on a rock in the lake in Copenhagen's nearby Tivoli Gardens. Copenhagen officials have considered moving the statue several meters out into the harbour to discourage vandalism and to prevent tourists from climbing onto it, but as of May 2014 the statue remains on dry land at the water side at Langelinie.
This statue has been damaged and defaced many times since the mid-1960s for various reasons, but has been restored each time.
On
April 24, 1964, the statue's head was sawn off and stolen by
politically oriented artists of the Situationist movement, amongst them
Jørgen Nash.The head was never recovered and a new head was produced
and placed on the statue. On July 22, 1984, the right arm was sawn off
and returned two days later by two young men. In 1990, an attempt to
sever the statue's head left an 18 centimeters deep cut in the neck.
On
January 6, 1998, the statue was decapitated again; the culprits were
never found, but the head was returned anonymously to a nearby
television station, and reattached on February 4. On the night of
September 10, 2003, the statue was knocked off its base with explosives
and later found in the harbour's waters. Holes had been blasted in the
mermaid's wrist and knee.
Paint has been poured on the statue several times, including one episode in 1963 and two in March and May 2007. On March 8, 2006, a dildo was attached to the statue's hand, green paint was dumped over it, and the date March 8 were written on it. It is suspected that this vandalism was connected with International Women's Day, which is on March 8.
The statue was found drenched in red paint on May 30, 2017 with the message Danmark defend the whales of the Faroe Islands, a reference to
whaling in the Faroe Islands, an autonomous country in the Kingdom of
Denmark, written on the ground in front of the statue. About two weeks
later, on June 14, the statue was drenched in blue and white paint. Befri Abdulle, Free Abdulle, was written in front of the statue, but
it was unclear what this referred to at the time. Later, police said the
writing was likely referring to Abdulle Ahmed, a Somalian refugee who
has been detained in a high security unit in Denmark since 2001 due to a
custody sentence. On 13 January 2020, Free Hong Kong was painted on
the stone the statue is mounted on.
Visiting Den Lille Havfrue, The Little Mermaid
Although not regarded as vandalism since no damage is done to the statue, people have also repeatedly dressed it, either for fun or to make more serious statements.
In 2004, the statue was draped in a burqa in a protest against Turkey's application to join the European Union.
In May 2007, it was again found draped in Muslim dress and a head scarf. Other examples are times where a Christmas hat has been put on the head, or it has been dressed in the jerseys of the Norwegian or Swedish national football teams, especially the Danish and Swedish teams have a highly competitive rivalry.
Aside from the statue on display, which is a replica of the original, more than thirteen undamaged copies of the statue are located around the world, listed by Mermaids of Earth, including Solvang, California; Kimballton, Iowa; Piatra Neamţ, Romania; Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid), Spain; Seoul, South Korea; and a half-sized copy in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The grave of Danish-American entertainer Victor Borge includes a copy as well. The Copenhagen Airport also has a replica of the mermaid along with a statue of Hans Christian Andersen.
Some statues similar to The Little Mermaid are In Sicily. The first it placed in 1962 on the seafront in Giardini Naxos, and measures about four meters high over a fountain. A second always portraying a mermaid Post on a depth of sea about 18 meters. Inside the Marine Protected Area of Plemmiro of Siracusa.
A
statue of The Little Mermaid looks out over Larvotto beach in Monaco.
She was created, in 2000, with layers and layers of metal by Kristian
Dahlgard, in hommage to the Danes who live in Monaco and for the late
Prince Rainier III to mark the 50th year of his reign.
A copy of the statue forms the Danish contribution to the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City. The half-size replica was stolen on February 26, 2010, but was recovered on April 7 abandoned in the park.
The statue is under copyright until 2029, seventy years after the 1959 death of the creator. As of 2019, replicas can be purchased, authorized for sale by the Eriksen family.
A replica was installed in Greenville, Michigan in 1994 to celebrate the town's Danish heritage, at a cost of $10,000. In 2009 the Artists Rights Society asked the town for a $3,800 licensing fee, claiming the work violated Eriksen'scopyright. At about 76 cm in height, the replica in Greenville is half the size of the original, and has a different face and larger breasts as well as other distinguishing factors. The copyright claim was later reported to have been dropped.
There are similarities between The Little Mermaid statue and the Pania of the Reef statue on the beachfront at Napier in New Zealand, and some similarities in the little mermaid and Pania tales. The 1972 statue of a female diver, titled Girl in a Wetsuit by Elek Imredy, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada was commissioned when, unable to obtain permission to reproduce the Copenhagen statue, Vancouver authorities selected a modern version.
Hans Christian Andersen (2 April 1805-4 August 1875)was a Danishauthor.
Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairytales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories, called Eventyr in Danish, express themes that transcend age and nationality.
Andersen's fairy tales, of which no less than 3381 works have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. His stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action films.
Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805. He was an only child. Andersen's father, also Hans, considered himself related to nobility. A persistent speculation suggests that Andersen was an illegitimate son of King Christian VIII, but this notion has been challenged.
Andersen's father, who had received an elementary school education, introduced Andersen to literature, reading to him Arabian Nights. Andersen was sent to a local school for poor children where he received a basic education and had to support himself, working as an apprentice to a weaver and, later, to a tailor.
Hans Christian Andersen
At fourteen, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor. Having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet. Taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing. A very early fairy tale by Andersen, Tællelyset, The Tallow Candle, was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012. The story, written in the 1820s, was about a candle that did not feel appreciated. It was written while Andersen was still in school and dedicated to a benefactor in whose family's possession it remained until it turned up among other family papers in a local archive.
In 1829, Andersen enjoyed considerable success with the short story A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager. At Jura, near Le Locle, Switzerland, Andersen wrote the story Agnete and the Merman. He spent an evening in the Italian seaside village of Sestri Levante the same year, inspiring the title of The Bay of Fables. In October 1834, he arrived in Rome. Andersen's travels in Italy were to be reflected in his first novel, a fictionalized autobiography titled Improvisatoren, published in 1835 to instant acclaim.
In 1835, Andersen published the first two installments of his Fairy Tales. More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1837. The collection comprises nine tales, including The Tinderbox, The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, and The Emperor's New Clothes. The quality of these stories was not immediately recognized, and they sold poorly. At the same time, Andersen enjoyed more success with two novels, O.T. (1836) and Only a Fiddler (1837); the latter work was reviewed by a young SørenKierkegaard.
Hans Christian Andersen
After a visit to Sweden in 1837, Andersen became inspired by Scandinavism and committed himself to writing a poem that would convey the relatedness of Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. In July 1839, during a visit to the island of Funen, Andersen wrote the text of his poem Jeg er en Skandinav, I am a Scandinavian, to capture the beauty of the Nordic spirit, the way the three sister nations have gradually grown together as part of a Scandinavian national anthem. Composer Otto Lindblad set the poem to music, and the composition was published in January 1840. Its popularity peaked in 1845, after which it was seldom sung.
Andersen returned to the fairy tale genre in 1838 with another collection, Fairy Tales Told for Children, which consists of The Daisy, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and The Wild Swans.
In June 1847, Andersen paid his first visit to England and enjoyed a triumphal social success during the summer. The Countess of Blessington invited him to her parties where intellectual people could meet, and it was at one such party that he met Charles Dickens for the first time. They shook hands and walked to the veranda, about which Andersen wrote in his diary: We had come to the veranda, I was so happy to see and speak to England's now living writer, whom I love the most.
The two authors respected each other's work and shared something important in common as writers: depictions of the poor and the underclass, who often had difficult lives affected both by the Industrial Revolution and by abject poverty. In the Victorian era there was a growing sympathy for children and an idealisation of the innocence of childhood.
Andersen' statue in Central Park, NYC
Ten years later, Andersen visited England again, primarily to meet Dickens. He extended a brief visit to Dickens' home at Gads Hill Place into a five-week stay, to the distress of Dickens' family. After Andersen was told to leave, Dickens gradually stopped all correspondence between them, to the great disappointment and confusion of Andersen, who had quite enjoyed the visit and never understood why his letters went unanswered.
In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of his bed and was severely hurt; he never fully recovered from the resultant injuries. Soon afterward, he started to show signs of liver cancer.
He died on 4 August 1875, in a house called Rolighed, near Copenhagen, the home of his close friends, the banker Moritz Melchior and his wife. Shortly before his death, Andersen had consulted a composer about the music for his funeral, saying: Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with little steps.
