Hans Christian Andersen's Odense

Odense is the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. This is where
the famous fairy tale writer was born in 1805, the son of a poor shoe-
maker and a washerwoman, and with one foot in the Middle Ages
and the other in modernity. Odense was Denmark’s largest provin-
cial city, but at a time when superstition was still an important part
of city life and the writer’s childhood. Odense has changed a lot since
then, though there are still buildings and places that look like they
did in the storyteller’s day. If you follow the footsteps around the city
centre, you will easily find the Hans Christian Andersen Museum
and Childhood Home as well as the Tinderbox - a cultural centre for
children. And the footsteps will also take you past another 11 sites of
great significance to Hans Christian Andersen’s childhood and his
fantastic writings. This guide will provide you with information about
the different sites and their significance to Andersen as well as details
on other wonderful experiences. Have fun!

Information
Odense Bys Museer
Overgade 48
DK-5000 Odense C
T. +45 6551 4601
museum@odense.dk
museum.odense.dk
Download app: AndersensOdense.dk

Life itself is the most
wonderful fairy tale
Hans Christian Andersen – What the whole family said

Denmark’s great fairy tale writer
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–
75) managed to write his way into
the history books as one of the most
significant and most prolific writers
of all time. He is best known today
for his fairy tales for children and
adults. In addition to his 156 fairy
tales, he wrote 14 novels and short
stories, around 50 dramatic works,
some 1,000 poems and a wealth of
biographical works, articles and hu-
morous pieces.
Since 1908, the birthplace of the
world famous writer has been part of
the Hans Christian Andersen Muse-
um, which has been extended several
times. The museum exhibition is or-
ganised into a number of themes, each
of which has its own room in the mu-
seum. Entrance fee.
The Museum
1

3
3
3
3
F The Man
G The Art
H Cinema
I The Life
J The Birthplace
K Transformations
L Breathing space
M Nyhavn
N The Memorial Hall
O The Work
P The Gallery Passage
Q The Tinderbox
3
3
3
3
3
A Entrance
B Ticket office
C Shop, ticket office
D Cloakroom, toilet
E The Age
D
L
E F
G
P
O
N
I
H
J
I
M
K
E F
G
P
O
N
I
J
I
M
K

E
The age
but been wiped out, and society was
marked by science and technology.
But it was still a Europe where mor-
tality rates and poverty were extreme-
ly high, where sexuality was taboo,
where the death penalty was a matter
of course, and where wars were still so
frequent that they received little cov-
erage in the press.
Hans Christian Andersen lived dur-
ing an age of great change. He was
born into a world where only around
60% of the European population sur-
vived childhood, where the king was
the law, illiteracy was widespread, and
where technical and scientific pro-
gress was really taking off. When he
died in 1875, the monarchy no longer
had absolute power, illiteracy had all

F
The man
pulsive – and his outward appearance
caused a stir and made an ungainly,
comical impression on most people.
However, those who got to know the
writer had a different impression en-
tirely. They found his face lively and
spirited, his figure stately and his ap-
pearance elegant.
Hans Christian Andersen was rough-
ly 1.85 m tall – that’s 25 cm taller
than average in the 1800s. The long-
limbed, tall man and his distinctive
face with its deep-set, heavy-lidded
eyes and big nose did not fit it with the
beauty ideals of that day. He was con-
sidered ugly, odd – even downright re-

The art
G
relating to Hans Christian Andersen
and his artistic life. The pen does not
write any more and the scissors do not
cut. The rope was never used, and the
bed is no longer slept in. And yet these
treasures live on as a reminder of Hans
Christian Andersen’s amazing life and
art.
Throughout his life, Hans Christian
Andersen possessed a tremendous im-
agination and sensitivity – something
the writer considered both a spiritual
gift and a spiritual illness. This sen-
sitivity is also found in his imagina-
tive paper cuts and drawings, which
are presented side by side some of the
original and most significant treasures

To live is not enough!
One must have sunshine,
freedom and a little flower!
Hans Christian Andersen – The Butterfly

The life
I
international breakthrough and suc-
cess with his fairy tales. The world
bows to his talent, but still there is an
emptiness and a great loneliness in his
life. Love and family life evade him.
Through his art, he has gained a foot-
hold in the Copenhagen bourgeoisie,
but as yet he has no financial means
to hope for marriage. The third sec-
tion of the exhibition is about Hans
Christian Andersen in the autumn
The biographical exhibition encir-
cles the Memorial Hall and con-
tains three sections. The first section
is about Hans Christian Andersen’s
impoverished childhood in Odense,
where his artistic dreams are awak-
ened by the theatre, his education and
early artistic beginnings in Copenha-
gen, where he travels to at the age of
14. The second section of the exhibi-
tion follows his extensive travels and

of his life. Artistic success has turned
to financial success, but now he is too
old to marry. From the age of 14, he
has lived alone, among other places in
the Nyhavn room, which can also be
seen in this part of the museum. Fa-
mous and acclaimed by all, immortal-
ised through his art, but still lonely, he
dies in 1875.
To travel
is to live
Hans Christian Andersen
– The Fairy Tale of My Life

The birthplace
J
fore had to lodge with family. Imme-
diately after his birth, the priest was
summoned, and Hans Christian An-
dersen was baptised – probably out of
a fear that he would not survive the
early hardships ahead of him.
Hans Christian Andersen was born
in Odense’s worst slum area. In a
neighbourhood populated by rousta-
bouts, paupers and beggars, he came
into this world in a home that was not
even his parents’ own. They did not
have a place of their own and there-

K
Transformations
Transformations is a fairy tale world
at the bottom of the sea – a world
that is both familiar and unfamiliar
at the same time. It shares not its se-
crets willingly, and in this world, you
are the stranger. Only through the
power of imagination is the fairy tale
brought to life and the underwater
world becomes habitable.
Running
through life
is an invisible
thread

Nyhavn
M
tic reconstruction shows the writer’s
study from this time on the first floor
at Nyhavn 18. All of the items on dis-
play belonged to Andersen.
At several points in his life, Hans
Christian Andersen lived in Nyhavn,
close to the Royal Danish Theatre in
Copenhagen. He also lived here in his
final years, and the museum’s authen-

N
The Memorial Hall
the writer’s autobiography “The Fairy
Tale of My Life”. The series of paint-
ings begins and ends in Odense, and
follows the day from the first light of
morning to the darkness of night.
In 1929, the Memorial Hall at the
Hans Christian Andersen Muse-
um was decorated by the artist Niels
Larsen Stevns. He painted eight large
frescoes – eight pictures from Hans
Christian Andersen’s life, taken from

The work
O
ed into most languages. To date, the
museum has registered translations
into almost 160 different languages,
though not all of them can be found
in the library.
The library at the Hans Christian An-
dersen Museum shows the broad dis-
semination of the storyteller’s works,
both before and after his death. Hans
Christian Andersen is one of the writ-
ers whose works have been translat-

P
The Gallery
Passage
Hans Christian Andersen did not il-
lustrate his own writing, but when it
came to words, he was a true visual
artist. Ever since 1838, artists have
drawn inspiration from the writer’s
works and illustrated them. Exhibited
in the Gallery Passage is a small selec-
tion of the many wonderful and varied
interpretations of Hans Christian An-
dersen’s fairy tales.
There is a
loving God
who directs
all things
for the best

Q
The Tinderbox
Play your way into the fairy tale…
The Tinderbox is a cultural centre for
children where Hans Christian An-
dersen’s fairy tales are brought to life
through play, storytelling, theatre
and art. The whole centre is designed
to inspire play and hours of activities
– wonderful experiences for all the
family. Entrance fee.

At the beginning of the 1800s, the
now iconic yellow house on the cor-
ner was located in the poorest part of
Odense, and the majority of the neigh-
bourhood’s inhabitants belonged to
the lowest echelons of society – sol-
diers, roustabouts, paupers and beg-
gars who scraped a living from doing
odd jobs. This is the environment that
Hans Christian Andersen was born
into. Back then, as many as five fami-
lies shared the home of his birth. Since
1908, the house has been part of the
Hans Christian Andersen Museum.
2
The Birthplace

Situated on Sortebrødre Market
Square was the only permanent the-
atre outside Copenhagen. This the-
atrical world of imagination and sto-
rytelling enchanted Hans Christian
Andersen. As poor as he was, he did
not get the chance to see many per-
formances, but instead collected the
theatre’s posters and programmes,
which he used as a source of inspira-
tion at home. He managed to get into
the theatre on one occasion – as an ex-
tra in a play. His only line fuelled his
dream of fame and a life on the stage,
and not long after, aged 14, he made
his way out into the world in search of
adventure and fortune.
3
The Market Square

The Workhouse
4
biblical murals that adorned the walls
of the school’s reading room. By the
cathedral on his way to school, An-
dersen passed the grave of his father
and not least the Latin School, where
he dreamed of becoming a pupil. The
future looked bright for the pupils
there – they had good textbooks and
received excellent tuition.
On the first floor of the workhouse
was the Charity School. This was
where Hans Christian Andersen re-
ceived his irregular and free educa-
tion during the last few years that he
lived in Odense. The teaching was in-
adequate and the textbooks few, and
the young Andersen spent most of his
time composing new stories from the

5
The Washing Site
poor writer was unable to help her,
but many years later he restored his
mother’s dignity in the fairy tale “She
Was Good for Nothing”. Here, he
defended her against the condemna-
tion of the outside world and painted
a sad picture of his mother’s harsh liv-
ing conditions and her great love for
her child.
Further up the river, at a special wash-
ing site like this, Hans Christian An-
dersen’s mother worked as a washer-
woman. Forced to stand in the cold
water for long periods as she toiled,
she warmed herself with alcohol. She
died in 1833 of her addiction, which
had developed into the disease de-
lirium tremens. Back then, the still

The Statue
6
live. When anyone drowned in the
river, it was said the Au-mann had
taken them as an offering in order to
prevent the river from overflowing its
banks and causing major damage. This
is the place that inspired Hans Chris-
tian Andersen to write the fairy tale
“The Bell Deep”.
The large bronze statue of Hans
Christian Andersen was unveiled in
Kongens Have in June 1888. Today,
it is located by the river Odense Å,
with Hans Christian Andersen look-
ing down towards the deepest part of
the river where, in his day, the Au-
mann, a water spirit, was thought to

7
The Prison
parents knew the gatekeeper, on spe-
cial family occasions, Odense prison
provided the setting for their celebra-
tions. However, the young Andersen
was afraid of the inmates who served
at the festivities. In the novel “O.T.”,
Hans Christian Andersen describes
this cruel institution.
When Hans Christian Andersen’s
grandmother married for the first time
in 1783, it was to a man who knew the
then prison, Odense Tugthus, from
the inside. From 1782–1783, he had
served a sentence for having shot at a
manor house huntsman. Hans Chris-
tian Andersen also spent some time
inside – but only as a visitor. As his

The Childhood Home
8
It was a cramped and impoverished
home, and yet Hans Christian An-
dersen looks back on this time in his
childhood home with nostalgic joy.
Because it was also a home filled with
love. Entrance fee.
From the age of two until he was 14,
Hans Christian Andersen lived in
his childhood home on Munkemøll-
estræde. Today, his childhood home
and the adjoining properties have
been converted into a small museum.

A Shop, ticket office
B The exhibition D The kitchen
A CB
D
B C
D
C The living room

The exhibition
B
freethinker. His greatest regret in life
was not being able to stay in school,
but being forced into an apprentice-
ship as a shoemaker. This was not
something he wanted for his son – no
matter how unreasonable and unreal-
istic the boy’s dreams were, he should
be allowed to pursue them.
The small exhibition in his child-
hood home contains impressions from
Hans Christian Andersen’s childhood
in Odense. It was a time when medi-
eval superstition was still very much
alive, and Hans Christian Andersen’s
mother inculcated this superstition
into the young boy’s mind. His father,
on the other hand, professed more to
reason. He was, in his own words, a

C
The living room
and the books he read – everything
could be used as material for Hans
Christian Andersen’s vivid imagina-
tion and puppet theatre performances.
Many years later, his childhood home
would become material and inspira-
tion for the fairy tale writer.
It was here, in his childhood home,
that Hans Christian Andersen’s im-
agination began to flourish. A small
puppet theatre was his most treasured
possession, and it became the place
where his imagination could unfold.
Theatre posters, stories he had heard,

The kitchen
D
– Andersen even revisits his child-
hood home at the beginning of the
fairy tale: “From the kitchen, there
was a ladder up to the loft, where, in
the gutter between our house and the
neighbour’s house, there was a box
of earth containing chives and pars-
ley, my mother’s entire garden; in my
fairy tale: The Snow Queen it flour-
ishes still”.
In his childhood home, the cricket
chirped when Hans Christian An-
dersen’s father lay dead in his bed.
His mother, who was lying on the
floor with Andersen, exclaimed: “He’s
dead, you do not have to sing for him,
the Ice Maiden has taken him!”. Many
years later, it was such childhood ex-
periences that inspired him to write
his fairy tales. In “The Snow Queen”
– a tale about faith and superstition

To be born in a duck’s nest,
in a farmyard, is of no
consequence to a bird, if it
is hatched from a swan’s egg
Hans Christian Andersen – The Ugly Duckling

Odense Cathedral, St. Canute’s, is the
setting of three events in Hans Chris-
tian Andersen’s life. It was here that
his parents married, just three months
before he was born in 1805. The square
that surrounds the church today was a
cemetery in Andersen’s day, and it was
here that his father was buried, aged
33, in 1816. Three years later, it was
also where Andersen was confirmed.
For the special occasion, he had been
given a pair of leather boots. The joy
and pride he felt over the new boots
almost overshadowed the solemness
of the actual confirmation. In the fairy
tale “The Red Shoes”, Hans Christian
Andersen refers back to his childhood
memory and his own vanity.
9
The Cathedral

In the cellar of the Town Hall, Hans
Christian Andersen’s grandmother
had existed on bread and water be-
cause she had given birth to three chil-
dren out of wedlock. But from the first
floor window of the Town Hall, Hans
Christian Andersen, experienced his
happiest moment – despite his terrible
toothache: On 6 December 1867, the
people of Odense paid homage to him
and he became an honorary citizen
of the city. The square in front of the
Town Hall was lit by a torchlight pro-
cession, and for Hans Christian An-
dersen it was also the fulfilment of an
old prophecy. Shortly before heading
out into the world as a young man in
search of fame and fortune, his future
was foretold in coffee grounds. “He’ll
do better than he deserves – one day
the whole of Odense will be lit up in
his honour,” was the prediction.
10
The Town Hall

In Andersen’s day, Gråbrødre was a
whole complex comprising a church, a
hospital and an asylum for the insane.
This was where his grandfather was
admitted as a madman in 1823, and
ten years later, his mother died here of
delirium tremens. It was also where,
as a child, Hans Christian Andersen
had listened to stories told by the el-
derly paupers. Both fascinated and
frightened by them, he would often lie
outside the buildings which housed
the “insane”, listening to their songs,
cursing and ramblings.
11
The Hospital

Odense was known as “the little Co-
penhagen”, when, in 1815, the castle
became the residence of the Prince
Governor Christian Frederik, lat-
er King Christian VIII. Andersen’s
mother worked here as a washerwom-
an from time to time, and she often
took her son with her. In the castle
yard, he played with the other servant
children – and also with Prince Frits,
later King Frederik VII. Odense only
has two honorary citizens. Funni-
ly enough, they are the king and the
writer, Frederik VII and Hans Chris-
tian Andersen – one from the absolute
top and one from the absolute bottom
of society.
12
The Castle

Hans Christian Andersen was pre-
sented in the old church on Easter
Monday 1805, around ten days af-
ter his birth. In the church, the child
screamed so loudly that the priest be-
came angry, exclaiming: “He cries like
a cat!” However, one of his godfathers
comforted his mother by saying that
the louder the child screamed, the
better a singer he would be when he
was older. And how right he was! To
this day, Hans Christian Andersen is
honoured with a plaque in the church.
The Church
13

The Funen Village – a village from
the time of Hans Christian Andersen
Sejerskovvej 20 • 5260 Odense S • museum.odense.dk
Other fairy tale
experiences
The Funen Village is a village from the time of Hans Christian Andersen.
Here you can experience how most people on Funen lived 200 years ago
in a society full of changes that affected even quite ordinary people. En-
joy the beautiful scenery, the blooming gardens, the live stock and village
life in the 1800s.

Odense Aafart has been sailing people up and down the Odense River
since 1882. In the words of our guests: Coziness, relaxation, summer and
sun, happiness and beautiful scenery.
Odense ZOO offers a variety of unique experiences throughout the
year. Enjoy the captivating big brown eyes of the giraffe while you stand
feeding it face-to-face, watch tigers and lions being trained or see other
animals being fed. In the summer, you can also spend the night with your
family on the savannah.
Odense Aafart – a fairy tale river cruise
Filosofgangen 28 • 5000 Odense C • odenseaafart.dk
Odense ZOO
Sdr. Boulevard 306 • 5000 Odense C • odensezoo.dk

Our time is
the time of fairy tales
– The Dryad

Hans Christian Andersen's Odense

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