The Angel (fairy tale) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids "The Angel"
Illustration from the 1888 anthology Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales
Author	Hans Christian Andersen
Original title	"Englen"
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish
Genre(s)	Literary fairy tale
Published in	New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection (Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Første Samling)
Publication type	Fairy tale collection
Publisher	C.A. Reitzel
Media type	Print
Publication date	11 November 1843
Followed by	"The Nightingale"

"The Angel" (Danish: Engelen) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about an angel and a dead child gathering flowers to carry to Heaven. The tale was first published with three others in New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection by C.A. Reitzel in November 1843. The four tales were received by the Danish critics with great acclaim. A print depicting the angel and child became very popular.

Plot

When the tale opens, a child has died, and an angel is escorting him to Heaven. They wander over the Earth for a while, visiting well-known places. Along the way they gather flowers to transplant into the gardens of Heaven. The angel takes the child to a poverty-stricken area where a dead field lily lies in a trash heap. The angel salvages the flower explaining that it had cheered a crippled boy before he died. The angel then reveals he was the boy, and they continue their journey.

Themes

Jens Andersen, author of Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life (2005), describes God as "one of Andersen's most beloved ghosts" and notes that God in "The Angel" is a "pleasant and helpful traveling companion [...] There are few figures in his works to whom he returns more often or examines from so many different childish angles". The poet had an unshakable faith that a whole new existence awaited him once his spirit left his earthly frame at the appropriate time. When Andersen was assailed with doubts regarding the soul's immortality, he reverted to his child faith and could not bring himself to suggest that the human being is simply dispersed as gases and other substances to fertilize the earth at death as the scientific Niels Bryde does in Andersen's 1857 novel To Be or Not to Be. Andersen regarded God as a release for those suffering and a new chance for those who have failed. God was an optimistic and promising beginning for Andersen.

Background

The tale is completely Andersen's invention, and may have been motivated by the death of the eldest daughter of his friends, Edvard and Jette Collins. The theme of a child transformed into an angel had possessed Andersen since the completion of his poem "The Dying Child". According to Gustav Hetsch, the story is one of three Andersen stories (along with "Beneath the Pillar and "The Nightingale") to have been inspired by Jenny Lind.

See also

In Spanish: El ángel (cuento) para niños