On The TownThe life and writings of Hans Christian Andersen were the subject of a reception in Dublin this week. "He is our national poet. He has a special place in all Danish hearts because we listened to him when we were children," said Jakob Steen Olsen, of the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation.
Olsen hoped that celebrations next year, to commemorate the writer's birth in 1805, would help "to promote a more complex image of him".
As part of the bicentennial celebrations, the Nobel Prize winner, John Hume MP, and actor Victoria Smurfit were appointed as Hans Christian Andersen ambassadors by Erik Tygesen, the Danish ambassador to Ireland, in Dublin this week.
Andersen "was not only a revered writer of fairy tales, but a thinker, a novelist, an exponent of science and a cataloguer of travel", said Hume, who attended the presentation at the Irish Writers' Centre with his wife, Pat Hume. In memory of Andersen, "the international community should ensure that all necessary steps are taken to make education universally available to all throughout the world", he added.
Smurfit spoke of "the innocence and timelessness" of Andersen's stories. She loved the story of The Princess and the Pea most of all.
"That story is really about honesty," she said. "He writes with such a subtle innocence and morality. He's just showing up people as he sees them."
Henrik Hahn, of the Danish Tourist Board, said Andersen's stories have an impact and something to say, "especially for adults", and they often have endings "that you never expected".
Among those who attended were Cathal McCabe, director of the Irish Writers' Centre, Mary and Douglas Baxter, who is the retired Danish consul for the south-east of Ireland, and Alan Sparling, manager of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) in Dublin.