On This Day...

On this day in 1805, writer Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark. In his lifetime, Andersen authored many of the best known fairy tales like "The Ugly Duckling", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Little Mermaid" (which is what the Disney classic was loosely based on).

In my early college years, I took a writing course where we studied Scandinavian literature and Andersen was one of the authors we covered. I am embarrassed to admit that it was only then that I realized where many of my classic fairy tales came from. It is amazing how mainstream American/Western culture often adopts and appropriates things from other cultures and the origin (and some times worse, significance) of that said artifact gets lost in the process of cultural appropriation.

To honor this Danish author's birthday, Google's normal multi-colored logo (well unless it is April Fools day, then it becomes "Topeka") on its home page is being replaced by a series of Google doodles that reflect scenes from Andersen's well known fairy tale "Thumbelina". Go check it out!

Image from Chronicle Books