A fairy tale birthday
2005-04-02 23:32
Odense, Denmark - Thousands of people lined the cobblestone streets of fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen's birth town on Saturday to welcome royals and celebrities marking the 200th birthday of Denmark's most beloved and famous author.
Young and old, residents of Odense waved red-and-white Danish flags and snapped pictures of the entourage of princesses, actors and sports stars who toured a museum dedicated to Andersen, author of such children's classics as The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid.
A concert in Copenhagen will be the climax of three days of celebrations that have been meticulously planned for months.
Worldwide, thousands of events have been scheduled this year to honour the writer, from the unveiling of Andersen statues in Vietnam to writing competitions in New York schools and puppet-theatre performances in Australia.
Royals from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands joined celebrities including Australian Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman, British actor Roger Moore and Chilean author Isabel Allende for a tour of the Andersen museum, a modern building that incorporates the low, half-timbered, late 18th-century house where the writer lived as a child.
They also attended an award ceremony during which American literary critic and scholar Harold Bloom received this year's Hans Christian Andersen Prize.
"The older I get the more and more I believe in ghosts. I suspect his ghost may be present this afternoon," Bloom said in accepting the award at Odense's concert hall.
An honorary award was given to German writer and Nobel Prize laureate Gunter Grass.
"Maybe Andersen wrote in Danish, but his stories are universal," Grass said.
The party was scheduled to return to Copenhagen for a televised concert featuring Tina Turner, Olivia Newton John, French musician Jean-Michel Jarre and American opera singer Renee Fleming.
In Denmark, the author's image is everywhere _ on commemorative coins and postage stamps, on beer labels and dinnerware, as well as baby clothes - all specially designed for the jubilee.
Politiken, a major newspaper, has been publishing daily excerpts from Andersen's diaries. Last year, a major Danish publishing house presented the re-edition of Andersen's complete works, an 18-volume collection.
About 2 000 police officers, or one-fifth of Denmark's police force, have been assigned to watch over the Andersen celebrations, which started on Friday with a play based on Andersen's writings at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen.
The giant birthday bash ends on Sunday with a reception in the capital's city hall.
Born on April 2, 1805, Andersen was the son of a charwoman and a shoemaker. He was a well-known novelist in Denmark during his lifetime, but his worldwide popularity as a fairy tale writer came after his death.
- AP