Discovering Hans Christian Andersen's 'lost fairytale'

About this episode

The episode discusses the discovery of Hans Christian Andersen's first fairytale, 'Tallow Candle', found in the Danish Archives.

In October 2012, a local historian stumbled upon a misplaced pamphlet in the Danish Archives. It was a story called the Tallow Candle and is believed to be Hans Christian Andersen’s first fairytale. Ejnar Askgaard, Curator and Senior Researcher at Museum Odense, verified the document. He speaks to Surya Elango. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention…

People in this episode

Host: Surya Elango

Guest: Ejnar Askgaard

Topics covered

• Hans Christian Andersen
• lost fairytale
• Danish Archives
• historical discovery
• cultural history

Keywords

• Hans Christian Andersen
• Tallow Candle
• fairytale
• Danish Archives
• historical discovery

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Museum Odense, BBC World Service

Books & works: Tallow Candle

More episodes of Witness History

• Hussein of Jordan: The survivor king · June 12, 2026 · 11 min
• The inspiration for Chekhov's Three Sisters · June 11, 2026 · 11 min
• Picasso and the Surrealist summer · June 10, 2026 · 11 min
• Mstislav Rostropovich: Virtuoso cellist · June 9, 2026 · 11 min
• Nelson Mandela's incarceration at Robben Island · June 8, 2026 · 10 min
• The creation of Inspector Montalbano · June 5, 2026 · 11 min