The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Encyclopedia
"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" (Danish: Den standhaftige tinsoldat) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
about a tin soldier
's love for a paper ballerina
. After several adventures, the tin soldier perishes in a fire with the ballerina. The tale was first published in Copenhagen by C.A. Reitzel on 2 October 1838 in the first booklet of Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. The booklet consists of Andersen's "The Daisy" and "The Wild Swans
". The tale was Andersen’s first not based upon a folk tale or a literary model. "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" has been adapted to various media including ballet and animated film.
and arrays them on a table top. One soldier stands on a single leg, having been the last one cast from an old tin spoon. Nearby, he spies a paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. She too is standing on one leg and the soldier falls in love. That night, a troll
among the toys angrily warns the soldier to take his eyes off the ballerina, but the soldier ignores him. The next day, the soldier falls from a windowsill (presumably the work of the troll) and lands in the street. Two boys find the soldier, place him in a paper boat, and set him sailing in the gutter. The boat and its passenger wash into a storm drain, where a rat
demands the soldier pay a toll. Sailing on, the boat is washed into a canal, where the tin soldier is swallowed by a fish
. When the fish is caught and cut open, the tin soldier finds himself once again on the table top before the ballerina. Inexplicably, a boy throws the tin soldier into the fire. A wind blows the ballerina into the fire with him; she is consumed at once but her spangle
remains. The tin soldier melts into the shape of a heart.
Joan G. Haahr writes in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales: "The story is unusual among Andersen's early tales, both in its emphasis on sensual desire and in its ambiguities. Blind fate, not intention, determines all events. Moreover, the narrative questions the very decorum it praises. The tin soldier's passive acceptance of whatever happens to him, while exemplifying pietistic ideals of self-denial, also contributes to his doom. Were he to speak and act, the soldier might gain both life and love. Restrained, however, by inhibition and convention, he finds only tragedy and death. The tale is often read autobiographically, with the soldier viewed as symbolizing Andersen's feelings of inadequacy with women, his passive acceptance of bourgeois class attitudes, or his sense of alienation as an artist and an outsider, from full participation in everyday life."
Ub Iwerks
did a 1934 Cinecolor
cartoon The Brave Tin Soldier that features an evil jack in the box.
Paul Grimault
(with Jacques Prévert
) did a 1947 colour French cartoon Le Petit Soldat that had the title character being a toy acrobat who is called to war and returns crippled but determined to rescue his ballerina.
In 1976, Soyuzmultfilm
, a Soviet Union animation studios made Stoikiy Olovyannyy Soldatik, this adaptation differs because the Ballerina and the Soldier fall in love, the Goblin causes the Soldier's death, and the Ballerina willingly jumps into the fire...into the arms of the Soldier, as they burn together.
In Disney
's film Fantasia 2000
, an adaptation of the tale is set to the first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major
by Dmitri Shostakovich
. The segment differs slightly from Andersen's tale: the ballerina appears to be made of porcelain
; the soldier is disappointed to discover the ballerina has two legs, but the ballerina still accepts him; at the end, the Jack-in-the-Box villain is the one that perishes in the fire instead of the soldier and ballerina. Other animated films for children have been produced on the tale, and, in 1975, a science fiction fantasy feature film, The Tin Soldier.
Andersen‘s contemporary Auguste Bournonville choreographed the tale for his ballet A Fairy Tale in Pictures, and George Balanchine
choreographed the tale in 1975, allowing the soldier and the ballerina to express their love before the ballerina is blown into the fire. George Bizet set the tale to music in Jeux d'Enfants.
Mike Mignola
's graphic novel Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
fuses the poignancy of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" with supernatural Dracula
myths, set in a post-World War I
environment. Kate DiCamillo
's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
(2006) makes use of the tale's themes.
In Stieg Larsson
's thriller "The Girl Who Played with Fire
", the fiercely indepedndent protagonist Lisbeth Salander
compares the journalist Mikael Blomkvist
, who had stayed loyal to her despite her repeated blatant rejection of him, with Andersen's steadfast tin soldier (implicitly comparing herself with Andersen's ballerina).
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
about a tin soldier
Tin soldier
Tin soldiers are miniature figures of toy soldiers that are extremely popular in the world of collecting. They can be bought finished or in a raw state to be hand-painted. They are generally made of pewter, tin, lead, other metals or plastic...
's love for a paper ballerina
Ballerina
A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
. After several adventures, the tin soldier perishes in a fire with the ballerina. The tale was first published in Copenhagen by C.A. Reitzel on 2 October 1838 in the first booklet of Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. The booklet consists of Andersen's "The Daisy" and "The Wild Swans
The Wild Swans
"The Wild Swans" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a princess who rescues her eleven brothers from a spell cast by an evil queen....
". The tale was Andersen’s first not based upon a folk tale or a literary model. "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" has been adapted to various media including ballet and animated film.
Plot
On his birthday, a boy receives a set of 25 toy soldiersToy Soldiers
A toy soldier is a miniature figurine that represents a soldier, but the term may also refer to:In film and television:*Toy Soldiers , an action/drama film in which terrorists take a school hostage...
and arrays them on a table top. One soldier stands on a single leg, having been the last one cast from an old tin spoon. Nearby, he spies a paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. She too is standing on one leg and the soldier falls in love. That night, a troll
Troll
A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
among the toys angrily warns the soldier to take his eyes off the ballerina, but the soldier ignores him. The next day, the soldier falls from a windowsill (presumably the work of the troll) and lands in the street. Two boys find the soldier, place him in a paper boat, and set him sailing in the gutter. The boat and its passenger wash into a storm drain, where a rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
demands the soldier pay a toll. Sailing on, the boat is washed into a canal, where the tin soldier is swallowed by a fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
. When the fish is caught and cut open, the tin soldier finds himself once again on the table top before the ballerina. Inexplicably, a boy throws the tin soldier into the fire. A wind blows the ballerina into the fire with him; she is consumed at once but her spangle
Spangle
Spangle may refer to:*Spangle , a small, thin, often circular piece of glittering metal or other material, used especially for decorating garments*Spangle, the aesthetic feature of visible crystallites on the surface of galvanized steel....
remains. The tin soldier melts into the shape of a heart.
Publication
The tale was first published in Copenhagen, Denmark by C. A. Reitzel on 2 October 1838 in Fairy Tales Told to Children. New Collection. First Booklet. 1838. Other tales in the booklet include "The Daisy" and "The Wild Swans". The tale was republished in collected editions of Andersen’s work, first, on 18 December 1849 in Fairy Tales and again on 15 December 1862 in the first volume of Fairy Tales and Stories’’.Commentaries
"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is the first tale Andersen wrote that has neither a literary model nor a folk tale source. It marks a new independence in his writing, and is the zenith of his evocation of the nineteenth century nursery world with its toy dancers, castles, and swans.Joan G. Haahr writes in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales: "The story is unusual among Andersen's early tales, both in its emphasis on sensual desire and in its ambiguities. Blind fate, not intention, determines all events. Moreover, the narrative questions the very decorum it praises. The tin soldier's passive acceptance of whatever happens to him, while exemplifying pietistic ideals of self-denial, also contributes to his doom. Were he to speak and act, the soldier might gain both life and love. Restrained, however, by inhibition and convention, he finds only tragedy and death. The tale is often read autobiographically, with the soldier viewed as symbolizing Andersen's feelings of inadequacy with women, his passive acceptance of bourgeois class attitudes, or his sense of alienation as an artist and an outsider, from full participation in everyday life."
Adaptations
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
did a 1934 Cinecolor
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...
cartoon The Brave Tin Soldier that features an evil jack in the box.
Paul Grimault
Paul Grimault
Paul Grimault was one of the most important French animators. He made many traditionally animated films that were delicate in style, satirical, and lyrical in nature....
(with Jacques Prévert
Jacques Prévert
Jacques Prévert was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain very popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. Some of the movies he wrote are extremely well regarded, with Les Enfants du Paradis considered one of the greatest films of all time.-Life and...
) did a 1947 colour French cartoon Le Petit Soldat that had the title character being a toy acrobat who is called to war and returns crippled but determined to rescue his ballerina.
In 1976, Soyuzmultfilm
Soyuzmultfilm
Soyuzmultfilm is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union...
, a Soviet Union animation studios made Stoikiy Olovyannyy Soldatik, this adaptation differs because the Ballerina and the Soldier fall in love, the Goblin causes the Soldier's death, and the Ballerina willingly jumps into the fire...into the arms of the Soldier, as they burn together.
In Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
's film Fantasia 2000
Fantasia 2000
Fantasia 2000 is a 1999 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was the 38th feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and a sequel to 1940's Fantasia...
, an adaptation of the tale is set to the first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Shostakovich)
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102, by Dmitri Shostakovich was composed in 1957 for his son Maxim's 19th birthday. Maxim premiered the piece during his graduation at the Moscow Conservatory...
by Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
. The segment differs slightly from Andersen's tale: the ballerina appears to be made of porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
; the soldier is disappointed to discover the ballerina has two legs, but the ballerina still accepts him; at the end, the Jack-in-the-Box villain is the one that perishes in the fire instead of the soldier and ballerina. Other animated films for children have been produced on the tale, and, in 1975, a science fiction fantasy feature film, The Tin Soldier.
Andersen‘s contemporary Auguste Bournonville choreographed the tale for his ballet A Fairy Tale in Pictures, and George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
choreographed the tale in 1975, allowing the soldier and the ballerina to express their love before the ballerina is blown into the fire. George Bizet set the tale to music in Jeux d'Enfants.
Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola
Michael Joseph "Mike" Mignola is an American comic book artist and writer who created the comic book series Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics. He has worked for animation projects such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the adaptation of his one shot comic book, The Amazing Screw-On Head.-Career:Mignola...
's graphic novel Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire is a 2007 illustrated novel created by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden.-Plot:...
fuses the poignancy of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" with supernatural Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
myths, set in a post-World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
environment. Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo
Katrina Elizabeth "Kate" DiCamillo is an American children's author. She is known for the Newbery Medal-winning book The Tale of Despereaux, the Newbery Honor book Because of Winn-Dixie, and the Mercy Watson series, plus numerous other award-winning and honored books.-Early life:Born in...
's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is a 2006 novel by Kate DiCamillo. Following the life of a china rabbit, the book won the 2006 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in Fiction.-Plot:...
(2006) makes use of the tale's themes.
In Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson
Karl Stig-Erland Larsson , who wrote professionally as Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He is best known for writing the "Millennium series" of crime novels, which were published posthumously...
's thriller "The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second novel in the best-selling "Millennium series" by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009....
", the fiercely indepedndent protagonist Lisbeth Salander
Lisbeth Salander
Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. She is the heroine of Larsson's award-winning "Millennium series", first appearing in the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...
compares the journalist Mikael Blomkvist
Mikael Blomkvist
Mikael Blomkvist is a fictional character created by writer Stieg Larsson who appears as a main character in the Millennium series along with Lisbeth Salander.-Name:...
, who had stayed loyal to her despite her repeated blatant rejection of him, with Andersen's steadfast tin soldier (implicitly comparing herself with Andersen's ballerina).
External links
- "Den Standhaftige Tinsoldat". Original Danish text
- "Den Standhaftige Tinsoldat". Original Danish text (Royal Library)
- “The Steadfast Tin Solder“. English translation by Jean HersholtJean HersholtJean Pierre Hersholt was a Danish-born actor who lived in the United States, where he was a leading film and radio talent, best known for his 17 years starring on radio in Dr. Christian and for playing Shirley Temple's grandfather in Heidi...