The Little Match Girl

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"The Little Match Girl" is a Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a young girl who sells matches during the cold winter. It was first published in 1848 as part of his fifth volume of Nye Eventyr (New Fairy Tales) as "Den Lille Pige Med Svovlstikkerne" ("The Little Girl with the Sulfursticks").

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

It was night on New Year’s Eve, and a poor, little match girl was out on the streets selling matches. Although she was cold and hungry, with neither hat nor shoes, she was afraid to go home as her father would surely beat her when he found out she did not sell any matches that day.

In a nook between two buildings, she wanted to warm herself by lighting matches. In the light of the first match she saw a hot iron stove, but the fire was soon blown out by the howling wind. She lit a second match and saw a fully laden dinner table with delicious foods and a roasted goose that came slowly toward her. It too disappeared as the match went out. By the light of the third match she saw a beautiful Christmas tree lit with a million candles. The candle lights went higher and higher until they became stars. One became a shooting star and she remembered her grandmother telling her that a shooting star means a person has passed away and gone to heaven.

Upon lighting the fourth match she saw her smiling grandmother, the only person who ever loved her. This filled her with so much joy she quickly lit the next match and the next so that her grandmother never fades. Finally, the grandmother took the happy girl in her arms and they flew higher and higher to a place where there's no cold, no hunger, no fear.

The next morning, the little girl was found dead in the snow with a smile upon her lips. “She wanted to warm herself!” people exclaimed as they noticed the burned out matches littered around her body. However, no one knew what beauty she had seen or with what glory she had gone with her grandmother into a joyous new year.

[edit] Adaptations

The Charles Mintz studio adapted "The Little Match Girl", including its grim ending, into a 1937 Color Rhapsodies animated short, considered among the studio's best films. It was nominated for the 1937 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), losing to Disney's The Old Mill.

In 1971, Toei Animation Company released an animated film based on Andersen's works, entitled "Hans Christian Andersen no Sekai" ("The World of Hans Christian Andersen"). The final act of the film includes a faithful version of this story.

In 1974, a contemporarized version set in Cincinnati was aired on WLWT there. It featured a nine-year-old named Sarah Parker in the role of the title character. She is now known today as Sarah Jessica Parker.

In 1985, the film The Little Match Girl was released, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, with Keshia Knight-Pulliam, William Daniels, and John Rhys Davies. Presented as a Christmas story, it tells of a young homeless orphan who brings the gift of love and reconciliation and helps a family reunite. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the original fairy tale, except for sharing the same name.

In 1996, Hogfather, one of Terry Prachett's popular Discworld series of novels, parodied the story. It mocks the idea that the story of the Little Match Girl exists as a tragedy to make its audience feel comparatively better, pointing out that the divine help only came after her death. Death himself (who for complicated reasons is doing the Hogfather’s job) is so incensed by this that he gives the little girl the gift of life as a Hogswatch present, and throws snowballs at the angels when they turn up.

La Vendedora de rosas (lit: "The Rose Seller") was a modern adaptation of Andersen's fairy tale in a very realistic, almost documentary form, a 1998 film directed by Víctor Gaviria, with Leidy Tabares. Thirteen-year-old Monica makes her living by selling flowers in the streets of Medellín, Colombia.

Suikoden III, a video game for the Playstation 2, contains a highly-abridged play version of "The Little Match Girl". In the game, the player can cast characters in different roles and have them perform a shortened version of the story.

In 2001 the hungarian band Tormentor realized the song The Little Match Girl, what lyrics based on the story.

In 2002 Moppi Productions released the demo "Halla" which was heavily influenced by "The Little Match Girl".

In 2003, "The Little Match Girl" was adapted into a short story manga by Hans Tseng and was featured in the first volume of Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga.

"Resurrection of the Little Match Girl" is a 2003 Korean movie, by which the L.M.G. abbreviation of Light machine gun is somehow relevant.

Also in 2003, "The Little Match Girl" was made into an animated short film by Junho Chung for Fine Cut: KCET's Festival of Student Film. Chung's daughter served as the model for the little match girl.

In 2005, an adaptation of "The Little Match Girl" was released by ADV Films in Hello Kitty Animation Theater Vol. 3 (a DVD that presents various Sanrio characters starring in classic children's stories). This version was faithful to the original ending (causing some minor concern about the death of the popular Hello Kitty character who played the little match girl).

In 2006, Walt Disney Feature Animation finished production work on a new adaptation of "The Little Match Girl". The short was originally intended to be a part of a Fantasia film, but this project was canceled. The Little Matchgirl is last of the four shorts from the aborted compilation to be developed as a standalone film. It combines hand-drawn animation, computer techniques, and stylized backgrounds, and retains Andersen's tragic ending. This short was subsequently released as a special feature on the 2006 Platinum Edition DVD of The Little Mermaid. Directed by Roger Allers and produced by Don Hahn, it was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Animated Short Film in the 2006 season.

The story was also used as a basis for the band GrooveLily's 2004 off-Broadway musical Striking 12

The German avant-garde composer Helmut Lachenmann has written an opera based on the story called Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern.

In 2005, Erasure made a music video of their song "Breathe", based on a modern adaptation of the story.

[edit] External links

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