The Steadfast Tin Soldier

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The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen
Author	Hans Christian Andersen
Original title	Den Standhaftige Tinsoldat
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish
Genre(s)	Fairy tale
Publisher	C. A. Reitzel
Publication date	7 April 1838
Media type	Print

"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" (Danish: Den Standhaftige Tinsoldat) is a fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about the love a tin soldier holds for a paper ballerina. After several perilous adventures, the tin soldier and his love perish in a fire. The tale was first published in 1838.

Like "The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep" (1845), "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" displays Andersen's talent for investing ordinary household objects with life, character, and personality. Both tales narrate romances between household objects but differ in that the 1838 story ends with the the lovers joined in death while the 1845 story ends with the lovers living (in fairy tale fashion) happily ever after. Andersen may have taken inspiration for the tale from memories of his few cherished childhood toys.

Though the title has been translated variously as "The Brave Tin Soldier" and "The Courageous Tin Soldier", the story is generally known in the English speaking world as "The Steadfast Tin Soldier". The tale has been adapted in various media including ballet and animated film.

1 Plot
2 Analysis
3 Publication
4 Adaptations
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

On his birthday, a boy receives a set of tin soldiers and arrays them on a table top. One soldier stands on a single leg. Nearby, the tin soldier spies a lovely paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. The ballerina who stands on one leg, from the soldier's angle of view appeared to have one leg, too, and the soldier falls in love. That night, a troll among the toys angrily warns the soldier to avert his ardent gaze from 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 and places him in a boat, and passes a rat as he falls into a sewer. He travels into a river which flowed from the sewer, and a fish bites him, thinking about the faults the troll commited. Soon the boy's mother finds a fish and cuts it up, finding the soldier, after several perilous adventures. The soldier is returned to the table top and finds himself once more standing before the ballerina. Inexplicably, a boy suddenly throws the tin soldier into the fire, either by the troll's curse or a mistake taken. A strong wind blows in from the door and blows the ballerina into the fire with him, and she is consumed at once; only her spangle remains and rose of tinsel remains. The tin soldier melts into the shape of a heart.

[edit] Analysis

Andersen, 1854

Andersen probably drew the inspiration for The Steadfast Tin Soldier from his own childhood experiences. As a boy he took great care of his few toys, and performed puppet plays at home on a handmade stage. As a youth in Copenhagen, he attended performances of the Royal Danish Ballet, which, at that time, was on the road to the pinnacle of artistic achievement under balletmaster and choreographer, August Bournonville. Andersen remained a lifelong balletomane.

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."^[1]

The story is generally taken to be a sad one, though, like many of Andersen's other tales (The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl), it implies that the tragedy of physical death is outweighed by the permanent rewards which follow. Central to this story is the soldier's unwavering sense of duty in the face of his hardships. Andersen concludes the story on a symbolic note: throughout the sufferings and difficulty of life, only love is eternal.

[edit] Publication

The tale was first published in Copenhagen by C.A. Reitzel 2 October 1838 in Fairy Tales Told to Children. New Collection. First Booklet. 1838. (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Ny Samling. Første Hefte. 1838.) Other tales in the booklet include "The Daisy" and "The Wild Swans". The tale was republished 18 December 1849 as a part of Fairy Tales. 1850. (Eventyr. 1850.), and again 15 December 1862 as a part of Fairy Tales and Stories. First Volume. 1862. (Eventyr og Historier. Første Bind. 1862.).^[2]

[edit] Adaptations

In 1947, Paul Grimault and Jacques Prévert adapted the tale into an animated film, Le Petit Soldat with music by Joseph Kosma.
Paul Grimault's version inspired a segment in Disney's animated Fantasia 2000. The segment, set to the first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Dmitri Shostakovich differs slightly from Andersen's tale: the ballerina appears to be made of porcelain; the soldier discovers the ballerina has two legs; he is disappointed with the discovery, but the ballerina accepts him. Replacing Andersen's troll is a jealous Jack-in-the-box, who ends in the fire instead of the soldier and ballerina.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier, an 11-minute ballet for two dancers choreographed by George Balanchine, premiered in July 1975. The work was commissioned by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The pas de deux stems from a 1955 collaboration in which Balanchine, Francisco Moncion, and Barbra Milberg choreographed all of Georges Bizet's Jeux d'Enfants. Both the context and the woman's variation were derived from this earlier work while the soldier's variation was restaged.
Mike Mignola's novel Baltimore: Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire uses "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" both to frame the chapters, and, within the story, as a metaphor for the protagonist's journey.