New Story by Hans Christian Andersen

[Two_Many_Cats]

Well, old story really, from the 1820’s. But it was discovered in a filing box.

This is something like the few times a forgotten piece of music or artwork by a master is rediscovered behind a desk or something. Don’t remember this happening with a long dead author other than this.
The Tallow Candle

[WhyNot]

Cool! But…

Plot

A tallow candle, whose parents are a sheep and a melting pot, becomes more and more disheartened as it cannot find a purpose in life. It meets a tinderbox who lights a flame on the candle, and it finally finds its right place in life and spreads joy and happiness for itself and its fellow creatures.

Are we *sure *this is HCA? That sounds far too uplifting an ending for one of his stories. I presume the tallow candle melted into its own self destruction, at least?

[Inner_Stickler]

I must agree with the HCA scholar. This may be Hans Christian Anderson but it’s no Hans Christian Anderson.

[WhyNot]

This may be the longest run on sentence fragment ever written. And I thought I wrote some doozies!

A world that failed to understand the value of the candle, and thus tried to use it for its own benefit, holding the candle wrongly; black fingers leaving bigger and bigger blemishes on its pristine white innocence which eventually faded away, completely covered by the dirt of a surrounding world that had come much too close; much closer than the candle could endure, as it had been unable to tell grime from purity – although it remained pristine and unspoiled inside.