The Match Girl’s New Year’s Eve

The story as it is told

Many people remember The Little Match Girl as a Christmas story. A poor girl stands in the snow selling matches, barefoot, afraid to go home because she has sold none. She sits down out of the wind and strikes them one by one for the warmth, and in each small flame she sees something she longs for: a warm stove, a roast goose, a Christmas tree, and her grandmother. Everyone else is indoors celebrating Christmas, and in the morning she is found frozen in the snow. A common interpretation, labeled as such, reads it as Andersen remembering his own poor childhood.

What we can confirm

Andersen's Danish text opens on "den sidste Aften i Aaret, Nytaarsaften" (the last evening of the year, New Year's Eve). The streets smell of roast goose, "det var jo Nytaarsaften" (it was New Year's Eve, after all). She dares not go home because she has sold nothing and "hendes Fader vilde slaae hende" (her father would beat her). In the light of her matches she sees a stove, a roast goose stuffed with prunes and apples that hops off the dish and waddles toward her "med Gaffel og Kniv i Ryggen" (with a fork and knife in its back), and then a Christmas tree bigger than the one she had seen through a rich merchant's glass door "nu sidste Juul" (this past Christmas). The Christmas tree is a memory of a holiday already over.

A falling star reminds her of her grandmother, "gamle Mormoer" (her mother's mother), the only person who was ever kind to her. She strikes all her remaining matches to keep the grandmother there, and is carried up to God. In the morning she is found "frosset ihjel den sidste Aften i det gamle Aar" (frozen to death on the last evening of the old year), and "Nytaarsmorgen gik op over det lille Liig" (New Year's morning rose over the little corpse). Passers-by say she wanted to warm herself. The tale ends on her having gone with her grandmother "ind til Nytaars Glæde" (into the joy of the New Year).

The H.C. Andersen Centre at the University of Southern Denmark records how it came to be. The tale was first printed in the Dansk Folkekalender for 1846, edited by Fred. Frølund, which appeared in December 1845, on pages 133 to 135, with an illustration by J.Th. Lundbye. That drawing had already been used once, with an article titled "Gjør vel, naar du giver" (Do good when you give) in Flinch's Almanak for 1843, page 73. So the picture came first, and Andersen supplied a story to go with it.

The Centre's day-by-day timeline puts Andersen at Gråsten, as a guest of the Duke of Augustenborg, from November 12 to 21, 1845, and lists the tale as written there. A transcription of his almanac, posted on a Danish Andersen fan site, reads for November 18: "skrevet Historien om den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne. Faaet Brev fra Flinch" (wrote the story of the little girl with the matches; got a letter from Flinch). Treat that day as likely, since we have not seen the almanac itself. His diary, in the scholarly edition published by the Danish Society for Language and Literature (1974), is firmer about the next day. On Wednesday, November 19, he "Reenskrevet Eventyret om den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne, som Frøhlund faaer" (made a fair copy of the tale of the little girl with the matches, which Frølund is getting), put it inside a letter to Mrs. Drewsen and sent it off.

The Royal Danish Library has digitized the almanac where it appeared. On page 133 of the Dansk Folkekalender for 1846, a woodcut of a barefoot girl holding a bundle of matches sits above the title, and the text opens: "Det var saa grueligt koldt; det sneede og det begyndte at blive mørk Aften; det var ogsaa den sidste Aften i Aaret, Nytaarsaften." The story ends on page 135, signed "H. C. Andersen". Statens Museum for Kunst owns a proof of the same woodcut, dated 1843, carrying the monograms of the engraver H.C. Henneberg and of Lundbye.

Andersen later collected the tale in Nye Eventyr (published March 4, 1848), in Eventyr (December 18, 1849) and in Eventyr og Historier (March 30, 1863), per the Centre's register. Early English versions kept the date: the Project Gutenberg edition says "for you know it was New Year's Eve" and has her "frozen to death on the last evening of the old year".

The facts

• First printed in Dansk Folkekalender for 1846 (ed. Fred. Frølund), published December 1845, pp. 133-135, with Lundbye's illustration. H.C. Andersen Centre bibliography, BFN 486 / BibID 482.
• The Lundbye drawing first illustrated "Gjør vel, naar du giver" in Flinchs Almanak eller Huuskalender, 1. Fortsættelse, 1843, p. 73. same.
• Later printings: Nye Eventyr, Andet Bind, Anden Samling (Mar 4, 1848); Eventyr (Dec 18, 1849); Eventyr og Historier (Mar 30, 1863). H.C. Andersen Centre register, vid=79.
• Andersen at Gråsten Nov 12-21, 1845; tale "skrevet på Gråsten", published December. H.C. Andersen Centre timetable 1845.
• Almanac, Nov 18, 1845: "skrevet Historien om den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne. Faaet Brev fra Flinch." visithcandersen.dk. Another fan transcription (dengang.dk) gives Nov 19 as "Renskrevet" (fair copy); the two transcriptions differ. The Nov 19 fair copy rests on the scholarly diary edition.
• Diary, Wed Nov 19, 1845: "Reenskrevet Eventyret om den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne, som Frøhlund faaer, det blev lagt inden i et Brev til Fru Drevsen og nu sendt afsted." H.C. Andersens Dagbøger III (1845-1850), ed. Helga Vang Lauridsen and Tue Gad, Det Danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, 1974, p. 8 (Rønlev scan, non-commercial use only).
• First printing seen: Dansk Folkekalender for 1846 (Kjøbenhavn: Fred. Frølund & Flinch, [1845]), p. 133 has the woodcut, the title "Den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne" and the opening line with "Nytaarsaften"; text ends p. 135 signed "H. C. Andersen". Royal Danish Library digitization, PDF pages 176-178.
• Woodcut "Den lille pige med svovlstikkerne", 1843, woodcut by H.C. Henneberg (1826-1893), inscribed with monograms "HCH" and "JTL"; SMK object KKS8321a. SMK open API record.
• Danish text: "den sidste Aften i Aaret, Nytaarsaften"; "hendes Fader vilde slaae hende"; "nu sidste Juul"; "gamle Mormoer"; "frosset ihjel den sidste Aften i det gamle Aar. Nytaarsmorgen gik op over det lille Liig"; "ind til Nytaars Glæde". Danish Wikisource (edition not stated on page).
• English (PD, Gutenberg #1597): "for you know it was New Year's Eve"; "from her father she would certainly get blows"; "frozen to death on the last evening of the old year". Project Gutenberg #1597 (translator not named in that text).

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