Historian finds the first fairy tale written by bedtime story legend

Sometimes hoarding works to everyone's benefit. In this case, a previously unknown fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen was found at the bottom of a box full of papers in Denmark's National Archives. "The Tallow Candle" is believed to be 190 years old and the first fairy tale Andersen ever wrote. "This is a sensational discovery," Andersen expert Ejnar Stig Askgaard said. "Partly because it must be seen as Andersen’s first [story] and because it shows that he was interested in the fairy tale as a young man." Andersen gave the story to a friend, a widow named Madam Bunkeflod, and it was later passed on to the Plum family, whose name was on the box that contained it. [Source]

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