Quote from "Thumbelina" (1835)

Registered motifs in this quote

The mole closed up the hole that let in the daylight, and then he took the ladies home. That night Thumbelina could not sleep a wink, so she got up and wove a fine large coverlet out of hay. She took it to the dead bird and spread it over him, so that he would lie warm in the cold earth. She tucked him in with some soft thistledown that she had found in the field mouse's room.

"Good-by, you pretty little bird," she said. "Good-by, and thank you for your sweet songs last summer, when the trees were all green and the sun shone so warmly upon us." She laid her head on his breast, and it startled her to feel a soft thump, as if something were beating inside. This was the bird's heart. He was not dead- he was only numb with cold, and now that he had been warmed he came to life again.

Registered motifs in this quote:

  1. Funeral
  2. Intermediate state

Keywords: Care, take leave, heart, death, life, hibernation, resurrection

Comment: The swallow's funeral isn't quite right, because the swallow isn't actually dead, and the bird's resurrection is not really a religious motif. None of them are classic, anyway. But nevertheless typical Andersen: The swallow's resurrection clearly reminds of the resurrection of Jesus. The hibernation, being between life and death, and the soul's journey towards the light is similar to Andersen's view upon the soul's and the individual's wandering across temporary hurdles, that is also found in "The Ugly Duckling", Picture Book Without Pictures' Twenty-eighth Evening and "The Little Mermaid".