From the Hans Christian Andersen biography "The Life of Hans Christian Andersen. Day By Day", written by DPhil Johan de Mylius:

1831

Collection of Poems, First Journey outside of Denmark
The First Travel-Journal

In this year

King Frederik VI, pressured by other countries, issues an ordinance regarding assemblies of the Estates of the Realm in Denmark.

1831: Collection of Poems, First Journey outside of Denmark


10 January

Publication of the collection of poems: Phantasier og Skizzer (Fantasies and Sketches) at his own expense.

16 May

Departure on the first journey outside of Denmark. The trip is not least an attempt to get over the fatal infatuation in Riborg Voigt. The affair is the subject of several letters to Ingemann and C.H. Lorenzen from March of this year. When, in the same period, he describes his feelings for Riborg's brother, Christian Voigt, in a letter to Lorenzen, with words such as:

"The one I feel closer to than anyone [...] It is as though he has bewitched me, I do not know why I care so much for him!"

one should not take it literally. Rather, these terms are a part of the overall ironic tone of the letter and simply mean that in lack of Riborg, his thoughts are centred on the brother.

19 May

HCA writes to Edvard Collin from Hamburg, suggesting that they start addressing each other informally (using the Danish second-person pronoun "du"rather than "De", which is a difference similar to the German "du"and "Sie", or the French "tu"and "Vous").

28 May

Edvard Collin sends a reply to HCA regarding his request that they address each other informally. It is a refusal. This fatal "informality incident" preyed on HCA's mind for many years and may be seen to play a part in Skyggen (The Shadow).

3 June

Arrival in Dresden. Here, HCA meets the Norwegian painter J.C. Dahl, who had been sought out by Henriette Wulff on her journey to Germany in 1830; she became his student and has copied several of his works. In Dresden, HCA is received by the famed German romanticist, Ludwig Tieck, for whom he carried a greeting from Ingemann. Tieck bestows him with the "poet's kiss"and thus the initiation to being a poet. The friendship which is founded here in Dresden with the painter Dahl will, just as time spent with other creators of visual arts in these and coming years, be highly significant for HCA's way of viewing and describing nature. Drawing a picture of reality just as the painters do will become an artistic solution for the young HCA.
The journey in itself is a voyage of discovery in the German romantic landscapes.

11th - 15th June

During a trip to Copenhagen, Chamisso had become friends with Oehlensläger and Ingemann, who both knew HCA well. Chamisso's stories: Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte from 1813 are the inspiration for HCA's story Skyggen (The Shadow) from 1847. - Through Chamisso, HCA is introduced to a literary circle which gathered in Thiergarten.

1831: The First Travel-Journal


24 June

Return to Copenhagen. The trip has cost HCA approx. 75-80 speciedaler = 150-175 rdl.

19 September

Publication of Skyggebilleder af en Reise til Harzen, det sachsiske Schweitz etc. etc., i Sommeren 1831 (Rambles in the Romantic Regions of the Hartz Mountains, Saxon Switzerland, etc. ( Reitzels publishing house pays HCA an amount of 150 rdl. for the book - "without getting burnt", as HCA writes in September 1833 to Edvard Collin. The publisher even pays the 150 rdl. in advance.
In a letter to Lorenzen, the friend from Sorø, HCA has heralded the book as a "magic lantern of the heart"(28th June). In answer to the friend's later comments about the book, HCA answers in a letter dated 7th October:

"A writer must portray the light and the dark sides of life, and there is at least as much light as darkness. - The greater the writer, the better he is able to expose Everything; it is exactly by having such a momentous impact on people's lives that Goethe is and will remain so great. There is no one-sidedness in nature, yet you would have a writer be that way inclined!"

5 October

First performance at the Royal Theatre of Skibet, Vaudeville i een Act (The Ship, a Vaudeville in one Act), based on La Quarantaine by Scribes and Mazeres. A book version is published on the same date (with a picture of a steamship on the cover). According to HCA himself, the play was very well received, although the audience felt the songs were too short; they should have been more like Heiberg's vaudeville songs. It is performed 5 times.

December

HCA has arranged for his mother to have meals from the public food kitchen, at his expense. His mother, however, would prefer the money. HCA remained steadfast on this issue.

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