H.C. Andersen centret

Comment: Maybe it is worth noticing, that the girls gratitude towards God (in the Danish original she says 'O Gud': Oh God) for the beautiful song of the nightingale is related, though remote, to the thought or memory of the mother – maybe the mother-figure should be regarded as origin and in this respect similar to God, the Father. This indicated relation between the religious and a mother is clearer in "The Garden of Paradise", in which "the queen of the fairies" in the Garden of Paradise explains the prince, how she and the other fairies will tempt him to repeat the violation of Adam and Eve and the Fall. The divine temptation, to which they expose the prince, is beautiful and irresistible. The combination of erotic temptation of the beautiful women and the queen of the fairies, who the prince ends up kissing in happiness, and the mother's voice in a religious setting is characteristic of Andersen, though unusual, and it calls for reflections of the nature and mutual relations of these phenomena:

"Now we will start our dances," the fairy said. "When I have danced the last dance with you at sundown, you will see me hold out my hands to you, and hear me call. 'come with me.' But do not come. Every evening for a hundred years, I shall have to repeat this. Every time that you resist, your strength will grow, and at last you will not even think of yielding to temptation. This evening is the first time, so take warning!"

And the fairy led him into a large hall of white, transparent lilies. The yellow stamens of each flower formed a small golden harp, which vibrated to the music of strings and flutes. The loveliest maidens, floating and slender, came dancing by, clad in such airy gauze that one could see how perfectly shaped they were. They sang of the happiness of life-they who would never die-and they sang that the Garden of Paradise would forever bloom.

The sun went down. The sky turned to shining gold, and in its light the lilies took on the color of the loveliest roses. The Prince drank the sparkling wine that the maidens offered him, and felt happier than he had ever been. He watched the background of the hall thrown open, and the Tree of Knowledge standing in a splendor which blinded his eyes. The song from the tree was as soft and lovely as his dear mother's voice, and it was as if she were saying, "My child, my dearest child."