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

1850

Drewsens Industrial Venture

1850: Drewsens Industrial Venture


8 May

The Scandinavian Society, a male choir directed by the composer Henrik Rung, gives a concert at Casino in support of the monument which is to mark the battle of Fredericia. Part one of the concert opens with HCA's "Denmark, my Native Land", accompanied by Rung's music, which on this occasion was performed publically for the first time. The second item was also a HCA text, "Sang til en langelandsk Melodi" (Song to a Melody from Langeland) ("Hun mig har glemt! Min Sorg hun ei see!" (She has forgotten me! My grief she does not see!)). The song was printed for the first time in the programme for this concert.

17 May

Departs for Sorø. While staying with the Ingemanns, HCA visits Chr. Hviid Bredahl, a farmer and poet. From Sorø he continues via Rørby to Kalundborg, and from there with the steam-ship 'Lolland' to Århus. In Kalundborg "a simple man [common] called out my name as I walked by his house ('The poet Andersen')" (diary entry, 25th May).

From Århus he continues to Silkeborg (arrival 26th May), where he is welcomed by the Drewsens. (The eldest daughter of Collin, Ingeborg, was married to Adolph Ludwig Drewsen. Michael Drewsen, the son of Adolph's half-brother, was a paper manufacturer and the founder of Silkeborg town). HCA sees the area and the new town. During an outing to the ridge, a scenic viewing-point is named after HCA: "Andersen's Highland", and a bench is placed on this spot. During the stay in Silkeborg, HCA reads the novels by Blicher.

Continues on 6th June via Horsens to Vejle, where he visits Orla Lehman. In Fredericia he views the fortifications. Travels on to Odense (9th June), where Emil Aarestrup visits him (Aarestrup was attending church when HCA paid him a visit). On the following day they lunch together, discuss poetry and cut out paper dolls for the youngest.

Goes to Glorup Estate on 10th June, where Danish soldiers are billeted. Visits Lykkesholm Estate. Is irritated by both the countess and the guests at Glorup:

"How ghastly it is to hear the empty-mindedness of the high-born, talking emphatically and off-handedly about everything. Ignorance, stupidity! [...] Oh swaggering foolishness, with bearing" (the diary, 20th June).

Visits Hesselagergård Estate, where he feels ill at ease when he sees the portraits of the Duke of Augustenborg and the Prince of Nør "plastered on the walls of the lavatory" (the diary, 22nd).

24 June 1850

Outing to Frørup Kildemarked (a marketplace or country fair which HCA had described in chapter VIII of Kun en Spillemand (Only a Fiddler). In the diary he explains that:

"It took place right on the highway; stall after stall, filled with people, we could hardly get through, our horses were about to collide with many a stall. Coffee was brewed, smoke from the peat and the smell of bad tobacco made the air suffocating. - Tables of fried eel stood there in all the dust [...] A miserable vagabond stood by the spring and I got the feeling that he might know who I was, and might say something unpleasant to me; as though I were pariah in the midst of a higher caste".

The fear of being labelled as pariah, or a social outcast, stems directly from the unpleasant exchange of words at Glorup Estate during the previous days. This is also reflected in HCA's above-mentioned complaints about the stupidity of the upper classes.
At Glorup, he works on I Sverrig (In Sweden) and on the folk comedy Hyldemoer (The Elder-Tree Mother) . He is, however, feeling depressed because of the war, as is reflected in a letter to Jette Wulff dated 4th July:

"The forest is still so fresh, so young - unlike me - it is a pleasant time while it still feels like I am flying forward - I feel that my flight has halted; there lies gunpowder, there go heavy arsenal trucks along the highway of life. The garden of poetry becomes cobbled - yes, oh yes! I do not doubt the general progress of the world, but our lives are a transitory point, that is, neither meat nor fish, and therefore a heavy burden to bear -"

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