Rudy lived close to the little town of Grindelwald in Switzerland. He lived with his uncle as his parents were both dead. Indeed, Rudy himself had almost died at the same time as his mother: while crossing a glacier, she had fallen into a crevasse while carrying Rudy, who was still a baby. When help arrived, it was too late to save the mother, but, to everyone’s great joy, the baby was rescued. Or almost everyone… The only one who did not rejoice was the Ice Maiden…
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist. Celebrated for children’s literature, his most cherished fairy tales include “The Emperor's New Clothes”, “The Little Mermaid”, “The Nightingale”, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “The Snow Queen”, “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Little Match Girl”. His books have been translated into every living language, and today there is no child or adult that has not met Andersen's whimsical characters. His fairy tales have been adapted to stage and screen countless times, most notably by Disney with the animated films “The Little Mermaid” in 1989 and “Frozen”, which is loosely based on “The Snow Queen”, in 2013.
Thanks to Andersen's contribution to children's literature, his birth date, April 2, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.
