The Little Match Girl

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 1928 French film, see The Little Match Girl (1928 film). For the 2006 Disney animated short film, see The Little Matchgirl (2006 film). For the 1902 British short film, see The Little Match Seller.
"Match Girl" redirects here. For the short story by Anne Bishop, see Match Girl (short story).

"The Little Match Girl"
Short story by Hans Christian Andersen
A. J. Bayes illustration, 1889
Original titleDen Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne
CountryDenmark
LanguageDanish
Genre(s)Literary fairy tale
Publication
Published inDansk Folkekalender for 1846
Publication dateDecember 1845

"The Little Match Girl" (Danish: Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne, meaning "The little girl with the matchsticks") is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story, about a dying child's dreams and hope, was first published in 1845. It has been adapted to various media, including animated, live-action, and VR films as well as television musicals and opera. [1]

Summary

Helen Stratton illustration, 1899

On a freezing New Year's Eve, a poor young girl, shivering, bareheaded and barefoot, unsuccessfully tries to sell matches in the street. Afraid to go home because her father would beat her for failing to sell any matches and not earning even a single penny, she huddles in the alley between two houses and lights matches, one by one, to warm herself.

In the flame of the matches, she sees a series of comforting visions: a warm iron stove, a lovely roasted goose, and a great glorious Christmas tree. Each vision disappears as its match burns out. In the sky she sees a

grandmother had told her meant that someone is on their way to Heaven
. In the flame of the next match she sees her late grandmother, the only person that ever treated her with love and kindness. To keep the vision of her grandmother alive as long as possible, the girl lights the entire bundle of matches she had.

When the matches are gone, the girl freezes to death in the cold weather, as her grandmother carries her soul to Heaven. The next morning, passers-by find the girl's body with a smile on her face, and express pity. They do not know about the wonderful visions she had seen or how happy she is with her grandmother in Heaven.[2]

Publication

"The Little Match Girl" was first published in December 1845, in Dansk Folkekalender for 1846. The work was re-published as a part of New Fairy Tales (4 March 1848), Second Volume, Second Collection (Nye Eventyr (1848), Andet Bind, Anden Samling), and again 18 December 1849 as a part of Fairy Tales (1850; Eventyr). The work was also published 30 March 1863 as a part of Fairy Tales and Stories (1863), Second Volume (Eventyr og Historier (1863), Andet Bind).[3]

Adaptations

Amusement park attractions

  • The
    Fairy Tale Forest (Sprookjesbos in Dutch) of the amusement park Efteling in the Netherlands has a three-dimensional attraction showing the story of the Little Match Girl, called Het Meisje met de Zwavelstokjes.[4] In this attraction, use is made of the Pepper's ghost
    technique.

Anime and manga

Audio recordings

  • Danny Kaye reads "The Match Girl" on Side B of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales (Golden Records, 1962), later re-issued on CD as part of Danny Kaye Re-tells Grimm's & Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales (Golden Records, 2008)
  • The record "Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol" published by Peter Pan Records features a reading on the B side.
  • The Myths and Legends Podcast featured the Little Match Girl story in a 2020 episode centering on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.

Comics

Films

16mm short subject films

Animated films

Live-action films

Games

  • Suikoden III, (2002), a video game for the PlayStation 2, contains a highly abridged play version of "The Little Match Girl". In the game, the player can cast characters in different roles and have them perform a shortened version of the story.
  • Yakuza 5, (2012), a video game for the PlayStation 3 has a substory named "The Little Match Girl" during Taiga Saejima's segment of the game that involves a little girl selling matches for 100 yen.[10] A similar substory also appears in Yakuza (2005) and its remake, Yakuza Kiwami (2016).
  • The Little Match Girl, (2015), a visual novel for web browsers and Android that tells the story.
  • In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine, the "Girl Who Sells Flint", tired of seeing that no one buys her flint, starts selling tobacco, various alcoholic beverages and even drugs, stating that "it is much more profitable and demand is high".
  • THE iDOLM@STER 2, (2011), a video game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, has a song titled "Little Match Girl" available in the first DLC pack for the Xbox 360 version and available by default in the PlayStation 3 version. The song features a romanticized version of the story. The song has made further appearances in THE iDOLM@STER SHINY FESTA, THE iDOLM@STER ONE FOR ALL, and in the 2011 anime adaptation of the series.
  • "QURARE Magic Library", (2014), a Korean mobile game that's also been imported to the PlayStation 4 to the west. There is a Kodex card in game called "Little Match Girl" which is a Super Rare + card and features the passive Resurrect V skill for Tank decks. The image is drawn by STUDIO NCG, and its description is very different from the original story, with a much darker ending.
  • "
    landowner
    who was caught in his own home, leaving no traces of bodies or fires anywhere. However, a young girl selling matches was the only solid clue. You, the Fairytale Detective, must stop these fires and the Match Girl.
  • "Lobotomy Corporation", (2018), contains a character called the "Scorched Girl" who appears to be an apparition with a match stuck through her torso. The game explains that she is a reference to the Hans Christian Andersen fable.
  • She appears as a playable character in the mobile game SINoALICE (Jap. 2017)

Literature

  • Anne Bishop published the short story "Match Girl" in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (1995).
  • On page 319 of Clarissa Pinkola Estés' book Women Who Run with the Wolves (1992), "The Little Match Girl", the author tells the story to her aunt, followed by a lucid analysis.
  • In Neil Gaiman's novella A Study in Emerald (2004), the main characters view a set of three plays, one of which is a stage adaptation of the "Little Match Girl".
  • Novelist
    Matchless: A Christmas Story (2009).[11]
  • William McGonagall retold "The Little Match Girl" in a poem.[12]
  • Jerry Pinkney wrote an adaption of the story setting it in the early twentieth century.
  • Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Hogfather (1996) gave the story a less morbid ending, thanks to the intervention of Death himself: Death's manservant, Albert, notes that the tale of the little match girl is meant to remind people that they could be worse off even when completely penniless, but with Death currently acting as the Hogfather (the Discworld equivalent of Santa Claus) to compensate for the original's absence, he is able to use his current dual status to give the little match girl a gift of a future.
  • Hans Tseng adapted "The Little Match Girl" into a short story manga, featured in the first volume of Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga (2003).
  • In Anne Ursu's novel Breadcrumbs (2011), the main character Hazel meets in the woods a character based on the Little Match Girl.
  • "The Little Match Girl" was one of the key inspirations for the main character Rosemary in Michael Sajdak's novelette Voices of the Dead (2017).

Music

Television

  • In 1974, a contemporarized version set in Cincinnati on Christmas Eve was aired on WLWT. This Christmas special was placed in syndication and last aired on the CBN Cable Network in December 1982. It is notable for featuring a then-9 year old Sarah Jessica Parker.
  • In 1986,
    HTV released The Little Match Girl as a musical based on the original story. The cast included Twiggy and Roger Daltrey. It included the song "Mistletoe and Wine", which became a Christmas hit in the UK two years later for Cliff Richard.[17][18]
  • The Little Match Girl (1987), an NBC television film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and starring Keshia Knight Pulliam, William Daniels, John Rhys-Davies, and Rue McClanahan.[19][20] The film received a mixed reception from critics.[21][22]
  • In 1990, a modernized version set to original music and narrated by F. Murray Abraham was presented by HBO Storybook Musicals, in which the girl is the daughter of a homeless New York couple forced to live underground in an abandoned subway station due to the economic collapse of the 1990s.
  • Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (Sweden, 2013), directed by Uwe Janson.[23]
  • A short parody version of The Little Match Girl was featured in the Robot Chicken episode "Garbage Sushi" with the Little Match Girl voiced by Rachel Bloom, her father voiced by Rob Paulsen, and her grandmother voiced by Seth Green. In this sketch version, she was selling matches stating that she must sell them or her father will beat her. Upon lighting a match, she sees a family. Upon lighting the second match, she sees a vision of her grandmother who tells the Little Match Girl that Vishnu is in Heaven and that Jesus is a fairy tale. Upon being told of her grandmother's plan, the girl learns the power of fire with the matches and kills her father for his abuse upon spilling alcohol on him and then using her matches to burn him to a skeleton. Then she finds her grandmother's jewelry and cracks an egg on her father's burning skeleton. By the final scene, the Little Match Girl is in a warmer location where she gives the bartender a big stack of money for a cup of Mai Tai. When asked what her name is, the girl states "My name's the Little F****** Match Girl" and then throws the cup of Mai Tai at the screen.
  • In 2017, a version of The Little Match Girl was featured on Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir featuring Rolando Villazon televised on PBS.
  • The tale of the Little Match Girl and the Toothless Goon was recreated through song by Rhod Gilbert on the original Dave TV show Taskmaster.

See also

  • List of works by Hans Christian Andersen
  • Near death experience
  • Vilhelm Pedersen, the first illustrator of Andersen's fairy tales
  • "To Build a Fire", two versions of a short story by Jack London about an adult who suffers from hypothermia in the Yukon Territory
  • Child labour

References

  1. ^ Roettgers, Janko (13 October 2016). "VR Review: 'Allumette'". Variety.
  2. ISBN 978-0-393-06081-2
    .
  3. ^ "Hans Christian Andersen: The Little Match Girl". Hans Christian Andersen Center.
  4. ^ "Efteling – 'The Little Match Girl' in Fairy tale forest (Het meisje met de zwavelstokjes)". YouTube.
  5. ^ "SKE48 Idol Sumire Satō, Kensho Ono Star in Film of The Little Match Girl Manga". Anime News Network. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  6. ^ Doty, Meriah (4 June 2015). "'Frozen Fever' (and Easter Eggs!) Coming Soon on Disney Shorts Blu-ray (Exclusive)". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Emily the Little Match Girl (2021) - IMDb". IMDb.
  8. ^ "Official Selection 1954: All the Selection". Archived from the original on 26 December 2013.
  9. ^ "SKE48 Idol Sumire Satō, Kensho Ono Star in Film of The Little Match Girl Manga". Anime News Network. 5 September 2023.
  10. ^ "Ryu Ga Gotoku 5 / Yakuza 5 SUBSTORY - The Little Match Girl". YouTube. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  11. ^ VanDerWerff, Emily (19 November 2009). "Matchless: A Christmas Story". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  12. ^ McGonagall, William (2010). "The Little Match Girl". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  13. ^ "The Song is a Fairytale". magle.dk. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  14. ^ "A VHS Christmas Carol".
  15. ^ "VHS Christmas Carol: Live!".
  16. ^ "VHS Christmas Carols 2023".
  17. ^ Smurthwaite, Nick (21 March 2005). "Million pound notes – Keith Strachan". The Stage. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  18. ^ "INTERVIEW: West End director Keith Strachan takes Dancing In The Streets on tour". This is London. 20 October 2009. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  19. ^ Lipson, Eden Ross (6 December 1987). "TELEVISION; SUGAR FOR YOUNGSTERS". The New York Times.
  20. ^ "Where are the POC in Holiday Films? – Michigan Quarterly Review". Sites.lsa.umich.edu. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  21. ^ "TV REVIEW : 'Match Girl' Doesn't Succeed in Setting the World on Fire". Los Angeles Times. 21 December 1987.
  22. ^ Terry, Clifford (21 December 1987). "'THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL' IS UTTERLY EXTINGUISHING". Chicago Tribune.
  23. ^ "Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern". 25 December 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2020 – via IMDb.

External links

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