Hans Christian Andersen Stories Honored on Google
The search engine Google is honoring Hans Christian Andersen’s 205th birthday by decorating its logo with pictures from Andersen’s lovely story Thumbelina. I used to have an audio tape of the story when I was a child, and it would always make me cry when it came to the part where Thumbelina was going to marry the mole.
OK, here’s the whole plot, as explained by Wikipedia:
“When the story opens, an old woman longing for a child receives a magic barley seed from a witch. Once planted, a tiny girl emerges from its flower and is named Thumbelina. One night, Thumbelina is asleep in her walnut-shell cradle and is carried off by a toad who wants the miniature maiden as a bride for her son. With the help of friendly fish and a butterfly, Thumbelina escapes the toad and her son, and drifts on a lily pad until captured by a beetle The insect discards her when his friends reject her company. Thumbelina tries to protect herself from the elements, but when winter comes, she is in desperate straits. She is finally given shelter by an old field mouse and tends the mouse’s dwelling in gratitude. The mouse suggests Thumbelina marry their neighbor, a mole, but Thumbelina finds the prospect of being married to such a creature repulsive. She escapes the situation by fleeing to a far land with a swallow she nursed back to health during the winter. In a sunny field of flowers, Thumbelina meets a tiny flower-fairy prince just her size and to her liking, and they wed. She receives a pair of wings to accompany her husband on his travels from flower to flower, and a new name, Maia.”
[...] The search engine Google is honoring Hans Christian Andersen’s 205th birthday by decorating its logo with pictures from Andersen’s lovely story.Continued [...]