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The Danish storyteller behind The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling.
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish writer who turned his own life into fairy tales: The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Little Match Girl.
Andersen was born in Odense in 1805, the son of a poor shoemaker. At fourteen he left for Copenhagen with almost nothing, hoping to be an actor or a singer. Kind patrons paid for his schooling, and he became a novelist, a poet and a traveller.
In 1835 he published his first small booklet of fairy tales, and he kept writing them for the rest of his life, more than 150 in all. Unlike the Grimms, he invented most of his stories. They are full of feeling, often sad, and many are about outsiders who long for something they cannot have. He died in Copenhagen in 1875, famous all over the world.
But he has nothing on!
The Snow Queen
His longest and greatest fairy tale, and our most-played Andersen.
1 hr 17 min · read by Brian Pederson 
The Little Mermaid
The original story, much sadder and stranger than the film.
1 hr 0 min · read by Lauren Maza 
The Emperor's New Clothes
Short, funny and still true.
14 min · read by Katheryn Siggers 
Narrated by Mike Polischuk
A man says his father left him no money and no title, only a good temper. His father drove a hearse and led funeral processions, and his round, sunny face seemed to chase...
Narrated by Michele Wagner
A preacher tells his congregation that sinners will burn forever. His wife does not believe God can be so cruel. After she dies, her spirit comes to him at night and asks...
Narrated by Jenna M Kitchen
Anne Lisbeth is young and beautiful. She leaves her baby with a ditch digger's family and becomes a nurse to a count's son. The boy she left behind grows up unloved, and...
Narrated by Michele Wagner
Alfred, a young sculptor, comes home from Italy and meets a woman of great beauty, Kaela, at a party. He is captivated by her looks and marries her, and her mother moves...
Narrated by Laura Harris
An old woman sits at the window of an almshouse in Copenhagen and watches children play on the rampart below. They run about with red cheeks and bare feet, not knowing th...
Narrated by Tony J Martin
At a rich merchant's house, a children's party is in full swing. The young guests boast about their fathers, their families and their names. One child declares that no on...
Narrated by Kali Newcomb
Mrs. Meta Mogen is the proud mistress of an old moated mansion when robbers break in and chain her up in the yard like a dog. Then one of the robbers' servants creeps to...
Narrated by Kris Keppeler
Two cocks, both full of themselves. One struts on the dung heap, and the other sits high on the roof as a weathercock, bored with everything he sees. Then a storm comes....
Narrated by Brett Carter
An angel carries a dead child up to heaven. The child asks to take along some flowers from the earth, and the angel gathers a broken rosebush. On the way, the angel also...
Narrated by Richard Stibbard
The emperor's horse is given shoes of gold, and a beetle in the stable sees no reason he should go without. When the blacksmith refuses him, the beetle leaves the stable...
Narrated by Ian Michael Turrell
Every evening a deep, mysterious bell is heard over the town. Some say it rings from the forest, some from the sea. Nobody knows where it hangs. People set out in crowds...
Narrated by Monica Shome
In the Odense river in Denmark there is a deep place called the Bell-Deep, where a water spirit lives alone and an old church bell has come to rest. Long ago the bell bro...
Narrated by Jerry Dugan
It is winter. The snow lies deep, and the wind is sharp as a sword. Inside, someone is telling a story. At midnight, on a hero's grave by the sea, a dead king's spirit mo...
Narrated by Robert Jackson
On the wild west coast of Jutland, in the sand-hills near the North Sea, stands the old convent of Borglum. In the old days the bishop's warriors wait on the shore for sh...
Narrated by Mike Polischuk
In a poor attic, a bird in a cage hangs by the window. Its water comes from an old bottle neck, turned upside down and corked. The bottle neck can think but cannot speak,...
Narrated by Tania Mannion
A field of buckwheat holds its head high. It is sure it is the finest thing around. Then a storm comes on, and the buckwheat shows what pride is worth. Hans Christian And...
Narrated by Liz Leafloor
A butterfly wants a wife, and he goes looking for one in a garden full of flowers. Every flower has something wrong with her. This one is too grand, that one too plain, a...
Narrated by Erika Calvert
A four-year-old boy has died, and his mother cannot forgive God. One night she slips out to her son's grave. A cloaked figure meets her there and offers to lead her down....
Narrated by Mike Polischuk
It is May, and a branch of apple blossom is cut from the tree and carried to a castle by a young countess. Set in a vase of snow-white glass, the branch grows proud. It l...
Narrated by Eric Leeb
A daisy grows on a green bank by the road, and every day she looks up at the lark singing above her. She is happy and has never seen the lark close. Then one day a boy ca...
Narrated by Richard Stibbard
A darning needle thinks very highly of herself. She is so fine, she believes, that she must be a sewing needle. When she slips from a kitchen into the gutter, she tells h...
Narrated by Myriam Berger
A tree spirit lives in a chestnut tree in the French countryside. When the village priest tells her about Paris, she longs to see it, even though she is warned that the c...
Narrated by Luke Oldham
A small boy comes home wet and sick, and his mother puts him to bed with a hot cup of elder tea. As he drinks it, an old man from next door tells him stories. The elder b...
Narrated by Katheryn Siggers
Two weavers come to a vain emperor's court and promise him a suit of clothes so fine that it cannot be seen by anyone who is foolish or unfit for his job. The emperor can...
Narrated by Jennifer Grecco
A young fir tree in the forest can think only of being bigger. Then, one winter, it is cut down and carried into a house, where it is dressed with candles, sweets and a g...
Narrated by Dani Koshak
On New Year's Eve, a poor little girl walks barefoot through the snow, trying to sell matches. She is afraid to go home without selling any. She lights one match to keep...
Narrated by Lauren Maza
Far under the sea, the youngest daughter of the Sea King longs to see the world above. She rescues a prince from a shipwreck and falls in love. To live on land, she trade...
Narrated by Clare Staniforth
The Emperor of China learns that the most beautiful thing in his empire is the song of a little nightingale in the forest. He brings the bird to the palace, but then a je...
Narrated by Nettie Rose
Karen is a poor girl who is given a pair of red shoes. She loves them so much that she wears them everywhere, even to church. Then the shoes begin to dance, and Karen can...
Narrated by Tony J Martin
Two fairies argue over whether a pair of magic galoshes brings happiness or trouble. The galoshes grant the wearer's every wish, and a series of people try them on, each...
Narrated by Brian Pederson
A wicked troll makes a mirror that shrinks everything good and beautiful, and it shatters into pieces that fall across the world. A splinter lodges in the eye and heart o...
Narrated by Jennifer Kellams
A woman who longs for a child is given a barley seed by a witch. From it grows a flower, and in the flower sits a girl no taller than a thumb. Thumbelina is carried off b...
Born in Odense, Denmark, to a shoemaker and a washerwoman.
Leaves for Copenhagen at fourteen.
Publishes his first fairy tales and his first novel.
The Little Mermaid and The Emperor's New Clothes.
The Snow Queen.
Dies in Copenhagen.
His fairy tales, including The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes.
Mostly, yes. Unlike the Brothers Grimm, he invented most of his stories, though a few began as folk tales he heard as a child.
The Snow Queen is our most-played. For something short, try The Emperor's New Clothes or The Little Match Girl.
Yes. In Andersen's story the mermaid does not win the prince, and the ending is bittersweet.
Academy Voices has 32 Hans Christian Andersen audiobooks, each performed by a real narrator, with a free sample on every one. Every recording is Certified Human Voice.
Reviewed October 2026 by the Academy Voices team. Sources: Wikipedia, Wikidata .
Jacob and Wilhelm GrimmThe German brothers who collected Cinderella, Snow White and...
Andrew LangThe Scottish writer who collected the world's fairy tales in...
Oscar WildeThe Irish wit behind The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Impo...
E. NesbitThe English author of The Railway Children and Five Children...
Brian PedersonHear their demos
Luke OldhamHear their demos
Clare StaniforthHear their demos
Tony J MartinHear their demos
Michele WagnerHear their demos
Brett CarterHear their demos
Jenna M KitchenHear their demos
Mike PolischukHear their demos
Richard StibbardHear their demos
Ian Michael TurrellHear their demos
Tania MannionHear their demos
Erika CalvertHear their demos
Kris KeppelerHear their demos
Eric LeebHear their demos
Myriam BergerHear their demos
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