{"id":2275,"date":"2012-03-23T08:33:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T07:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/?page_id=2275"},"modified":"2013-09-30T22:58:43","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T20:58:43","slug":"the-darning-needle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/?page_id=2275","title":{"rendered":"The Darning-Needle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Darning-Needle –\u00a0Illustration<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Hans Christian Andersen (1847)<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was once a darning-needle who thought herself so fine that she fancied she must be fit for embroidery. \u201cHold me tight,\u201d she would say to the fingers, when they took her up, \u201cdon\u2019t let me fall; if you do I shall never be found again, I am so very fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is your opinion, is it?\u201d said the fingers, as they seized her round the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee, I am coming with a train,\u201d said the darning-needle, drawing a long thread after her; but there was no knot in the thread.<\/p>\n

The fingers then placed the point of the needle against the cook\u2019s slipper. There was a crack in the upper leather, which had to be sewn together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat coarse work!\u201d said the darning-needle, \u201cI shall never get through. I shall break!\u2014I am breaking!\u201d and sure enough she broke. \u201cDid I not say so?\u201d said the darning-needle, \u201cI know I am too fine for such work as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis needle is quite useless for sewing now,\u201d said the fingers; but they still held it fast, and the cook dropped some sealing-wax on the needle, and fastened her handkerchief with it in front.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now I am a breast-pin,\u201d said the darning-needle; \u201cI knew very well I should come to honor some day: merit is sure to rise;\u201d and she laughed, quietly to herself, for of course no one ever saw a darning-needle laugh. And there she sat as proudly as if she were in a state coach, and looked all around her. \u201cMay I be allowed to ask if you are made of gold?\u201d she inquired of her neighbor, a pin; \u201cyou have a very pretty appearance, and a curious head, although you are rather small. You must take pains to grow, for it is not every one who has sealing-wax dropped upon him;\u201d and as she spoke, the darning-needle drew herself up so proudly that she fell out of the handkerchief right into the sink, which the cook was cleaning. \u201cNow I am going on a journey,\u201d said the needle, as she floated away with the dirty water, \u201cI do hope I shall not be lost.\u201d But she really was lost in a gutter. \u201cI am too fine for this world,\u201d said the darning-needle, as she lay in the gutter; \u201cbut I know who I am, and that is always some comfort.\u201d So the darning-needle kept up her proud behavior, and did not lose her good humor. Then there floated over her all sorts of things,\u2014chips and straws, and pieces of old newspaper. \u201cSee how they sail,\u201d said the darning-needle; \u201cthey do not know what is under them. I am here, and here I shall stick. See, there goes a chip, thinking of nothing in the world but himself\u2014 only a chip. There\u2019s a straw going by now; how he turns and twists about! Don\u2019t be thinking too much of yourself, or you may chance to run against a stone. There swims a piece of newspaper; what is written upon it has been forgotten long ago, and yet it gives itself airs. I sit here patiently and quietly. I know who I am, so I shall not move.\u201d<\/p>\n

One day something lying close to the darning-needle glittered so splendidly that she thought it was a diamond; yet it was only a piece of broken bottle. The darning-needle spoke to it, because it sparkled, and represented herself as a breast-pin. \u201cI suppose you are really a diamond?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy yes, something of the kind,\u201d he replied; and so each believed the other to be very valuable, and then they began to talk about the world, and the conceited people in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been in a lady\u2019s work-box,\u201d said the darning-needle, \u201cand this lady was the cook. She had on each hand five fingers, and anything so conceited as these five fingers I have never seen; and yet they were only employed to take me out of the box and to put me back again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWere they not high-born?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh-born!\u201d said the darning-needle, \u201cno indeed, but so haughty. They were five brothers, all born fingers; they kept very proudly together, though they were of different lengths. The one who stood first in the rank was named the thumb, he was short and thick, and had only one joint in his back, and could therefore make but one bow; but he said that if he were cut off from a man\u2019s hand, that man would be unfit for a soldier. Sweet-tooth, his neighbor, dipped himself into sweet or sour, pointed to the sun and moon, and formed the letters when the fingers wrote. Longman, the middle finger, looked over the heads of all the others. Gold-band, the next finger, wore a golden circle round his waist. And little Playman did nothing at all, and seemed proud of it. They were boasters, and boasters they will remain; and therefore I left them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now we sit here and glitter,\u201d said the piece of broken bottle.<\/p>\n

At the same moment more water streamed into the gutter, so that it overflowed, and the piece of bottle was carried away.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he is promoted,\u201d said the darning-needle, \u201cwhile I remain here; I am too fine, but that is my pride, and what do I care?\u201d And so she sat there in her pride, and had many such thoughts as these,\u2014\u201cI could almost fancy that I came from a sunbeam, I am so fine. It seems as if the sunbeams were always looking for me under the water. Ah! I am so fine that even my mother cannot find me. Had I still my old eye, which was broken off, I believe I should weep; but no, I would not do that, it is not genteel to cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

One day a couple of street boys were paddling in the gutter, for they sometimes found old nails, farthings, and other treasures. It was dirty work, but they took great pleasure in it. \u201cHallo!\u201d cried one, as he pricked himself with the darning-needle, \u201chere\u2019s a fellow for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a fellow, I am a young lady,\u201d said the darning-needle; but no one heard her.<\/p>\n

The sealing-wax had come off, and she was quite black; but black makes a person look slender, so she thought herself even finer than before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere comes an egg-shell sailing along,\u201d said one of the boys; so they stuck the darning-needle into the egg-shell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhite walls, and I am black myself,\u201d said the darning-needle, \u201cthat looks well; now I can be seen, but I hope I shall not be sea-sick, or I shall break again.\u201d She was not sea-sick, and she did not break. \u201cIt is a good thing against sea-sickness to have a steel stomach, and not to forget one\u2019s own importance. Now my sea-sickness has past: delicate people can bear a great deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crack went the egg-shell, as a waggon passed over it. \u201cGood heavens, how it crushes!\u201d said the darning-needle. \u201cI shall be sick now. I am breaking!\u201d but she did not break, though the waggon went over her as she lay at full length; and there let her lie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Indeks over H.C. Andersens eventyr \u2014\u00a0Index of Hans Christian Andersen Fairy tales<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Darning-Needle –\u00a0Illustration By Hans Christian Andersen (1847) There was once a darning-needle who thought herself so fine that she fancied she must be fit for embroidery. \u201cHold me tight,\u201d she would say to the fingers, when they took her up, \u201cdon\u2019t let me fall; if you do I shall never be found again, I … L\u00e6s mere The Darning-Needle<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2275","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2275"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54036,"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2275\/revisions\/54036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}