Matchless: An Illumination of Hans Christian Andersen's Classic "The Little Match Girl" (5 page)

…UNAWARE THAT high above them, even in the daylight, exists a population of stars.

The end

A NOTE ON
MATCHLESS

and Its Inspiration,

“The Little Match Girl,” by Hans Christian Andersen

Already a success in 1843, Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen wrote “The Little Match Girl” (“Den lille pige med svovlstikkerne”) at the invitation of an editor who supplied a selection of illustrations for inspiration. One of the pictures showed a child on the street selling matches—sulfur sticks,
svovlstikkerne
.

Part 2 of
Matchless
follows Andersen’s telling almost precisely, although in the interest of drama I have moved the story from New Year’s Eve to Christmas Eve. Also, I have allowed the match girl to envision being reunited with her dead mother rather than, as in Andersen, her beloved grandmother.

Unlike the rest of Andersen’s most popular tales, “The Little Match Girl” relies on neither magical creatures nor anthropomorphism to work its spell. True, the sacred magic of God’s mercy to the poor and dying may obtain in the story’s final scene, though readers might as easily interpret the little girl’s visions as the delusions of a child freezing to death.

Andersen included the story in his second collection of fairy tales. While “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” retain their power to charm, the little match girl’s plight has come to seem too bleak for modern audiences. In selecting this tale for revisiting—reillumination, perhaps—I hope to honor the original by finding a way to return to the story a sense of the transcendent apprehended by many nineteenth-century readers, children and adults alike.

Matchless
was originally written to be heard. It premiered on Christmas Day, 2008, on National Public Radio’s
All Things Considered,
in a performance by the author.

Acknowledgments are paid to Cassie Jones, Andy Newman, Jeremy Nussbaum, William Reiss, a nonpareil team of brilliants if ever there was one; to Susan Valdina and Ashley Bryan, who supplied some fishing net for me to draw; and to Ellen Silva of National Public Radio, who extended me an invitation to create a new story for the holidays.

—GREGORY MAGUIRE

April 2009

Also by Gregory Maguire

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Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

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