Storynory

The beautiful ballerina Moira Shearer, who has died aged 80, was famous for her starring role in the 1949 film, “The Red Shoes.” This classic of British cinema had a contemporary setting, but it was, of course, based on the fairy story by Hans Christian Andersen.

Hans Christian Anderson explained the inspiration to “The Red Shoes” in his autobiography. He grew up in a small Danish town, the son of a shoemaker who died young. His humble circumstances meant that a new pair of boots were something special – and he had a new pair on the day of his Confirmation into the Church. As he was walking up the aisle, it gave him a thrill to think that the congregation could hear that his squeaky boots were new. But then he was overcome with a horrid conscience that his thoughts were more on the boots than on God.

In his story, a little girl wears bright red shoes to her Confirmation and she can think of nothing else. An old soldier taps her beautiful shoes outside the church, and wished that they might never come off when she danced. Later on, the shoes dance the poor little girl away, so that she can not stop dancing, until she has no option but to ask an executioner to cut her feet off with an axe. In the final paragraph, her heart breaks while in church, and her soul floats up to Heaven where no one questions her about her red shoes.

Andersen mixes religious feeling, morality, and magic, into a powerful fantasy, but I don’t think we will be doing “The Red Shoes” on Storynory. Call me squeamish, but cutting off feet is not our line. Sometimes we forget that Andersen did not see himself as entirely a children’s writer, but his stories, often rich in meaning and beautiful descriptions, were meant to be enjoyed by adults too.