As you may or may not know, one of Denmark's favorite sons is Hans Christian Andersen, writer of semi-questionable children's tales such as The Little Matchstick Girl, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, and The Red Shoes. On that note, today we went to see one of Copenhagen's most famous landmarks, Den Lille Havfrue (the little mermaid). The statue sits on a rock on the edge of a canal, is just over life-sized, and is widely considered to be entirely underwhelming. In 1998 in the middle of the night, someone took a saw and decapitated the bronze statue. The next day international news services spread the gory scene around the world as divers search waters around the statue for clues to no avail. Three days later the severed head turned up in a box outside a Copenhagen TV station--and it was speedily reattached. That wasn't the first time the statue had been attacked. In 1964, the original head was lopped off and in 1983 an arm was sawed off, neither of which were found again. Both had to be recast and welded back on. Various paint+splashing episodes have also taken place over the years, and in 2003 she was 'loosened' from her mooring and shoved into the harbor. All that said, we thought she was alright.
Now we are going into rest before heading out to Tivoli, Copenhagen's famous amusement park.
5 comments:
I wanted to be a mermaid when I was a little girl. Not so much anymore. . . Thinking of you often! Hey guess what? John and Leah are flying into Spokane on Tuesday too! Not sure what time though. Keep a look-out!
love, mom
Can't wait to see pictures! A thing attacked so often must be ugly!
Caitlin...I get attacked all the time.
Troy, you really crack me up.
I read HCA's (what, I wasn't going to type his name out...too long) stories once when I was little. They were really messed up and the pictures were, too. Talk about disturbing. I wonder if children in Denmark actually like the stories.
Claudia
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