Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Steadfast Tin Soldier

This blog contains spoilers. You have been warned.

I am the first to admit that most of Hans Christian Andersen's stories are very depressing. I really did not enjoy many of his stories. Grimm was always the uplifting collection, and I blew through those with great enjoyment. Nevertheless, I have favorites from both authors. In the case of Andersen, it's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier."

I was first introduced to this story through an old cartoon. I wanted to tell you a bit more about where the cartoon came from and who made it, but I haven't had much luck in my research. I did later find a vintage comic book adaptation of it, and that ended up being very good. Last year, I actually read the story finally, and it was definitely my favorite story in the Andersen collection. This also led to me making my own version of the story of which I plan to publish later on.

"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is about a living tin soldier with one leg who falls in love with a tin ballerina. It is heavily suggested that there is a dark creature inhabiting a nearby jack-in-the-box who seems possessive of this ballerina. The story is about the tin soldiers desire to save the ballerina from her oppressor. Despite his efforts, the story ends in tragedy.

Having an Andersen story end in tragedy is not unexpected. It was the way it ended in tragedy that caught many people's attention. Likely do to the actions of the scornful jack-in-the-box, the boy who owns the toy tosses the soldier into an oven. A gust of wind then blows the ballerina next to him so that they die together. In the original version, the soldier melts into the shape of a heart, and the ballerina is entirely incinerated leaving only her spangle behind. In the cartoon I saw, they were melted together to form a single heart. I preferred the latter more than the original.

I guess the main beef I had with the original version was that the woman was not being treated very well by the author. The ballerina seemed to die at his side because she was expected to; not necessarily because she was truly in love with him. It was more that it was her duty because she was the girl he had chosen. My point is that if you are going to die for someone, let it be for love not duty.

Another problem with the original story was that the tin soldier was kind of a stiff portrayal of a soldier. He never really did anything other than stand at attention, and it seemed, to me at least, that he was worried about saving face rather than actually being a developed person. Other versions have tried to remedy these flaws and have done pretty well.

Probably the most subtle aspect of the Andersen story was the character of the jack-in-the-box. Andersen is not clear at to why bad things were happening to the family. He barely hints that the jack-in-the-box may be the culprit, but you never know for sure. Some of the cartoons, and the vintage comic went out of there way to expand on the jack-in-the-box character, showing him to be the demon-possessed villain that he truly was.

Whatever the case may be, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is one of the most beloved fairy tales in history. There have been so many adaptations of it. Even Daft Punk's music video "Instant Crush" was inspired by that story. Andersen laid the groundwork that inspired others to do better, and the later adaptations are better.

Thank you for reading my blog. Have an opinion that you want to share about this? You can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Goodnight!