The Bond of Friendship

"We fly over the shores of Denmark, to far-off foreign countries and arrive in the south, in Greece with its beautiful turquoise sea"

In Greece, two boys had, for a long time, been bound in a bond of friendship. They were now adults and each had a family, but one day, one of them was killed by the Turks, as was his wife. His daughter was therefore welcomed by his old friend who decided to raise little Anastasia with his own son. The two children quickly grew very close, but the Turks were not far off.

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist. Celebrated for children’s literature, his most cherished fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Match Girl". His books have been translated into every living language, and today there is no child or adult that has not met Andersen's whimsical characters. His fairy tales have been adapted to stage and screen countless times, most notably by Disney with the animated films "The Little Mermaid" in 1989 and "Frozen", which is loosely based on "The Snow Queen", in 2013.

Thanks to Andersen's contribution to children's literature, his birth date, April 2, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.