60 free Hans Christian Andersen trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Hans Christian Andersen trivia quiz covers the Danish writer behind The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Snow Queen. The easy questions cover the nationality, the birthplace, the most famous tales, the Copenhagen statue and the Disney films they inspired. From there it moves through a strange, lonely life: the illiterate washerwoman mother, the soprano voice that got him into the Royal Danish Theatre, the school years he called the darkest of his life, the king who paid his fees, the 1835 booklet that started it all, the letter of proposal handed to Jenny Lind at a railway station and the five weeks he spent at Charles Dickens's house. The harder end covers the thirty rigsdalers he was paid for the first tales, the last-minute rewrite of The Emperor's New Clothes, the Riverside Magazine deal, the fall from bed, the funeral music he asked for, the shared Collin grave, the sawn-off heads of the mermaid statue, and the flatworm named after him. Every answer was checked against Andersen's encyclopaedia entry and the pages for individual tales before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our fairy tales and Disney quizzes are the natural next stop.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Danish city was Hans Christian Andersen born in 1805?
Odense
The city now has a museum complex called H.C. Andersens Hus, a marathon in his name and an airport.
Q 02How many fairy tales did Andersen write, across nine volumes?
156
They have been translated into more than 125 languages.
Q 03What was the occupation of Andersen's mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter?
Washerwoman
She was illiterate; his father, a shoemaker, read him the Arabian Nights.
Q 04Which Danish king has Andersen been speculated, without proof, to be the illegitimate son of?
Christian VIII
Historian Jens Jørgensen backed the theory; some read The Ugly Duckling's swan as a hint of secret royal blood.
Q 05To which trades was the young Andersen apprenticed before leaving for Copenhagen?
A weaver and then a tailor
He attended a school for poor children and had to support himself.
Q 06At what age did Andersen move to Copenhagen to try to become an actor?
14
His fine soprano voice got him into the Royal Danish Theatre, until it broke.
Q 07What did a colleague at the Royal Danish Theatre tell Andersen that changed the course of his life?
That he was a poet
He took the remark seriously and turned to writing.
Q 08Which theatre director became Andersen's benefactor and sent him to grammar school in Slagelse?
Jonas Collin
He persuaded King Frederick VI to pay part of the fees; Andersen was later buried in the Collin family plot.
Q 09How did Andersen later look back on grammar school in Slagelse and Elsinore?
The darkest and most bitter time of his life
He lodged with a schoolmaster who abused him 'to improve his character' and discouraged him from writing.
Q 10What was Andersen's first published story, in 1822?
'The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave'
'The Tallow Candle', an even earlier tale, turned up in a Danish archive in 2012.
Q 11What is the emotional plight of the title object in Andersen's early tale 'The Tallow Candle'?
It does not feel appreciated
He wrote it while still at school and dedicated it to a benefactor, whose family kept it for nearly two centuries.
Q 12Andersen's first novel, The Improvisatore (1835), was inspired by his travels in which country?
Italy
A royal travel grant in 1833 had launched the first of many European journeys.
Q 13Which of these was among Andersen's first fairy tales, published in a booklet on 8 May 1835?
'The Tinderbox'
'Little Claus and Big Claus' and 'Little Ida's Flowers' were among the others; publisher Reitzel paid a modest fee.
Q 21In 1868, which American children's periodical offered Andersen $500 for twelve new stories?
Riverside Magazine for Young People
Sixteen of his stories ran there, ten of them before they appeared in Denmark.
Q 22Which 1851 book of travel sketches earned Andersen wide acclaim?
In Sweden
His travelogues mixed documentary description with philosophical passages, and some even contain fairy tales.
Q 23At which Copenhagen address, now marked with a plaque, did Andersen live from 1845 to 1864?
Nyhavn 67
Nyhavn is the colourful harbour-front now thick with tourists.
Q 14How much did publisher C. A. Reitzel pay Andersen for the manuscript of his first fairy-tale booklet?
Thirty rigsdalers
The booklet itself sold for 24 shillings.
Q 15For whom did Andersen write 'Little Ida's Flowers', the only tale in his first booklet not based on folklore?
The daughter of folklorist Just Mathias Thiele
Ida Thiele's father was one of his early benefactors.
Q 16'Thumbelina', published in Andersen's second booklet in December 1835, was inspired by which older story?
'Tom Thumb'
'The Naughty Boy', in the same booklet, was based on a poem about Eros from the Anacreontea.
Q 17Which German Romantic novella about a water spirit influenced 'The Little Mermaid'?
Fouqué's Undine
The tale, published in April 1837, established Andersen's international reputation.
Q 18'The Emperor's New Clothes' was based on a medieval story from which country?
Spain
The source had Arab and Jewish origins; Andersen added the child's cry only on the eve of publication.
Q 19How did the original ending of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' differ from the famous one?
The ruler simply walked on in procession
Andersen revised it on the eve of publication to add the child calling out that the Emperor had nothing on.
Q 20Why did Danish critics dislike Andersen's first fairy-tale booklets in 1836?
The chatty style and apparent immorality
Children's literature was supposed to educate rather than amuse; he waited a full year before publishing the third booklet.
Q 24Which English novelist did Andersen first meet at a Countess of Blessington party in 1847?
Charles Dickens
He wrote in his diary of speaking to 'England's now-living writer whom I do love the most'.
Q 25How long did Andersen's 'brief' 1857 visit to Dickens's home actually last?
Five weeks
After he was asked to leave, his host stopped answering his letters, and Andersen never understood why.
Q 26Which David Copperfield character was reputedly modelled on Andersen's appearance?
Uriah Heep
The theory has the novelist venting after the five-week visit through his oily clerk.
Q 27Which tale did Andersen write out of his passion for the singer Jenny Lind, giving her a famous nickname?
'The Nightingale'
He handed her a letter of proposal as she boarded a train; she signed her reply 'his affectionate sister, Jenny'.
Q 28What was found in a small pouch on Andersen's chest when he died?
A long letter from Riborg Voigt, his youthful love
She had been the unrequited love of his youth decades earlier.
Q 29To which man did Andersen write 'my sentiments for you are those of a woman'?
Edvard Collin
Collin wrote in his memoir that he was 'unable to respond to this love'; the two now share a grave plot.
Q 30Which Danish dancer may have inspired Andersen's 'The Snowman' through an affair, per Jackie Wullschlager?
Harald Scharff
Scharff gave him a silver toothbrush for his 57th birthday; Andersen called 1862 his 'erotic period'.