What Old Johanne Told

By H.C. Andersen

Rasmus was a bitter, pessimistic young boy who was nothing like his good and pious mother. Rasmus was with a free spirit and he could not bear living in a small town. So he set on a long, exhausting journey – leaving behind his home, his family and his childhood friend Johanne. Years passed and Rasmus returned. But the old Rasmus' spirit was not the same. The man was put under a spell. He was either going to be saved or the enchantment was going to kill him. The Old Johanne will tell us how Rasmus' life went and what happened with him. If you want to find out, read "What Old Johanne Told" by Hans Christian Andersen. -

• Language: English
• Publisher: SAGA Egmont
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9788726788570

Book preview

Hans Christian Andersen

What Old Johanne Told

SAGA

What Old Johanne Told

Original title:

Hvad gamle Johanne fortalte

Translated by Jean Hersholt

With special thanks to the Hans Christian Andersen Centre, SDU and Odense City Museums.

Copyright © 1859 Hans Christian Andersen, 2021 Saga Egmont, Copenhagen.

All rights reserved

ISBN 9788726788570

1st ebook edition, 2021.

Format: Epub 2.0

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor, be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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What Old Johanne Told

The wind whistles in the old willow tree. It is as if one were hearing a song; the wind sings it; the tree tells it. If you do not understand it, then ask old Johanne in the poor house; she knows about it; she was born here in the parish.

Many years ago, when the King's Highway still lay along here, the tree was already large and conspicuous. It stood, as it still stands, in front of the tailor's whitewashed timber house, close to the ditch, which then was so large that the cattle could be watered there, and where in the summertime the little peasant boys used to run about naked and paddle in the water. Underneath the tree stood a stone milepost cut from a big rock; now it is overturned, and a bramblebush grows over it.

The new King's Highway was built on the other side of the rich farmer's manor house; the old one