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The Travelling Companion

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Just then they heard the people outside shouting, “Hurrah!” and, looking out, they saw the princess passing by; and she was really so beautiful that everybody forgot her wickedness, and shouted “Hurrah!”
(from The Travelling Companion)


Hans Christian Andersen's literary classic tale with digitally remastered illustrations by the golden age artists
[Featuring Gordon Browne, Hans Tegner, Harry Clarke, Honor Appleton, Maxwell Armfield, Thomas Heath Robinson, and more.]

Hans Christian Andersen will take you back to your childhood.

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1835

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About the author

Hans Christian Andersen

7,800 books3,554 followers
Hans Christian Andersen (often referred to in Scandinavia as H.C. Andersen) was a Danish author and poet. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories — called eventyr, or "fairy-tales" — express themes that transcend age and nationality.

Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Nightingale", "The Emperor's New Clothes" and many more. His stories have inspired plays, ballets, and both live-action and animated films.

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5 stars
53 (23%)
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71 (31%)
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69 (30%)
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24 (10%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
Profile Image for Cecily.
1,335 reviews5,417 followers
February 9, 2025
Who is this for?

I have loved children’s literature and I celebrate the visibility of YA fiction. However, as a middle-aged reader, I rarely enjoy either unless I previously loved them as a child, or with my own child. The right illustrations can make a huge difference to the experience, especially embedding memories.

Reading these dozen, densely-printed, pictureless pages was a puzzling chore. I can’t work out the intended audience in 1857, let alone now. At the sentence level, it often feels like something for pre-schoolers (though that might be the translation), but it’s dense, with revolting physical violence against a princess, and heavy-handed religiosity. Personally, I prefer any of Oscar Wilde’s children’s stories, or Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan, although in that, the Samaritan gets no direct benefit for his generosity.

In short, I am the wrong reader for this, but it was this week’s Short Story Club selection.

Story

John is an impoverished but godly young man, recently left alone in the world. He dreams of “a beautiful girl with a golden crown on her long pretty hair”, so sets off to find her. He encounters an open coffin (Chekhov’s Gun), “bad men”, and a friendly travelling companion with healing powers. He is generous to a fault, and always says his prayers and wants to make his father proud.

They reach a distant town, over the mountains. At court, they discover a beautiful but “bad Princess” who the King has decreed will marry whoever can guess three things she is thinking of. If they fail, they will be killed. Many princes and nobleman have died in the attempt. John thinks her “a hateful princess” who should be whipped. But of course he wants to try his luck. A witch, a troll, and magic are involved, and this is the only part of the story that I quite enjoyed. Fear not, dear children, god is on John’s side, so all will be well.


Image: Illustration of the story by Gordon Browne in 1919 (Source)

Quotes

• “‘I will always be good,’ said John, "and then I too shall go up to heaven to my father, and what a joy that will be, when we see one another again!”

• “Poor dead man!”

• “An old woman. Oh how old she was!... She had broken her leg, poor old thing.”

• “God will be helping me always.”

Read instead

• A far more interesting Andersen, imo, is The Shadow, which I reviewed HERE.

• Oscar Wilde’s The Fisherman and his Soul, which I reviewed HERE.

• My Children’s shelf on GR, HERE.

Short story club

I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.

You can read this story HERE.

You can join the group here.
Profile Image for Connie  G.
2,161 reviews715 followers
February 4, 2025
As I was reading "The Traveling Companion," I was thinking that this magical story would be a wonderful illustrated book or a short movie. It has vivid visuals and lots of action.

In addition to being a colorful fairy tale, it also has a religious message. John visits churches, has a strong belief in God, and uses his inheritance to help others. The traveling companion acts like a guardian angel or saintly figure with magical powers to help John in his journey and in his quest to win the princess. He also instructs John how to transform the princess in a type of baptism so she is no longer under the spell of the troll's evil curse. This is a story about good versus evil, and living life with kindness. Hans Christian Andersen wraps up a moral story with magic to create a tale both kids and adults can enjoy.



Profile Image for Klowey.
231 reviews19 followers
February 3, 2025
***1/2 rounding up

The Traveling Companion follows a young man venturing through the world after he is left orphaned by the death of his father. Along the way he is joined by a mysterious stranger and encounters the beautiful, yet bewitched, princess he'd foreseen in his dreams. Rounding out this story is a powerful, evil magician and a set of riddles.

I find Hans Christian Andersen's writing style very engaging, though I didn't like this one as much as his story, The Shadow, which I reviewed here. I'm up for reading more of his work and if you like magical fairy tales with a touch of sophistication I'd give him a try.
Profile Image for George Ilsley.
Author 12 books322 followers
March 19, 2025
Did I ever read this before? It seems familiar and yet bizarre. I loved all the quirky details, the sky-blue bats and jewel-like green flies, the skeleton flower garden . . . and the ever-helpful travelling companion paired with the pure, generous John.

Over the top, but I guess I was in the mood for that. Five gleaming fiery-red spider stars.

Now that I think of it, though — was pure-hearted John the "travelling companion"? His kindness and generosity was rewarded as a result of his good deed. It is a morality tale, with shining glow-worms and flowers with flames of fire and poisonous snakes for stems.
Profile Image for Kathleen.
Author 1 book276 followers
February 4, 2025
An interesting little fairy tale. The magic, for me, was in the beautiful touches of description.

“The field, the brook, the haystack, with the blue sky above, formed a beautiful sleeping-room. The green grass, with the little red and white flowers, was the carpet; the elder-bushes and the hedges of wild roses looked like garlands on the walls; and for a bath he could have the clear, fresh water of the brook; while the rushes bowed their heads to him, to wish him good morning and good evening.”

A strange blend of magic and religion, of wizards and churches, of silliness and saintliness.
Profile Image for Steff Fox.
1,610 reviews168 followers
March 9, 2021
| Reader Fox Blog |


The Traveling Companion by Hans Christen Andersen is another of those stories that really subscribes to the whole women need male saviors and men and women will fall in love with each other despite barely knowing one another theme. And while ultimately it follows a pretty typical format for fairytales, as the years have gone on and I've grown older, the things that were once accepted as the norm are no longer things I'm willing to promote. For example, the girl--often a princess--as a prize for living a good, kind life, is something that I cannot stand.

And while the central message that kindness will result in others helping you back (I'm not sure how true that is, but it's still nice) is a good one, the entire manner through which the main character, John, managed to win the princess was ridiculous and frustrating. You see, she was under a spell and after John had significantly helped this guy who would later travel with him, the traveling companion decided to do what he could to ensure that his friend would be able to win the hand of the princess.

And I do mean the hand, not the heart. After all, it comes down to him winning the right to marry her. Nothing that he does nor anything that his companion helps him accomplish has anything to do with actually building a connection with this girl. And yet, somehow, after he breaks the spell on her, she magically falls in love with him. It's all just quite a lot of ridiculousness. And while a part of me does love fairy tales, I just don't think this is one I could bring myself to care for. Add in the religious aspect of it all and I'm kind of just checked out.

| Reader Fox Links |
Profile Image for Avi.
19 reviews3 followers
February 21, 2020
Seems like Hans Christian Andersen tried to make the original story super happy for little kids but ended up having the story super hallucinatory and disturbing, like he always does. It's like having a grandma in a flowery dress telling you this story, except that she always has this blank, artificial smile on her face. 😂😂 I've read so many violent books already that this doesn't really move me in any way, but I bet little kids will be absolutely thrilled by the image of skeletons of long-decayed corpses hanging from trees. yeet yEEt
Profile Image for Elinor  Loredan.
671 reviews29 followers
Read
August 17, 2021
I love this one for its amazing descriptions alone. But it also has valuable morals of generosity and kindness. John continues to perform good deeds simply because he feels that is the right thing to do. Yes, he is rewarded by the traveling companion, but he does not know he will be when he performs the deeds. This story reminds me of Grimm and Lang ones in which the princess allows men to die for her and is not punished for it--the only element I don't like in those stories and in this one. Still, one of my favorite Andersen stories.
Profile Image for Hester.
678 reviews
February 3, 2025
One of those fairy tales where you wish the princess had a bit more gumption , she's either under a spell of one bloke or in thrall to another who at least has a good heart. There's beatings and near drownings (read baptism) by the hero , who else but John , and the religious message is always in plan sight. What rescues it are delicate touches of humour : kings in dressing gowns and mysterious unguents lwith life force properties along with enough macabre detail to keep both adults and children absorbed
Profile Image for Tym.
1,348 reviews81 followers
February 24, 2024
I have vague memories of reading this tale as a child, pretty standard fare with some interesting descriptions and good moral.
Profile Image for sakine.
1 review
January 8, 2024
Justice for our lesbian witch princess! John should have ended up with the companion.
Profile Image for Preetam Chatterjee.
7,470 reviews439 followers
January 11, 2026
The Travelling Companion feels like one of Andersen’s most morally intricate fairy tales. On the surface, it follows the familiar rhythm of journey and reward. But reading it slowly, I felt how deeply preoccupied Andersen is with loyalty, sacrifice, and unseen labour.

What struck me was the companion’s quiet devotion. He guides, protects, and intervenes without ever demanding recognition. His presence challenges the fairy-tale expectation that success belongs solely to the hero. Here, achievement is collective—even if only one figure is named.

Reading this, I felt Andersen questioning merit. Who deserves a reward? The one who acts, or the one who enables action? The companion’s suffering is real, bodily, and uncelebrated. That imbalance felt deliberate.

The supernatural elements intensify rather than obscure the story’s moral tension. Magic here does not eliminate cost; it reveals it. Every victory is purchased through someone else’s endurance.

What lingered with me was the story’s insistence that goodness is often invisible. The companion’s true nature is revealed late, almost as an afterthought. Andersen seems to suggest that recognition is not the point of virtue.

The story stayed with me because it frames companionship as ethical commitment rather than emotional comfort. It asks whether gratitude can ever fully account for what we receive.

Most recommended.
Profile Image for Grace.
799 reviews15 followers
February 1, 2025
notes

1) Skeleton garden?????? kind of iconic tbh

2) so.... the princess is "bad and wicked" because she continually outsmarts the overconfident men who keep objectifying her and harassing her for her hand in marriage? THEY came to her to bother her and they fail and yet SHE'S the "wicked" one for following through on her promise about what their failure would mean? god forbid women have hobbies (puzzles and murder)

3) SO THE PRINCESS IS BEATEN FOR BEING SMARTER THAN THE MEN?

4) incredibly imagined "underworld" trope

5) "God" in this case is just the protag's buddy John

6) "this is how things should be" BRO YOU HAVE A DECAPITATED HEAD ROLLING AROUND ON YOUR FLOOR RN

7) man nearly drowns his wife and voila! wife is suddenly freed from her curse. if we think really hard about this, I believe there might just be a problematic message there
Profile Image for Siraa.
260 reviews3 followers
October 5, 2022
Setelah kepergian ayahnya, Johanes memutuskan untul berkelana dan menyebarkan kebaikan. Diperjalanannya dia tiba di sebuah kerajaan yang makmur dengan Raja yang baik. Sang Raja memiliki anak perempuan yang cantik tapi sifatnya sangat buruk. Johanes yang telah jatuh cinta kepada gadis itu harus mengikuti tantangan sang Putri dengan taruhan Kepalanya sendiri.

Dibuat oleh orang sama yang pengarang "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Ducking" dan "Thumbellina", kisah dalam buku ini juga memiliki vibes yang sama. Hanya saja saya baru tau ternyata bahkan untuk cerita anak, kontennya cukup seram juga karena melibatkan pembunuhan, darah, penggal memenggal dan mayat. Berarti cerita dongeng yang selama ini sampai ke kita adalah versi censored ya. Hmm...
Profile Image for Jon Reading Books.
167 reviews63 followers
November 14, 2019
The Traveling Companion features the same charm that makes other Andersen stories so celebrated, but he dips too frequently into cloying irritation and I didn't find this story to be up to par with some of the others I've read from him recently. It lacks the sheer beauty of something like Thumbelina and the surprising dark humor of Big Claus and Little Claus , but I did find the resolution to be satisfying.

Worth reading, but a lesser entry in Andersen's celebrated canon than some of its contemporary counterparts.
Profile Image for Amelia Bujar.
1,860 reviews1 follower
July 12, 2024
FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...

This one was really not for me. Maybe reading children stories as an adult isn’t the best thing to do for some people.

I personally found this story to be very boring and uninteresting. I really had hard time reading it because I just couldn’t get into the story.

The story is pretty quick read, but that’s the only good thing about this story for me personally.

The writing style in this one was very generic which every fairytale has.
Profile Image for Debi Cates.
514 reviews36 followers
February 11, 2025
A dead man's corpse is dumped out of his coffin, an ogre is killing young suitors just to eat their eyes, a young maiden is used as bait and also whipped until she bleeds.

Hans Christian Andersen? Yep, Hans Christian Andersen.

Never fear. It ends happily ever after for simple John because he is a "good" person who trusts a peculiar stranger.

Don't ask me. I have no idea what the lesson of this story is or what modern child would enjoy it.

Read with the GR group The Short Story Club. You can join here https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Profile Image for PattyMacDotComma.
1,792 reviews1,072 followers
February 13, 2025
2.5★
She was indeed a wicked princess. She possessed beauty enough—nobody could be more elegant or prettier than she was; but what of that? for she was a wicked witch; and in consequence of her conduct many noble young princes had lost their lives."


I realise she's supposed to be a witch, but the actions in this 'fairy tale' seem more 'grimm' than I associate with Andersen.

There is some humour and there is an answer-three-riddles storyline, but the unexpected violence is rather graphic, I think.

If you'd like to read it yourself, it's here:

http://hca.gilead.org.il/travelng.html
Profile Image for Joseph Knecht.
Author 6 books52 followers
May 21, 2025
A man loses everyone, so he decides to travel the world.

He sees two people trying to rob a dead man, but he gives them all his money so they leave the dead man alone.

He meets a companion, and they perform miracles.

The man eventually decides to marry a princess, but must guess words she is thinking about. The companion turns out to be an angel, so he helps the man win over the princess.

At the end, the identity of the traveling companion is revealed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Aaron Michael.
1,066 reviews
July 13, 2025
The Book of Tobit in fairy tale form with the traveling companion as Raphael, the princess as Sarah, and the ogre as Asmodeous.

“To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness...”
‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭2‬:‭26‬
Profile Image for Kevin Hull.
533 reviews11 followers
September 11, 2017
Andersen gets all religious in this one, as he would from time to time. Still a very enjoyable story, with a terrific twist at the end.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews

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