--- title: The Elderbush — Andersen's Fairy Tales · full text with trees · page 2 description: The Elderbush, «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Once upon a time there was a little boy who had taken cold. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Andersen's Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/) / The Elderbush # The Elderbush · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/) **2** - [101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/101/) — And now we are close to the church. - [102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/102/) — It lies high upon the hill, between the large oak-trees, one of which is half decayed. - [103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/103/) — And now we are by the smithy, where the fire is blazing, and where the half-naked men are banging with their hammers till the sparks fly about. - [104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/104/) — Away! away! - [105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/105/) — To the beautiful country-seat!” - [106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/106/) — And all that the little maiden, who sat behind on the stick, spoke of, flew by in reality. - [107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/107/) — The boy saw it all, and yet they were only going round the grass-plot. - [108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/108/) — Then they played in a side avenue, and marked out a little garden on the earth; and they took Elder-blossoms from their hair, planted them, and they grew just like those the old people planted when they were children, as related before. - [109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/109/) — They went hand in hand, as the old people had done when they were children; but not to the Round Tower, or to Friedericksberg; no, the little damsel wound her arms round the boy, and then they flew far away through all Denmark. - [110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/110/) — And spring came, and summer; and then it was autumn, and then winter; and a thousand pictures were reflected in the eye and in the heart of the boy; and the little girl always sang to him, “This you will never forget.” - [111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/111/) — And during their whole flight the Elder Tree smelt so sweet and odorous; he remarked the roses and the fresh beeches, but the Elder Tree had a more wondrous fragrance, for its flowers hung on the breast of the little maiden; and there, too, did he often lay his head during the flight. - [112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/112/) — “It is lovely here in spring!” said the young maiden. - [113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/113/) — And they stood in a beech-wood that had just put on its first green, where the woodroof \[\*\] at their feet sent forth its fragrance, and the pale-red anemony looked so pretty among the verdure. - [114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/114/) — “Oh, would it were always spring in the sweetly-smelling Danish beech-forests!” - [115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/115/) — \* Asperula odorata. - [116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/116/) — “It is lovely here in summer!” said she. - [117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/117/) — And she flew past old castles of by-gone days of chivalry, where the red walls and the embattled gables were mirrored in the canal, where the swans were swimming, and peered up into the old cool avenues. - [118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/118/) — In the fields the corn was waving like the sea; in the ditches red and yellow flowers were growing; while wild-drone flowers, and blooming convolvuluses were creeping in the hedges; and towards evening the moon rose round and large, and the haycocks in the meadows smelt so sweetly. - [119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/119/) — “This one never forgets!” - [120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/120/) — “It is lovely here in autumn!” said the little maiden. - [121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/121/) — And suddenly the atmosphere grew as blue again as before; the forest grew red, and green, and yellow-colored. - [122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/122/) — The dogs came leaping along, and whole flocks of wild-fowl flew over the cairn, where blackberry-bushes were hanging round the old stones. - [123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/123/) — The sea was dark blue, covered with ships full of white sails; and in the barn old women, maidens, and children were sitting picking hops into a large cask; the young sang songs, but the old told fairy tales of mountain-sprites and soothsayers. - [124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/124/) — Nothing could be more charming. - [125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/125/) — “It is delightful here in winter!” said the little maiden. - [126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/126/) — And all the trees were covered with hoar-frost; they looked like white corals; the snow crackled under foot, as if one had new boots on; and one falling star after the other was seen in the sky. - [127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/127/) — The Christmas-tree was lighted in the room; presents were there, and good-humor reigned. - [128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/128/) — In the country the violin sounded in the room of the peasant; the newly-baked cakes were attacked; even the poorest child said, “It is really delightful here in winter!” - [129](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/129/) — Yes, it was delightful; and the little maiden showed the boy everything; and the Elder Tree still was fragrant, and the red flag, with the white cross, was still waving: the flag under which the old seaman in the New Booths had sailed. - [130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/130/) — And the boy grew up to be a lad, and was to go forth in the wide world-far, far away to warm lands, where the coffee-tree grows; but at his departure the little maiden took an Elder-blossom from her bosom, and gave it him to keep; and it was placed between the leaves of his Prayer-Book; and when in foreign lands he opened the book, it was always at the place where the keepsake-flower lay; and the more he looked at it, the fresher it became; he felt as it were, the fragrance of the Danish groves; and from among the leaves of the flowers he could distinctly see the little maiden, peeping forth with her bright blue eyes--and then she whispered, “It is delightful here in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter”; and a hundred visions glided before his mind. - [131](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/131/) — Thus passed many years, and he was now an old man, and sat with his old wife under the blooming tree. - [132](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/132/) — They held each other by the hand, as the old grand-father and grand-mother yonder in the New Booths did, and they talked exactly like them of old times, and of the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding. - [133](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/133/) — The little maiden, with the blue eyes, and with Elder-blossoms in her hair, sat in the tree, nodded to both of them, and said, “To-day is the fiftieth anniversary!” - [134](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/134/) — And then she took two flowers out of her hair, and kissed them. - [135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/135/) — First, they shone like silver, then like gold; and when they laid them on the heads of the old people, each flower became a golden crown. - [136](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/136/) — So there they both sat, like a king and a queen, under the fragrant tree, that looked exactly like an elder: the old man told his wife the story of “Old Nanny,” as it had been told him when a boy. - [137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/137/) — And it seemed to both of them it contained much that resembled their own history; and those parts that were like it pleased them best. - [138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/138/) — “Thus it is,” said the little maiden in the tree, “some call me 'Old Nanny,' others a 'Dryad,' but, in reality, my name is 'Remembrance'; 'tis I who sit in the tree that grows and grows! - [139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/139/) — I can remember; I can tell things! - [140](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/140/) — Let me see if you have my flower still?” - [141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/141/) — And the old man opened his Prayer-Book. - [142](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/142/) — There lay the Elder-blossom, as fresh as if it had been placed there but a short time before; and Remembrance nodded, and the old people, decked with crowns of gold, sat in the flush of the evening sun. They closed their eyes, and--and--! - [143](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/143/) — Yes, that's the end of the story! - [144](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/144/) — The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or not, or if he had been listening while someone told him the story. - [145](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/145/) — The tea-pot was standing on the table, but no Elder Tree was growing out of it! - [146](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/146/) — And the old man, who had been talking, was just on the point of going out at the door, and he did go. - [147](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/147/) — “How splendid that was!” said the little boy. - [148](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/148/) — “Mother, I have been to warm countries.” - [149](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/149/) — “So I should think,” said his mother. - [150](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/150/) — “When one has drunk two good cupfuls of Elder-flower tea, 'tis likely enough one goes into warm climates”; and she tucked him up nicely, least he should take cold. - [151](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/151/) — “You have had a good sleep while I have been sitting here, and arguing with him whether it was a story or a fairy tale.” - [152](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/152/) — “And where is old Nanny?” asked the little boy. - [153](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/153/) — “In the tea-pot,” said his mother; “and there she may remain.” [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/) **2** - ← previous: [The Leap-frog](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/16/) - next →: [The Bell](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/18/) - ↑ back to [Andersen's Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/)