Central Park, NYCOne of the lesser-known facts about Hans Christian Andersen is that, when he neared the end of his life, he found himself suffering from Anatidaephobia. This is the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck was watching you.
A person might be inclined to think that this fear stemmed from being haunted by his "Ugly Duckling" story, much like Peter Davies was haunted for being the namesake of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan character. The truth, though, was that before he started telling stories, Hans Christian Andersen wanted to rid Denmark of ducks. As a young lad, a duck stole his smørrebrød as he was trying to read a really large book, and he declared his vengeance on the entirety of the anatidae family of birds. He never got further than setting his intentions, for his mother then called him in for leverpostej sandwiches, which he liked better than smørrebrød anyway.
Still, though, whenever he found himself reading a really large book, his guilty conscience plagued him and his fear emerged. It was a phobia that haunted him until his dying days.
2 comments:
Wasn't Anatidaephobia coined by Gary Larson? Not that I'm pointing out any anachronism, mind you. It takes a long time for science (and comics) to catch up with folklore.
Indeed, no one had the heart to tell poor Mr. Andersen that his fear not only hadn't been invented yet, but was the product of the twisted mind of a single-panel cartoonist.
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