The Thorny Road of Honor by Hans Christian Andersen. Short summary

5 seconds

An essay in which Andersen gives examples of how the great minds of mankind found glory only after death, and in life they were ridiculed, not understood, they died in poverty.

1 minute

A Danish proverb says that fame and honor can only be achieved after tribulations and ordeals. Andersen makes a correction to this winged expression. As history teaches us, people achieve fame when their souls pass into the next world.

Andersen provides examples. Socrates died of cicuta, condemned by the Athenians. Homer is forced to beg, blind and alone. Ferdowsi banished from his native country, died in exile.

But not only in antiquity did the road to glory pass through thorns. A black slave is forced to beg to feed his master, Camões. Salomon de Caux, who invented the steam engine, died in a madhouse: he could not convince Richelieu of his scientific discovery.

The king rewarded Columbus, who had discovered an entire continent for him, with iron fetters. Galileo was persecuted, and Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

Andersen cites examples from Danish history as well. King Christian II spent 26 years in prison, though he granted the country legislation, and the astronomer Tycho Brahe was forced to emigrate.