"The Nightingale" () is a literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, published in 1843. Set in imperial China, the story recounts the friendship between the Emperor of China and a nightingale.
Plot In the gardens of the Emperor of China lived a nightingale whose song was more beautiful than the palace itself and was storied all over the world. When the emperor received a book from the Emperor of Japan, he was astonished to read about the nightingale, because he had never heard of it, nor had anyone in his court. He commanded that the nightingale be brought before him to sing. With the help of a poor kitchen girl, the nightingale was found and brought to the emperor, where it sang so beautifully that the emperor was moved to tears and made it a guest at court.
Soon after, the emperor received a new gift: a jeweled nightingale automaton that also sang. This nightingale's song was pretty, but always the same. The real nightingale, no longer appreciated, flew out of the palace while no one was looking. The emperor placed the artificial nightingale at his bedside and banished the real nightingale for its desertion. The artificial bird sang the emperor to sleep each night until its cogs wore down. The bird was repaired, but it could be played only once a year.
Five years afterward, the emperor fell ill. One night Death sat on his chest showing him the deeds of his past. The emperor wished for the artificial nightingale to sing away the unpleasant memories, but it was silent. Then a song erupted through the window, where the real nightingale was perched. The song restored the emperor's health and persuaded Death to leave him in peace. The nightingale declined to become a guest in the palace again, but offered to come when it would and sing about all that it had seen in the kingdom, if the emperor agreed to keep this a secret between them.
Gallery Illustrations by Edmund Dulac from a 1911 edition.
Adaptations
Poetry Sansom, Clive. "Singer and Nightingale." Return to Magic. Leslie Frewin, 1969.
Short stories Tailor, Dena Bain. "The Nightingale." Little Red Riding Hood in the Big Bad City. DAW, 2004. West, Michelle. "The Nightingale" Once Upon a Galaxy edited by William McCarthy and Martin H. Greenberg.
Novels Dalkey, Kara. The Nightingale. Ace, 1991. Loftin, Nikki. Nightingale's Nest. Razorbill, 2014. Wright, Claire. Skysong. Pantera Press, 2024.
Theatre Giges, Bob. “The Inspiration for Nightingale”. MacLellan, Kathy. The Nightingale (puppet show) Rag & Bone Puppet Theatre.
Lazarus, John. “The Nightingale.”
Music Haken, a British progressive-metal band wrote the song “Nightingale” on its album Fauna based on the story. Prauliņš, Uģis. Concerto for choir and recorders The Nightingale Reynolds, Malvina. The Emperor’s Nightingale (song). Rüttgers, Philipp. “The Emperor And The Nightingale -Twists of H.C. Andersen's Untaped Fairy Tales”. Shu-bi-dua, a Danish pop group wrote the song “Nattergalen” on their 18th self-titled album, which contained songs based on various H. C. Andersen fairy tales. Stravinsky, Igor. Opera: The Nightingale (opera). Stravinsky, Igor. Ballet: Le chant du rossignol. Stravinsky original score, Henri Matisse sets, Léonide Massine choreography. Strouse, Charles. Nightingale: A New Musical. DeSpain, Lisa. Tien, Melisa. Opera: Song of the Nightingale.
Films and TV
Faerie Tale Theatre (Showtime) episode The Nightingale (1983) starring Mick Jagger
Animated films
Reiniger, Lotte. The Chinese Nightingale. (1927) Sporn, Michael. Nightingale. (1992) Story Time! Pilot - Extracts from The emperor and the nightingale. ToonJet Cartoons. The Emperor's Nightingale. Trnka, Jirí and Milos Makovec. The Emperor's Nightingale (1948). Xpress English. TV episode; radio play
Citations
General and cited references
Celenza, Anna Harwell. Hans Christian Andersen and Music: The Nightingale Revealed. Routledge, 2017. Guroian, Vigen. “The Light of the Nightingale: The Gospel Story Resonates Throughout H. C. Andersen's Beloved Tale”. H. C. Andersen Centre, The. “Death motif in The Nightingale” H. C. Andersen Centre, The. “Religious motifs in The Nightingale”
Kramer, Nathaniel. "The Nightingale as Voice Object in H.C. Andersen’s Nattergalen". Scandinavica 52.1 (2013), pp. 42-70.
Popova, Maria. "How Hans Christian Andersen Turned His Heartbreak into One of the Most Beloved Fairy Tales of All Time" Brain Pickings "Nightingale: Annotated Tale". Sur La Lune.
Zipes, Jack. "Hans Christian Andersen and the Discourse of the Dominated". Ch. 5, pp. 79–102 Fairy Tales and the Art of the Subversive.
External links
"Nattergalen": Original Danish text "The Nightingale": English translation by Jean Hersholt "Did the emperor suffer from tuberculosis?", essay of 17 March 2005 researched and written by Cecilia Jorgensen for World Tuberculosis Day.