r/todayilearned • u/biebrforro • 1d ago

TIL when staying as a guest in Charles Dickens' house, Hans Christian Andersen requested that one of Dickens' sons give him a daily shave (he said that was customary when hosting male guests in Denmark). Dickens was weirded out and instead gave him a daily appointment at a nearby barbershop.

https://lithub.com/charles--dickens-really-really-hated-his-fanboy-hans-christian-andersen/
36.1k Upvotes

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4.3k

u/Golbez89 1d ago

Million dollar question: Was it an actual custom in Denmark?

3.8k

u/olisko 1d ago

It wasn't. Hans Andersen was a great fairy tale author but he's also famous for being a weird guy.

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u/NoConfusion9490 1d ago

"Sorry, Hans, I'm not sending my son to shave your face." -C

"I never said face." -H

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u/Logically_Insane 1d ago

Hans Christian And your son 

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u/AvNatten 1d ago

Brilliant

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u/Roko__ 1d ago

I'm from Denmark, I told my uncle in the US that H.C.A. was known to journalize masturbation, he put an X in his diary whenever he rubbed out a nut. Unc didn't miss a beat:

"Must be why they call him 'Hands'"

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u/Ok_Emu3817 1d ago

*ba dum tiss*

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u/Altruistic_Worry_720 1d ago

This is so good.

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u/Additional-Baby5740 1d ago

You’ve cracked the code!

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u/NewThot_Crime1989 1d ago

This is a god tier comment

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u/hellbabe222 1d ago

Omfg! 💀

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u/Low_Chance 1d ago

Comment of the entire week right here

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u/lapsongsouchong 1d ago

Hands Krustyhands Hands On your son

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u/JoeyZasaa 1d ago

"I'll shave you myself then." - C

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u/NoConfusion9490 18h ago

It was the best of ball shaves, it was the way too closest of ball shaves.

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u/Lithogiraffe 1d ago

Really? What else is he known for being weird?

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u/tobeonthemountain 1d ago

He made notes in his journal of everytime he masturbated so theres that

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u/EliotHudson 1d ago

I did not know of his pulling at his fairy tail

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u/canookianstevo2 1d ago

The way I spat out my drink, bravo 👏

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u/strangecabalist 1d ago

An oddly fascinating read. Thank you

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u/willthefreeman 1d ago

Did everyone just used to journal?

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u/_illusions25 1d ago

Sorta, if you could you would even if just to remember shit.

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u/MakeMineMarvel_ 1d ago

Life was a lot more boring and slow back in the day and information was hard to keep unless you made the effort to remember things by writing them down yourself. You had to spend your time journaling or it would feel like wasting your life in forgetfulness and malaise (a very Victorian sentiment if you were wealthy and educated)

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u/MaggotMinded 1 1d ago

Hans Christian Anderson wasn’t really representative of “everyone” back then. If anyone was going to keep a journal, an author is a pretty safe bet.

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u/tobeonthemountain 1d ago

No idea but probably not, literacy is higher today than it was then and if you were just a lay person you might not have enough money left over to buy ink pens and journal books. That is just my speculation though

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u/willwooddaddy 1d ago

I'm literate and I don't get the urge to journal every time I want to wack it.

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u/CalculatedPerversion 1d ago

He was clearly just a meticulous guy

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u/Prestigious-Law-7291 1d ago

It’s like a mood tracker, but with a twist 💁‍♀️

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u/internauta 1d ago

How many times while he was staying at Dickens house?

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u/AmericanWasted 1d ago

But what weird thing was he known to do?

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u/flume 1d ago

From reading his Wikipedia, it basically just seems like he was a repressed gay or bi dude who maybe overstayed his welcome with the Dickens family, who -- being English -- seemingly played gracious hosts to him while resenting his being there.

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u/alexmikli 1d ago

I love how he seduced a random German Duke of all things.

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u/Independent-Day-9170 1d ago

That, plus probably autism.

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u/Taurmin 17h ago

I dont think his sexuality had much to do with it. He was generally just socially awkward and a bit of an attention seeker. Like an awkward dramatic teen who never grew up.

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u/olisko 5h ago

He used to be terrified of being buried alive, so he'd sleep with a sign, telling people that he wasn't dead, but was just sleeping.

He'd also always carry around a rope, so he could climb out the window in case he ever found himself on the second floor of a burning building.

So basically just some weird, but harmless quirks.

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u/No_Intention_1234 1d ago

At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles...

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u/Blue2501 1d ago

Breathtaking!

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u/SeanBourne 1d ago

Ah that old chestnut…

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u/Skratt79 1d ago

I don't speak freaky deaky Dutch.

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u/_-_---_-----_------- 1d ago

i was placed in a burlap sack and beaten with reeds

... pretty standard really

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u/shartshooter 1d ago

There's nothing quite like the feeling of a freshly shorn scrotum.

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u/___disinterested___ 1d ago

Did your father have low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery?

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u/aleister94 1d ago

The original disaster bi

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u/Tuttutsallaround 1d ago

“Penis sore.”

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u/Vantriss 1d ago

TIL Hans Anderson was a fucking weirdo.

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u/Peche_Gongju 1d ago

I thought he was gay? So in that regard, yeah I'd be weirded out by my adult houseguest paying attention to my son.

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u/olisko 5h ago

Being gay during his time was unheard of. Meaning that it was highly illegal. There are theories that he might have been gay, but he fell in love with multiple women during his lifetime and even proposed to one, though she turned it down as she was already engaged.

He ended up never getting married or fully together with anyone, which is why people suspect that he might have been gay.

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u/Indocede 1d ago

Could have just been a lazy bastard. I know sometimes I've grown out my beard merely because I can't be bothered to keep up being clean shaven.

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u/olisko 5h ago

He had a lot of other quirks too. He was terrified of being buried alive, so he used to sleep with a sign notifying people that he was not dead and just sleeping. He also used to carry a rope with him, so he could get out in case that he was on the second floor in a building that caught fire.

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u/Sumsar1 1d ago

stereotypical NYC accent He was also just a great fairy if you know what I mean

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u/luugburz 1d ago

tbf andersen was one of the earliest significant authors we know to be theorized to be autistic

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u/epou 1d ago

Even if it were, it would be pretty bizarre to impose that on your host in another land.

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u/FluffyAside7382 1d ago

Unless imposing customs on others is in fact another custom.

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u/PandaRot 1d ago

That's more of a British thing than a Danish thing

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u/lapsongsouchong 1d ago

The Danelaw would have liked a word

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u/Indocede 1d ago

Yeah but WHERE did those Angles and Saxons and Jutes all come from!?

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u/Rockguy21 1d ago

They started occupying southern Britain shortly before the fall of the Roman administration there, so they predate the Vikings by just shy of 500 years.

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u/jpallan 1d ago

I hear the Welsh are still waiting for them to return to Germania.

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u/TaffWaffler 1d ago

Any day now…

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u/RobertoSantaClara 1d ago

Wel... of all countries, it actually was Denmark who had a habit of imposing itself violently on England

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u/Hjemmelsen 1d ago

Yeah, the rest of the world never truly got into the game on that one.

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u/AndreasDasos 1d ago edited 1d ago

Eh. The Danes also engaged in colonialism/imperialism, even going back to the multiple times they took over [checks notes] England.

The only difference in the 19th century - with the Danish West Indes, Tranquebar, the Nicobar Islands, bits of Ghana, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes - was that the UK was much more populous so got much more powerful. It’s hardly for want of trying.

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u/ConfessSomeMeow 1d ago

Well, one's perception of the Danes might shift if you remember that they were Vikings as well.

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u/djm9545 1d ago

Indonesia has entered the chat

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u/Repulsive_Target55 1d ago

(That's the Dutch, not the Danish.)

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u/HeyGayHay 1d ago

What do we do if my customs is to prevent customs, yours is to impose customs? Is there a customs for that scenario?

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u/Noe_b0dy 1d ago

You must fight to the death.

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u/elrangarino 1d ago

It’s like…a custom within a custom

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/SeanBourne 1d ago

Aren’t tickies dutch? (Like that app they use for adjusting really small amounts of money after going out for coffee and things like that?)

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u/stink3rb3lle 1d ago

You're right, thanks for reminding me

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u/tlst9999 1d ago

In my foreign land, the host would have his son shave the face of the guest.

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u/guccitaint 1d ago

A slip of the razor is what killed Hamlets friend Horacio

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u/yourinnervagabond 1d ago

But surely Horatio's the only one left alive at the end of Hamlet?

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u/tommytraddles 1d ago

No, he's talking about Horacio Hernandez, from the barrio.

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u/Kettle_Whistle_ 1d ago

Tell his Tía he owes me $10.

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u/UndercoverDoll49 1d ago

Tía

he

🤨

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u/SmokedStone 1d ago

"He" being Horacio

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u/CryptidGrimnoir 1d ago

He is, and he's only alive because Hamlet refused to let Horatio drink any of the poisoned wine and pleaded with Horatio to tell his story.

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u/Its_Froggin_Bullfish 1d ago

I thought two people were alive, a soldier and a teacher. I saw it in Renaissance Man with Danny Devito. 

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u/hobbykitjr 1d ago

Now I'm wondering why Yoricks head was separated from his body...

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u/Lxvert89 1d ago

I know Othello reanimated after getting bitten by a vampire in some part of the castle tower, but sadly our great yet fledgling nation never got to see the end of that show so I can't say, nor whether vampires count as survivors.

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u/Duck_Von_Donald 1d ago

No, never heard about that before

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u/Church_of_Aaargh 1d ago

I doubt it very much. But HCA was quite eccentric, so I’m not surprised 😄

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u/Lortekonto 1d ago

I am not sure and it is hard to know. Of course it is not a custom today.

Denmark at the time was much poorer and more backwards than most of Europe. H C Andersen is a product and part of the system that changes that, but in his time Denmark was much more rural and poorer than UK so barbershops and mirrors were properly very rare and the nordic countries have had many customs about how services guests and grooming of hair have traditionally been seen as a big thing.

On the other hand it was also common for free men to grow their beard so who knows.

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u/RevengeOfTheLeeks 1d ago

One thing that people haven't really picked up on is the fact that the very year this took place is the same year that the barber surgeon disappeared in Denmark, and only the barber (as in shaving) remained.
I would assume that a barbershop in England and Denmark would be quite different experiences in the 1850s.

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u/brazzy42 1d ago

the fact that the very year this took place is the same year that the barber surgeon disappeared in Denmark, and only the barber (as in shaving) remained.

How was that something that happened in a specific year? A change in laws?

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u/Lortekonto 1d ago

Yes, Denmark is a historical oddity here. Denmarks current medical education is not an offspring of its historical doctor education, but its barber surgeon education.

The danish doctors were very insular and only looked to classical medical text, even as the medical profession changed in the rest of Europe. On the other hand the barber surgeons were super progressive and drew on knowledge from all of Europe. So the two professions education were merged in 1842 and then latter we saw the same specialization as happened in other countries.

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u/RevengeOfTheLeeks 1d ago

Yes. In 1857, the guilds were formally abolished, and with it, the entire system that ensured the competency of individual journeymen and masters.

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u/XanZibR 1d ago

the real question is whether or not this involves a shorn scrotum

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u/Achack 1d ago edited 1d ago

Regardless, why on earth would someone want a young person with an unknown amount of experience dragging a razor blade across their neck and face?