The Ugly Duckling
Told by Hans Christian AndersenDenmarkTale type original literary tale
- Age
- 4 to 9
- Reading time
- 12 minutes
- Scariness
- 2 of 5A villain, never frightening on the page
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The story
It was summer, and the corn was yellow, and down among the burdock leaves by the water a duck was sitting on her nest, thoroughly bored.
The eggs took their time. One by one they cracked and small wet heads came out and said how big the world was, and their mother said that this was not the world, this was the garden, and the world went on a good deal further than that.
Then she noticed one egg still sitting there. It was larger than the others and it had not moved.
An old duck came past and looked at it and said it was a turkey egg, and that she had been fooled the same way once, and that turkeys will not go in the water no matter what you do. She advised leaving it.
The mother duck thought about it and decided she had sat this long and could sit a little longer.
It hatched the next day. What came out was big and grey and did not look like anything else in the nest, and the first thing anybody said about him was that he was terribly ugly.
The next morning she took them all down to the moat and went in, and the grey one went in after her and swam beautifully, straight-necked and steady, and she was pleased with him and said so. She said he was not a turkey at all, and that he was hers, and that when you looked at him properly he was really rather handsome.
Nobody else looked at him properly.
The ducks bit him. The hens pecked him. The girl who fed the poultry pushed him aside with her foot. His brothers and sisters, who had been perfectly friendly for a day and a half, learned quickly which way the wind was blowing and joined in, and one of them said out loud that they wished the cat would get him.
It went on all autumn. In the end his mother, who was tired, said that she wished he were far away.
So he went.
He got over the fence at the bottom of the garden, and the little birds in the bushes went up in a cloud, and he thought: that is because I am so ugly. And he shut his eyes and kept going.
He came to a great marsh where the wild ducks lived. They looked him over and said frankly that he was remarkably ugly, but that it made no difference to them so long as he did not want to marry into the family. He stayed two days.
On the third morning the whole marsh went up in noise. There were hunters all round the water, and the sound came from every direction at once, and the wild geese that had spoken to him kindly the day before were not there any more.
He lay in the reeds with his head under his wing for a long time, and the afternoon went quiet, and he got up and went on.
Towards evening he reached a tumbledown cottage so old that it was leaning and could not decide which way to fall. The door hung crooked on one hinge, and there was a gap, and he went in and slept in the gap because it was out of the wind.
An old woman lived there, with a cat and a hen.
The cat could arch his back and purr and give off sparks if you stroked him the wrong way. The hen laid excellent eggs. The old woman was extremely short-sighted and thought the duckling was a fat duck who had lost her way, and said they would see about eggs in a week or two.
There were no eggs.
The cat was the master of the house and the hen was the mistress, and they always said "we and the world", by which they meant themselves and, at a stretch, the old woman.
"Can you lay eggs?" said the hen.
"No."
"Then be so good as to hold your tongue."
"Can you arch your back, or purr, or give off sparks?" said the cat.
"No."
"Then you have no business having an opinion when sensible people are talking."
The duckling sat in the corner and was out of sorts, and then he said, without really deciding to, that he had been thinking about the open water, and about what it would be like to dive down and have it close over his head.
The hen said that was the silliest thing she had ever heard, and asked whether the cat wanted to swim, and whether the old woman wanted to swim, and said that as they did not, and they were the cleverest people he knew, it followed that he was wrong. She added that she was only telling him this for his own good, because that is how you tell your true friends.
"I think I shall go out into the wide world," said the duckling.
"Do," said the hen.
So he went, and swam, and dived, and was avoided by every other creature on account of his ugliness, and autumn came on.
The leaves turned and the wind picked them up and threw them about, and it got very cold indeed.
One evening, with the sun going down red, a whole flock of great birds came up out of the bushes. They were dazzling white with long waving necks, and they made a sound he had never heard, and they spread enormous wings and went south, high and away.
He did not know what they were called. He did not know where they were going. He turned round and round in the water like a wheel, and stretched his neck up after them, and gave a cry so strange and so loud that it frightened him.
He could not forget them. When they were out of sight he went down to the bottom of the water, and came up again beside himself, and he had no idea what was happening to him.
The winter was very hard.
He had to swim in circles to keep a patch of water from freezing, and every night the patch got smaller, and one morning the ice took hold of him and he could not move. A man going past broke the ice with his shoe, carried him home, and put him down in the warm.
The children wanted to play with him. He thought they meant to hurt him and went straight into the milk pan, and out of that into the butter, and out of that into the flour barrel, and the woman shrieked and clapped her hands, and he found the door standing open and got out into the cold and lay in the snow among the bushes.
It would be much too sad to tell everything he went through that winter.
He was lying in the marsh among the reeds when the sun began to be warm again. The larks were singing. Spring had arrived, and he did not particularly notice.
Then he found he could lift his wings, and they were stronger than they had been, and they carried him before he had decided anything, and he was over a garden with apple trees in flower and a canal running through it.
And there on the water were three of the white birds.
He knew them at once. And everything in him went cold, because he understood what he was going to do.
"I will fly to them," he thought, "and they will kill me for daring to come near, being as ugly as I am. But it does not matter. Better to be killed by them than to be pecked by ducks and pushed about by the girl who feeds the poultry and have to get through another winter."
So he flew down onto the water and swam towards them and bowed his head, and waited for it.
And in the water in front of him he saw a bird looking back.
It was white. It had a long neck. It was one of them.
The three great birds swam round him and stroked him with their beaks.
Some children came into the garden and threw bread on the water and shouted that there was a new one, and the oldest of the swans bowed to him, and he did not know where to look. He put his head under his wing, and he was not certain what to do with himself at all, because he was extremely happy and he was not in the least proud.
He had been chased and laughed at and told to hold his tongue, and here he was, and he thought: I never dreamed of anything like this when I was the ugly duckling.
What is the moral of The Ugly Duckling?
You are not what the duckyard says you are.
This story is often shortened to the idea that the ugly duckling becomes beautiful, which misses what actually happens. He does not decide to fly at the swans because he thinks he might be one. He does it because he would rather be killed by something beautiful than survive another winter being pecked. The change in him is not that he becomes handsome. It is that he stops being willing to go on as he was, and the discovery about what he is comes afterwards, as a surprise, and he is not in the least proud of it.
Talk about it
- The mother duck defends him at first and gives up by the autumn. Why do you think she changes?
- The cat and the hen are certain they are right. How do they decide what is sensible?
- He flies at the swans expecting to be killed. Why does he do it anyway?
- Does anything about the duckling actually change, apart from how he looks?
- Is there a difference between being told to fit in and being helped to belong?
Who is in the story
The Duckling
protagonist · swan
A large grey bird who is told what he is by everybody he meets, and believes all of them.
The Cat
antagonist · cat
Can arch his back, purr, and give off sparks if stroked the wrong way. Considers this a complete education.
The Hen
antagonist · hen
Mistress of the cottage, layer of excellent eggs, and completely certain about water.
The Mother Duck
supporting · duck
The only creature who defends him, right up until she is too tired to keep doing it.
The Old Woman
supporting · human
Short-sighted, well meaning, and mistaken about almost everything including what kind of bird is in her kitchen.
In a nutshell
A large grey bird hatches in a duckyard and is bitten, pecked and pushed about until he leaves. He survives a marsh, a very opinionated cat and hen, and a winter that nearly kills him. At the end he flies at a flock of swans expecting to be killed for daring to come near, and they welcome him, and only then does he look down and see what he is.
Scene by scene
20 moments from the tale.
- Scene 1The Duckyardordinary
A duck on her nest, thoroughly bored
High summer down by the moat. The corn is yellow, the burdock leaves are big enough to walk under, and the mother duck has been on her eggs long enough to stop finding it interesting. Nobody comes past. Nothing is about to happen for some time.
The most famous transformation in the language opens with somebody who is fed up with sitting still.
- Scene 2The Duckyardbrisk
This is not the world, this is the garden
The shells crack one after another and small wet heads come out saying how big the world is. Their mother puts them right. This is the garden. The world carries on a good deal further than the fence, though she has never been to check.
Her first act as a mother is a correction of scale.
- Scene 3The Duckyardstubborn
She had sat this long, and could sit a little longer
One egg is left in the nest, larger than the others and not moving. An older duck comes past, pronounces it a turkey egg, explains that she was taken in the same way once, and advises leaving it. The mother duck considers the advice and goes on sitting.
The one decent act in the story is taken for an entirely obstinate reason.
- Scene 4The Duckyardflat
Terribly ugly, said everybody
It hatches the following day. What comes out is big and grey and looks nothing like the rest of the nest, and the first opinion offered about him is that he is terribly ugly. He has been alive for under a minute.
The verdict arrives before he has done anything at all.
- Scene 5The Duckyardwarm
Straight-necked and steady
She takes the whole brood down to the moat and goes in. The grey one goes in after her and swims beautifully, straight-necked and steady, better than any of them. She is pleased with him and says so, and says he is hers, and that looked at properly he is really rather handsome.
He swims like a swan on his first morning, and it counts for nothing.
- Scene 6The Duckyardworn down
She wished he were far away
The whole yard learns which way the wind is blowing. His brothers and sisters, friendly for a day and a half, work it out fastest. He keeps to the far edge of the yard where nothing is thrown at him. By the end of autumn his mother has run out of patience and says she wishes he were far away.
It went on all autumn, and then the one person defending him got tired.
- Scene 7The Duckyardbleak
The little birds went up in a cloud
He gets himself over the fence at the bottom of the garden. The small birds in the bushes go up all at once, the way small birds do when anything at all comes through a hedge, and he takes it personally. Then he shuts his eyes and keeps going.
He reads a flock of startled birds as a review of his appearance.
- Scene 8The Great Marshgrey relief
The great marsh, where it made no difference
He comes to a great marsh where the wild ducks live. They look him over, tell him frankly that he is remarkably ugly, and add that it makes no difference to them provided he does not want to marry into the family. He stays two days. It is the nearest thing to being left alone that he has known.
They told him he was remarkably ugly and that it made no difference to them. It was the best offer he had had.
- Scene 9The Great Marshfrightening
The morning the marsh went up in noise
On the third morning the whole marsh goes up in noise, from every direction at the same time. When it stops the water is flat and empty and the birds that spoke to him kindly the day before are not on it. He lies in the reeds with his head under his wing until the afternoon goes quiet, then gets up and goes on.
The sound came from every direction at once, and afterwards the water was empty.
- Scene 10The Leaning Cottageshabby comfort
A house that could not decide which way to fall
Towards evening he reaches a tumbledown cottage so old that it leans and cannot decide which way to fall. The door hangs crooked on one hinge and there is a gap, and he goes in and sleeps in the gap because it is out of the wind. An old woman lives there with a cat and a hen. She is extremely short-sighted, takes him for a fat duck who has lost her way, and starts looking forward to the eggs.
He is taken in by a misunderstanding, which is warmer than being turned out and no more honest.
- Scene 11The Leaning Cottagecomic and cold
Can you lay eggs?
A week or two goes by and there are no eggs. The hen, who lays excellent ones and is the mistress of the house, puts the question directly. He answers it honestly. She tells him that in that case he had better be so good as to hold his tongue, and considers the matter settled.
The hen has one talent and has quietly made it the entrance examination.
- Scene 12The Leaning Cottagecomic and cold
Can you give off sparks?
The cat can arch his back and purr and give off sparks if you stroke him the wrong way, and he is the master of the house. He puts his own version of the question. The answer is the same, and he explains that in that case there is no business having opinions while sensible people are talking.
Two small parlour tricks have been promoted into a qualification for having opinions.
- Scene 13The Leaning Cottagerestless
For his own good
Sitting in the corner out of sorts, he mentions the open water, and what it would be like to dive down and have it close over his head. The hen calls it the silliest thing she has ever heard, points out that neither the cat nor the old woman wishes to swim, and that as they are the cleverest people he knows the case is closed. She adds that she says it only for his own good, because that is how you tell your true friends. He goes out under the door.
He says it without deciding to, which makes it the first thing that has ever come from inside him.
- Scene 14The Frozen Lakeawe
A cry so strange that it frightened him
One evening, with the sun going down red, a whole flock of great birds comes up out of the bushes. They are dazzling white with long waving necks and they make a sound he has never heard, and they spread enormous wings and go south, high and away. He turns round and round in the water like a wheel and stretches his neck after them and gives a cry so strange and so loud that it frightens him.
He did not know what they were called. He did not know where they were going.
- Scene 15The Frozen Lakegrim
The patch of water got smaller
The winter is very hard. He has to swim in circles to keep a patch of water from freezing, and every night the patch is smaller than it was, and one morning the ice takes hold of him and he cannot move. A man going past breaks the ice with his shoe.
A whole winter reduced to one repeated movement that does not work.
- Scene 16The Frozen Lakefarce
Through the milk and out into the snow
A man breaks the ice with his shoe, carries him home and puts him down in the warm. The children want to play with him. He is certain they mean to hurt him and goes straight into the milk pan, out of that into the butter, out of that into the flour barrel, and out of the open door into the snow.
The one household that means him no harm gets the worst reception of any in the story.
- Scene 17The Frozen Lakedesolate
It would be much too sad to tell
The rest of the winter goes past out among the bushes and the reeds, and the tale skips it. What he went through is stated to be too sad to tell and is then not told. The next thing that happens is that the sun begins to be warm again.
The narrator gets to the worst of it and declines to describe it.
- Scene 18The Blossom Canalunexpected lift
They carried him before he had decided anything
He is lying in the marsh among the reeds when the sun begins to be warm again and the larks start. He does not particularly notice. Then he finds he can lift his wings, and they are stronger than they were, and they carry him before he has decided anything, and he is over a garden of apple trees in flower with a canal running through it.
Spring arrived, and he did not particularly notice.
- Scene 19The Blossom Canalcold resolve
He understood what he was going to do
There on the canal are three of the white birds. He knows them at once and everything in him goes cold, because he understands what he is going to do. He will fly to them, and they will kill him for daring to come near, being as ugly as he is. It does not matter. Better that than another winter. He comes down onto the water, swims towards them and bows his head, and waits for it.
He decides to go to them expecting to be killed for it, and goes anyway.
- Scene 20The Blossom Canaloverwhelmed
A bird looking back
With his head bowed and waiting, he sees a bird in the water in front of him looking back. It is white. It has a long neck. It is one of them. The three great birds swim round him and stroke him with their beaks. Children throw bread and shout that there is a new one, and the oldest of the swans bows to him, and he does not know where to look. He puts his head under his wing.
It was white. It had a long neck. It was one of them.
Where it happens
The Blossom Canal
garden
A garden of apple trees in flower with a canal running through it, in the first warm days.
The Duckyard
farmyard
A summer garden by a moat, full of burdock leaves and opinions.
The Frozen Lake
lake
The water that keeps freezing, and the shrinking patch he swims in circles to keep open.
The Great Marsh
marsh
Wide open reedbeds where the wild ducks live, and where the hunters come.
The Leaning Cottage
cottage
A tumbledown house so old it is leaning and cannot decide which way to fall.
How they are connected
The DucklingThe Mother Duckfamily
The only creature who ever defends him, and the one whose giving up sends him away.
The DucklingThe Henrival
She decides what counts as an ability, and then measures him against it.
The DucklingThe Catrival
A short conversation in which the cat establishes that the duckling's opinions do not count.
The DucklingThe Old Womanguardian
She takes him in and feeds him, entirely because she has misidentified him.
Things you might not know
This is not an old folk tale. Hans Christian Andersen made it up himself, and it was published on 11 November 1843 in Copenhagen, in a collection called New Fairy Tales. Most of the stories on this site are hundreds of years older than their authors. This one is not.
The ending is not that he becomes beautiful. He decides to fly at the swans expecting them to kill him, because that is better than another winter of being pecked. He only learns what he is after he has already risked everything.
Andersen's father was a shoemaker and his mother was an illiterate washerwoman. He was sent to a school for poor children and worked as an apprentice to a weaver and then a tailor.
When Andersen's first fairy tales came out, the reviews were bad. Danish critics in 1836 disliked the chatty, informal style and thought children's books should educate rather than amuse. They told him to stop writing that way. He waited a whole year before publishing the next instalment.
At fourteen he went to Copenhagen to become an actor and was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre on the strength of his singing voice. Then his voice broke. A colleague told him he thought he was really a poet, and he took the suggestion seriously.
Andersen's fairy tales number 156 stories across nine volumes and have been translated into more than 125 languages. At his death the Danish government was paying him an annual sum for being a national treasure.
Andersen knew exactly who his readers were. Shortly before he died he told the composer writing his funeral music that most of the people walking behind him would be children, so the beat should keep time with little steps.
The cat and the hen keep saying we and the world, and Andersen never once lets the phrase mean anything bigger than the two of them and, at a push, the old woman.
What things stand for
- The big egg
- A difference visible before anybody has done anything wrong. The trouble starts while he is still inside it.
- Swimming well
- A real ability that counts for nothing, because the duckyard was never measuring ability.
- The cat's sparks and the hen's eggs
- Two narrow skills mistaken for a definition of worth. Neither of them can imagine a use for water.
- The patch of unfrozen water
- Endurance shrinking night by night. He keeps swimming in circles and it keeps getting smaller.
- The reflection
- Arriving last, on purpose. He has already decided to risk everything before he learns what he is.
The same story elsewhere
Folk tales are not owned by whoever wrote them down first.
The Blue Hen's Chicken
United States, 1895
Joel Chandler Harris's alternate version in Mr. Rabbit at Home. It stops at the arrival of a duckling among chicks and turns the point onto the Blue Hen's bad temper and snobbery instead.
Honk!
United Kingdom, modern
A stage musical retelling that won an Olivier Award, giving the duckling a name and the barnyard a full comic cast.
The Ugly Duckling
United Kingdom, c. 1941
A one-act comedy by A. A. Milne that turns the idea into a story about Princess Camilla, who looks plain because of a spell, and the prince whose true love lets him see how beautiful she is.
Ahiru no ko
Japan, 1932
A fifteen-minute Japanese animated short by Yasuji Murata, one of the earliest screen versions of the tale anywhere.
Where you might already know it from
Most children meet a screen version first. Here is what those changed.
The Ugly Duckling
book, Jerry Pinkney, 1999
A picture book retelling in watercolours by an illustrator much loved for his fables and fairy tales. It was named a Caldecott Honor Book in 2000.
The Ugly Duckling
song, Frank Loesser, sung by Danny Kaye, 1952
A popular song made famous by Danny Kaye in 1952. For millions of people this song, rather than the story, is the version they know.
The Ugly Duckling, for voice and piano
song, Sergei Prokofiev, 1914
A setting of Nina Meshcherskaya's adaptation of the tale, which Prokofiev later arranged for voice and orchestra in 1932.
Questions parents ask
- What is the moral of The Ugly Duckling?
- You are not what the duckyard says you are.
- What is The Ugly Duckling about?
- A large grey bird hatches in a duckyard and is bitten, pecked and pushed about until he leaves. He survives a marsh, a very opinionated cat and hen, and a winter that nearly kills him. At the end he flies at a flock of swans expecting to be killed for daring to come near, and they welcome him, and only then does he look down and see what he is.
- What age is The Ugly Duckling for?
- The Ugly Duckling suits ages 4-9.
- How long does The Ugly Duckling take to read?
- About 12 minutes read aloud.
- Where does The Ugly Duckling come from?
- The Ugly Duckling is a traditional tale from Denmark.
Sing it
Every story here has its own song. This one is quiet, aching, finally warm, about 76 beats a minute.
Better Than Another Winter
gentle Nordic folk ballad
There is no recording yet. The words are here so you can sing it yourself.
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