Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland: Three Crowns and a Republic - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 158

so, too, is the marching band of boy soldiers, their uniforms straight from the pages of Hans
Christian Andersen.
WHAT IS DENMARK'S FAIRY TALE ASPECT?
Denmark's castles and palaces, with steep roofs, turrets, massive carriageways, and sentries
in shakos and eighteenth-century uniforms, are also the stuff of fairy tales. Village streets
are cobbled; houses are half-timbered. [136] Travelers arriving by ship will see a bronze
statue of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid looking dreamily out to sea. The mon-
arch is Queen Margarethe II, head of state in Denmark's parliamentary democracy. A liter-
ary monarch and artist, the Queen has designed stage settings for the theater and has trans-
lated topics into Danish, while her watercolors illustrate the Danish editions of Lord of the
Rings . Popular with her subjects, the cigar-smoking Queen is a symbol of the Danish para-
dox: a socialist, welfare monarchy.
Figure 11.3. Little Mermaid