The Fir-Tree - by Hans Christian Andersen
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4.8 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
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Summary
"The Fir-Tree" (Danish: Grantræet) is a literary fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). The tale is about a fir tree so anxious to grow up, so anxious for greater things, that he cannot appreciate living in the moment. The tale was first published 21 December 1844 with "The Snow Queen", in New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection, in Copenhagen, Denmark, by C.A. Reitzel. One scholar (Andersen biographer Jackie Wullschlager [de]) indicates that "The Fir-Tree" was the first of Andersen's fairy tales to express a deep pessimism.[1]
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| 0:00.0 | The President The Hello and welcome, the citation needed, the podcast where we choose the subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia, and pretend we're experts. |
| 0:33.1 | Is this the internet? |
| 0:34.2 | And that's how it works now. |
| 0:35.5 | I'm Eli Bosnick, and I'll be laying out the roots of our program this |
| 0:39.2 | evening, but I'll need a few pine cones. |
| 0:42.6 | What? First up, the spruce maple and oak to my weeping |
| 0:45.2 | willow. Tom, Noah, and Cecil. |
| 0:48.8 | Oh, shit. Something, something. |
| 0:51.8 | Spruce things up. I don't know, man. |
| 0:54.3 | I got a leaf. |
| 0:56.8 | I'm Maple. |
| 0:57.7 | Now you have to tape me, Canada. |
| 0:59.6 | I approve. |
| 1:01.1 | I approve of being called the best aging wood. |
| 1:04.2 | Thank you very much, Eli. |
| 1:06.1 | Exactly. |
| 1:07.6 | And also joining us tonight, Heath, who is like a tree because he's tall. |
| 1:13.0 | Sorry. |
| 1:13.8 | I figured we could just get that one out of the way, do it early. |
| 1:16.4 | I voted for Andrew Cuomo. |
| 1:18.6 | Andrew Cuomo. |
| 1:20.1 | First of all, I voted for the crazy cat guy. |
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