Hans Christian Andersen's First Tale Discovered

A Danish historian has found a copy of a previously unknown fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen at the bottom of a box.

The historian Esben Brage accidentally found the copy in a filing box at the National Archives of Funen.

The six-page text entitled Tallow Candle is dedicated "to Mme Bunkeflod, from her devoted HC Andersen".

Mme Bunkeflod was a widow who lived near the Andersen family and was very close to the writer.

The tale is a fictional story of an unloved, unlit candle which is set alight and saved by a "little flame".

Ejnar Stig Askgaard, an expert on the writer, said this is likely to be one of Andersen's earliest works, written when he was 18, seven years before his official debut in 1830.

Andersen wrote nearly 160 tales, including The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid, which have been translated into hundreds of languages.

The Danish daily Politiken has since published the translated tale online .