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{{Infobox short story | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name              = The Fir-Tree
| title_orig        = Grantræet
| translator        = 
| author            = [[Hans Christian Andersen]]
| country           = Denmark
| language          = [[Danish language|Danish]]
| series            = 
| genre             = Literary [[fairy tale]]
| published_in      = ''[[New Fairy Tales. First Volume#New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection|New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection]]'' (''Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samling'')
| publication_type  = Fairy tale collection
| publisher         = C.A. Reitzel
| media_type        = Print
| pub_date          = 21&nbsp;December 1844
| english_pub_date  = 
| preceded_by       = 
| followed_by       = The Snow Queen: A Fairy Tale in Seven Stories 
}}
"'''The Fir-Tree'''" ({{langx|da|Grantræet}}) is a [[literary fairy tale]] by the Danish poet and author [[Hans Christian Andersen]] (1805&ndash;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&nbsp;December 1844 with "[[The Snow Queen]]", in ''[[New Fairy Tales. First Volume#New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection|New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection]]'', in [[Copenhagen, Denmark]], by C.A. Reitzel. One scholar (Andersen biographer {{ill|Jackie Wullschlager|de|Jackie Wullschlager}}) indicates that "The Fir-Tree" was the first of Andersen's fairy tales to express a deep pessimism.<ref name="Wullschlager">{{cite book |last=Wullschlager |first=Jackie |title=Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller |date=15 June 2002 |url=https://archive.org/details/hanschristianand0000wull/page/256 |url-access=registration |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/hanschristianand0000wull/page/256 256&ndash;258,272, 379] |isbn=0-226-91747-9 }}</ref>

==Adaptations==
The tale was adapted to a 28-minute video format in 1979 by Huntingwood Films produced by [[Kevin Sullivan (producer)|Kevin Sullivan]], directed by Martin Hunter and filmed at [[Black Creek Pioneer Village]], [[Toronto|Toronto, Ontario]], Canada. Jeff Kahnert provided the voice of the Fir-Tree. This was the first film produced by [[Kevin Sullivan (producer)|Kevin Sullivan]] who went on to write, direct and produce the Anne of Green Gables movies.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289949/ |title=The Fir Tree |website=[[Internet Movie Database]]|date=1979 }}</ref>

It was adapted as the sixteenth episode of ''[[The Fairytaler]]''.

In 2011, the story was again adapted as a short, [[Danish language|Danish-language]] film directed by Lars Henrik Ostenfeld and presented in a modern setting. The story follows the tree from [[Conifer cone|cone]] through [[seedling]], until it is cut down by a boy and his father to be used as a [[Christmas tree]]. Unlike Andersen's tale, which ends with the burning of the tree, the film shows a cone from the tree surviving the fire and being thrown into the forest, perhaps to grow into another fir tree.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2081254/ |title=Grantræet |website=[[Internet Movie Database]]|date=2011}}</ref>

In 2014, Janani Sreenivasan adapted her script "Pine", originally performed at the University of Iowa's No Shame Theatre in December 2006, into the short film "The Fir Tree", which she co-directed with Lee Jutton. In this version, we hear the tree's first-person account (in Danish) of being chopped down and attending its first Christmas party, which ends badly for all involved.<ref>{{Citation|title= The Fir Tree |website= Internet Movie Database |date=2000 |url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4104470/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3 |access-date= January 19, 2017}}</ref>

[[Charles M. Schulz]], author and artist of the world-renowned ''[[Peanuts]]'' comic strip, incorporated elements of "The Fir Tree" into his first television movie, ''[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]'' (December 9, 1965 on CBS).

==See also==
{{portal|Literature}}
*[[List of works by Hans Christian Andersen]]
*[[List of Christmas-themed literature]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{wikisource-inline|The Fir Tree}}
*{{wikisourcelang-inline|da|Grantræet}}
*{{Commonscat-inline}}
* [http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheFirTree_e.html "The Fir Tree"] English translation by [[Jean Hersholt]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051024013143/http://www.adl.dk/adl_pub/vaerker/cv/e_vaerk/e_vaerk.xsql?ff_id=22&id=2478&hist=fmG&nnoc=adl_pub ''Grantræet''] Original Danish text
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q123289049}}
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q20756477|title=Grantræet}}

{{Hans Christian Andersen}}


{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fir-Tree, The}}
[[Category:1844 short stories]]
[[Category:Danish fairy tales]]
[[Category:Short stories by Hans Christian Andersen]]
[[Category:Christmas short stories]]
[[Category:Fictional trees]]
[[Category:Anthropomorphic trees]]
[[Category:Short stories about talking trees]]