On "Clod Hans" by Hans Christian Anderson (about 1300 words) ***

I've read that many of Anderson's tales are fairly political. Unfortunately, not knowing the context of his writing very well, most of this is lost to me (and to most of today's readers). In some cases, however, the points are pretty over the top and thus hard to miss. "Clod Hans" is one of the more entertaining (and humorous) stories in that vein. It's a tale of three brothers who compete to marry a princess, two smart, and one incredibly stupid. Guess which one wins? And this is how we get our leaders! Read the tale here.