Poetic Papercutting

Øyvind Rimbereid’s Why Heart Number Two as an Ekphrasis and Paraphrase of a Hans Christian Andersen Papercut

Abstract

In this article I read Øyvind Rimbereid’s Hvorfor hjerte nummer to (2023; Why Heart Number Two) as an ekphrasis and paraphrase of the papercutting by Hans Christian Andersen that figures on the book’s cover: a double-hearted miller. I approach the comparison of Andersen and Rimbereid through Linda Hutcheon’s notion of knowing audiences and ultimately suggest how a particularly knowing audience, i.e. Andersen fans and experts, can regard the double-hearted miller as embodying Andersen through Rimbereid. In illustrating the last point, I include a reading of Andersen’s tale “The Windmill” (1865).