"The Storks" (Danish: Storkene; commonly rendered in English as The Storks) is a short fairy tale by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, first published on October 19, 1839. On that day it appeared together with two other tales in the second installment of Andersen's collection Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Ny Samling). The story is set on the roof of the last house at the end of a small town, where Father Stork, Mother Stork, and four young storks live in their nest. The children in the street see the storks and sing an old rhyme whose lines grow more terrible by the verse, telling how the storks will be hanged, burned, and shot. Most of the children join in the teasing; only a boy named Peter feels it is wrong to mock animals and keeps silent. The young storks are frightened and angry at the rhyme. Their mother comforts them and tells them that in autumn all the storks hold a great maneuver, and only the strong fliers may join the flock bound for Egypt to spend the winter. The four young storks therefore practice flying diligently and dream of one day taking revenge on the children who mocked them. In the end, Mother Stork reveals something: the children not yet born lie dreaming in the pond, waiting for the storks to carry them to their homes; and she will give each family a little brother or sister—or some other "gift"—according to how those children have behaved. This is a moral tale told from an animal's point of view, combining the Danish folk legend that storks bring babies with the notion that those who are kind to living creatures are rewarded. Its tone is gentle, yet it carries the cool severity typical of Andersen's tales.
《鹳鸟》的中文译名常见，英文名是 The Storks，丹麦语原名 Storkene，三者指向同一篇安徒生童话，需与《荆棘鸟》等名称相近的作品区分。
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Hans Christian Andersen is a world-renowned writer of fairy tales. Though the available records give limited information about his nationality and dates of birth and death, as many as 111 of his works are held here, which shows how widely his writing has circulated among Chinese readers. His representative works include The Complete Fairy Tales of Andersen and A Collection of Andersen's Fairy Tales, along with individual pieces such as The Dream Under the Willow Tree, The Old Church Bell, A Great Grief, The Saucy Boy, and The Phoenix Bird; other works are included in Harvard Classics Volume 1: Folk-Lore and Fable. These works are usually classified under literature, children's literature, foreign literature, children's books, classics, and world masterpieces. Andersen drew on folk tales and everyday life, writing in plain yet imaginative language and often using fantastical stories to reflect on human nature and fate. His tales suit children while also appealing to adults, and they have had a profound influence on later fairy-tale writing.
