Amanda from Kerteminde

The symbol of the small city of Kerteminde on the north east of Fyn is a statue of a woman called Amanda. The statue is of a young woman who looks like she is living a proper life in a fishing family – but the story of the statue isn’t actually of such a virtuous woman.

The story of the real life Amanda wasn’t actually about a woman called Amanda but a woman called Sophie Krag. She was born in Kerteminde but moved to Copenhagen when she was 20 to pursue an acting career in the later part of the 19^th century. And she became an actress at Nørrebros Theater in the central part of Copenhagen.

Sophie was engaged to a ten year older man called Anton Melbye who was a writer. Unfortunately Sophie wasn’t completely devoted to Anton and she met an old friend from Kerteminde who had moved to Copenhagen to study law. The two had a fling and it let to the end of the engagement with Anton.

Anton had a good friend called Axel who was a composer and a writer of short songs for the variety theaters in Copenhagen. Anton got him to write the story about the infidel girlfriend and song started with the line Min Amanda var fra Kerteminde – my Amanda was from Kerteminde. The word Amanda is actually Latin and means the one which should be loved.