"The Galoshes of Fortune" (Danish: Lykkens Kalosker) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a set of time-travelling boots, considered to be inspired by the folktale of the "seven-league boots" (syvmilestøvler). The tale was first published by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark on 19 May 1838 with The True Soldier (one-act verse play) and "That Was Done by the Zombie" (poem) in Three Poetical Works. Reitzel paid Andersen 40 rixdollars for the story. In the tale, Andersen continues to perfect his colloquial style. Andersen read the tale aloud in the late 1830s with his novel Only a Fiddler. The tale irritated the young Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard with its satirical portrait of a bird that babbles on endlessly in a philosophical vein. Source: Wikipedia (en)