The Tallow Candle, H.C. Andersen's first fairytale was found by local historian Esben Brage, reports Danish Paper Politiken.

While flipping through the private achieves of the Plum family at the National Archives in Denmark's middle island of Funen, 2-year-old local historian Esben Brage came across a "small, yellowed, folded piece of paper," reports the paper.

"I've had thousands of historical documents in my hands, so I've developed a sort of seventh sense that says 'whoops, this is something special and not to just be put back again,'" says Brage who had ordered the collection of documents from the Central National Archives in Copenhagen.

"I said 'wow' this is something unusual, and went up to the keeper of the archives with the paper. He was enthralled. He was something of an H.C. Andersen buff," Brage says.

Two months after the finding, experts confirmed that it was indeed the manuscript of H.C. Andersen's first fairytale The Tallow Candle.

"This is a sensational discovery. Partly because it must be seen as Andersen's first fairytale, and partly because it shows that he was interested in the fairytale as a young man, before his authorship began," Ejnar Stig Askgaard of the Odense City Museum told Politiken. "And I am in no doubt that it has been written by Andersen." Experts Bruno Svindborg of the Royal Library and Professor Johan de Myliu have also agreed the text was written by Andersen.

While Andersen made his literary debut in 1829, experts confirm the story can be dated back between 1822 and 1826. Describing the story, experts say it is not, "at the level of the more mature and polished fairytales that we know from Andersen's later authorship."

"It's highly moralistic, rather sentimental, and it's animating an inanimate object. That's very Andersen - I don't know anyone else who does it that way, like The Tin Soldier, The Red Shoes, and now The Tallow Candle," The Guardian quoted author and fairy tale expert Sara Maitland. "And I'm fascinated that nobody found it before. Why has it just been sitting in a box undiscovered? The world is full of Hans Christian Andersen experts - it's very odd."