The Little Mermaid
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The Little Mermaid is a fairy tale about a young mermaid by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published in 1836.
In 1989 it was made into an animated movie by The Walt Disney Company; for the film see The Little Mermaid (movie).
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Story overview
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The Little Mermaid lives at the sea bottom with her father the Sea King, her grandmother, and her 4 older sisters, born one year apart. When a mermaid turns 15, she may swim to the surface to watch the world above, and as the sisters become old enough one of them visits the surface every year. As each of them returns The Little Mermaid listens longingly to their descriptions of the surface and human beings.
When The Little Mermaid turns 15 she ventures to the surface. She sees a ship with a beautiful prince, and falls in love with him. There comes a great storm, and the prince almost drowns, but The Little Mermaid saves him and she delivers him to the shore near a temple. But the prince never sees her because he is unconscious.
The Little Mermaid spends her days longing for the prince, and longing to have a soul and eternal afterlife like humans do, instead of turning to foam when she dies. At last she goes to the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs, in exchange for her tongue, because The Little Mermaid has the prettiest voice in the world. But drinking the potion will feel like a sword being passed through her, and walking on her feet will feel like walking on knives. And she will only get a soul if the prince loves her and marries her, otherwise she will die and turn to foam the day the prince marries another woman and her heart breaks.
She drinks the potion and meets the prince, who is attracted to her beauty and grace. She is mute so she cannot talk to him, but he loves her like one loves a little child.
One day the prince sails to a neighboring king to find a bride. It turns out that the neighboring king's daughter is the woman from the temple who found the prince after the little mermaid delivered the prince to the shore. The prince remembers and loves her, and shortly after they announce the wedding.
The Little Mermaid's heart is broken, and she despairs as the wedding night comes. But her sisters come to her, and gives her a knife which they got from the Sea Witch in exchange for their hair. If The Little Mermaid slays the prince with the knife she will become a mermaid again and be able to live with them for the rest of her life.
But The Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride, and instead throws herself into the sea and dissolves into foam. But she doesn't die; she becomes a daughter of the air, a being invisible to humans. By striving for 300 years to do good deeds she will earn a soul, and float into the kingdom of heaven. But for every good child a daughter of the air finds she subtracts a year, and for every naughty or wicked child she weeps, and adds a day for every tear.
Adaptations of The Little Mermaid
In 1989 the fairytale was made into an animated movie by The Walt Disney Company; see The Little Mermaid (movie).
The Royal Danish Ballet commissioned Russian American composer Lera Auerbach to create a modern rendition of this fairy tale. It was choreographed by John Neumeier and premiered on April 15, 2005.
The Little Mermaid statue
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A statue of the Little Mermaid sits on a rock in Copenhagen harbour. The small and unimposing statue is a symbol of Copenhagen, and a major tourist attraction.
The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg, after he had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale. The sculptor Edward Eriksen created the statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. He used his wife Eline Eriksen as model.
This statue has been vandalised several times, but has each time been restored. On April 24, 1964 the statue's head was sawn off and stolen by politically oriented artists of the situationist movement, amongst them Jørgen Nash. The head was later recovered and restored. On 22 july, 1984 her right arm was sawn off. The arm was returned 2 days later by two embarrassed young vandals. In 1990 another attempt was made to cut her head off, which resulted in an 18 cm. deap cut in the neck. On January 6, 1998 she lost her head for the second time, the head was returned anonymously, and on February 4 the head was back on. Red paint has been thrown on it several times, and on September 11 2003 the statue was blasted off her rock, possibly with dynamite.
How small she is... is probably the most common reaction from tourists visiting for the first time. The Little Mermaid statue is only 1,25 meter high and weighs about 175 kg.
There are similarities between the Little Mermaid statue and the Pania Of The Reef statue on the beachfront at Napier in New Zealand, and some similarities in the Little Mermaid and Pania tales.
External links
- The Little Mermaid (http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html) Full text of H. P. Paull's translation (1836)
- The Annotated Little Mermaid (http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/index.html) by Heidi Anne Heiner, Paull's translation, with scholarly annotations, scans from six illustrated editions, bibliography.
- Little Mermaid Statue (http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/mermaids/24.html) thumbnail photo gallery, from Mermaids on the Web (http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/mermaids/)da:Den lille Havfrue
de:Kleine Meerjungfrau fr:La petite sirène he:בת הים הקטנה nl:De kleine zeemeermin zh:小美人鱼