Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid
The little Mermaid at Langelinie.
The sculpture is made by
sculptor Edvard
Eriksen and put
up in august 23'rd
1913. Found on national geographic web page
Under the sea where the ocean
is the bluest there lived the Merman King and his six daughters.
The youngest daughter was the most curious.
She was most curious about the human beings.
She asked everyone she knew about the human world. She was mostly
impressed about the flowers that smelled and the fish that lived in the
tree and sang songs.
When the daughters reached the age of fifteen
they were allowed to travel up to the surface. Upon them returning
home they told their sisters what they saw. The youngest and most
curious was last to turn fifteen.
The first time she went to the surface she
came upon a ship. There was a party going on aboard the ship.
She saw all the people dancing and then she saw the prince. In an
instant she fell in love. Late that night a storm came and blew the
ship apart. The prince fell into the water so she swam over to him
and took him in her arms. The mermaid laid the prince on the shore
by a church, kissed his brow and went to hide. She stayed there until
someone found the prince. A beautiful maiden found him and took him
in.
The little mermaid returned home and told
no one about what had happened. She sat all day so sad and heart-broken.
The little princess became fonder and fonder of humans. She
longed to be with the humans and she longed to be with the prince.
So she went to the sea witch.
The witch knew why she came to her.
The sea witch gave her a potion that would split her tail into legs.
She told the princes that it would feel like a sward was cutting into her
tail. And when she walked if would feel as if she was walking on
sharp knives. The princes was warned that she will never be a mermaid
aging and if she did not get the love of the prince she will die and turn
into sea foam. The price of this was her tongue.
The princess swam to the shore, drank the
potion, and turned human. The prince found her and took her home.
She lived by his side she was so happy and in time he began to love her,
but not as much as the women who saved him when he almost drowned.
He was to marry the princess from another kingdom. When he saw her
he knew that she was the one who found him on the beach.
They were married quickly. The mermaid
princess knew that she was to die soon. Her sister however came to
her rescue. They traded their hair for a knife that would save her
life. They got it from the sea witch; she told the sisters that the
little princess would have to stab the prince and to let his blood drip
on her legs. This would turn her back to a mermaid. She took
the knife to kill the prince in his sleep but she could not. So she
threw herself into the sea where she turned into sea foam.
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