Chapter1
Beneath the surface far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the most stunning cornflower and as clear as crystal, it is very deep—so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it. Sundry church steeples piled upon one another would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. In that place dwell the Sea King and his aquatic subjects. We must not imagine that there is nothing but bare sand. No, indeed, growing there are the most remarkable plants, whose leaves and stems are so pliant that the slightest agitation of the water causes them to stir as if they had life. Fish, both large and small, glide among the branches in the same way that birds fly among the trees upon the land. In the deepest spot stands the castle of the Sea King. Its walls are built of coral, and the long gothic windows are of the most transparent amber. Artistically the roof is formed of shells, which open and close as the water flows over them. Their appearance is magnificent because in each lies a glittering pearl fit for the diadem of a queen.
For many years the Sea King had been a widower, so his aged mother had kept house for him. Truly she deserved ample praise, especially for her nurturance of the little sea princesses, her granddaughters.
Although all six were comely children, the youngest was the most striking of them all. Her skin was as delicate as a rose petal, and her eyes were as blue as the deepest sea. Like the others, she had no feet, but a fish’s tail instead.
Throughout the day, they frolicked in the opulent halls of the castle. When fish swam in through the large amber windows right up to the princesses, they nibbled from the mermaids’ hands and allowed themselves to be stroked.
Chapter 2
To each of the young princesses, the Sea King bequeathed a garden plot, where she might dig and plant as she pleased. One princess arranged her flower bed as a whale, another like a mermaid. That of the youngest contained flowers as red as the sun’s rays at sunset.
Quiet and reflective, the youngest mermaid was a singular child. Whereas her sisters were thrilled with the treasures they obtained from the wrecks of vessels, the youngest princess cherished nothing but her lovely flowers—except one thing, a marble statue. Carved from pure white stone, the sculpture, which had fallen to the bottom of the sea from a wreck, was the rendering of a handsome boy. Beside the statue, the youngest mermaid had planted a rose-colored weeping willow. Freely it had grown, and soon it hung its fresh branches over the figure.
Enchanted by any information about the world above the sea, the Little Mermaid persuaded her venerable grandmother to tell her all she knew about the towns. To her, it seemed most astounding flowers of the land should have fragrance, and that fish among the trees could sing so sweetly.
“When you have reached your fifteenth year,” reminded the grandmother. “You will have sanction to rise out of the sea. You may sit on the rocks in the luminous moonlight, while the great ships are sailing by,” she spoke no farther.
In the following year, one of the sisters will be fifteen. Since each mermaid was a year younger than the next, the youngest would have to endure five years before her turn came. None of them yearned so much for her turn to come as the youngest, she who had the longest to wait and who was so reticent and thoughtful. However, each princess promised to tell the others what they discovered on their impending visit and what they thought the most pleasing because their grandmother could not tell them as much as they wanted to know.
Chapter 3
As soon as the eldest was fifteen, she was allowed to rise to the surface of the ocean. When she returned, she had a hundred wondrous, breathtaking sights to recount to her sisters.
“The most exquisite experience,” she remarked to her sisters, “was to lie in the moonlight and gaze on a town where the lights were twinkling like hundreds of stars. Having heard the voices and the bells from the churches, I pine for them.”
Listening to all these eager descriptions, the Little Mermaid fancied she could hear the hustle and bustle down in the depths of the sea, she could hear.
In another year, the second sister was permitted to rise to the surface and swim about where she pleased.
Rising just as the sun was setting, she murmured upon her return, “That the most picturesque sight of all, because the whole sky resembled gold.”
The third sister’s turn followed. As the boldest of the princesses, she brazenly swam up a broad river that emptied to sea on the banks. Hills were covered with delicate well-pruned vines, and castles peeped out amid the stately trees of the forest. In a narrow creek, the third sister found a whole troop of human children cavorting in the water. When she tried to play with them, they fled in alarm. Then with a squat, a lively animal jumped into the water and barked at her so excited she became frightened.
More timorous, the fourth sister remained in the sea; she reported that the sky looked like a glass ball, the dolphins sported in the waves, and the great whales spouted water from its nostrils until it seemed like a hundred fountains were gushing.
Since the fifth sister’s birthday was in the winter, she beheld what the others did not when they toured the land. Enormous icebergs were floating about. She informed them loftier than the churches built by men.
Chapter 4
Having still to wait her turn, the youngest sister felt quite forlorn. “Oh, if I were fifteen old,” she spoke, “I know that I should love the world up there and the people who live in it.”
At last, the Little Mermaid reached her fifteenth year.
“Well, now you are grown up,” affirmed the stately dowager, her grandmother, “I shall adorn you like your sisters.” Lovingly, she placed a wreath of white lilies in her hair. Next, she commanded eight jumbo oysters to attach them to the tail of the princess, which properly betoken high rank.
“But they hurt me so!” protested The Little Mermaid.
“Pride must suffer pain,” replied the grandmother.
O, how eagerly she would have shaken all this pomp and lain aside the wreath. The red flowers in her garden would have suited her better. But she could not alter her attire, which the old-age tradition required.
Nodding farewell, she raised lightly as a bubble to the surface of the water. The sun had just set as she rose her head above the waves, and through the glimmering twilight beamed the evening star in all its beauty, and the clouds were tinted with crimson and gold.
Looming nearby, she beheld a large ship, which laid the Little Mermaid on the water for not a breeze stirred. The sailors, who sat idle on deck, enjoyed rare leisure. The mermaid heard music on board. As darkness drew near, one hundred colored lanterns were lit.
Chapter 5
The Little Mermaid swam close to the cabin windows. As the waves buoyed her up, she could peer in through the clear glass windowpanes and glimpse some well-attired people within. Among them was a worthy young prince with keen black eyes. They were commemorating his sixteenth birthday with much rejoicing.
When the prince emerged from the cabin, two hundred rockets raised in the air, making it as incandescent as day. The ship was so brightly lit that the mermaid could distinctly discern all the people.
Having never observed such fireworks before, they so startled the Little Mermaid that she dove underwater. When she rose and stretched out her hand again, it seemed like all the celestial lights were falling from the sky.
The young prince appeared strikingly handsome and amiable as he pressed the hands of all present and smiled at them while the music resounded through the clear night air. Although it was late, the Little Mermaid could not take her eyes from the elegant prince. The colored lanterns had been extinguished, no more rockets illuminated the air, and the cannon had ceased firing.
Suddenly the sea became turbulent, and a moaning, grumbling sound could be heard beneath the waves. Jouncing on the unquiet water, the Little Mermaid remained by the cabin window. The sails were hastily unfurled, and the ship continued her passage, but soon, the waves rose higher. Forebodingly, heavy clouds darkened the sky, and lightning flashed in the distance.
Chapter 6
A baleful storm was approaching. The great ship pursued her flying course over the raging sea. Two high-reaching waves rose like mountains as if they would have overtopped the mast, but the boat dove like a swan between them. At length, the ship groaned. As the waves broke over the deck, the thick planks gave way under the lashing of the sea, and the mainmast snapped asunder like a reed. Soon, the ship laid over on her side, and water rushed in.
The Little Mermaid now perceived that the crew was in imminent danger. When a flash of lightning revealed the whole scene, she could see everyone who had been on deck except the prince. When the ship parted, she spied the enervated prince disappear into the waves. At first, she rejoiced because she thought he would now join her; then she remembered that human beings could not survive in the water.
With beams and planks were strewn about, the sea buffeted her as she swam between the pieces, heedless that the wood could crush her. Then she dove under the dark waters until, at length, she managed to reach the prince. Losing the power of swimming in that savage sea, the prince would have precipitately perished if the LITTLE MERMAID had not come to his assistance. His limbs were failing him; his dark eyes were closed. She held his head above the water and let the waves drift them where they would.
By the morning, the storm had dissipated, but she could not perceive a single fragment of the vanished ship. Although the sun had restored the hue of health to the prince’s cheeks, his eyes remained sealed. The mermaid tenderly kissed his smooth brow and stroked back his damp hair as she held him aloft. He seemed to her like the marble statue who graced her aquatic garden, and she wished that he might live.
Chapter 7
Presently, they came into sight of land. Beneath verdant hills stood a well-built convent. She swam with the prince to the beach, which was covered with fine white sand, where she lay him in the warm, vital sunshine, taking care to raise his head higher than his body, which was limp. When bells pealed in the large, white building, several young girls were led into the garden. The LITTLE MERMAID swam out farther from the shore and hid between two high rocks shrouding herself with seafoam.
Timidly, a young girl approached the spot where the prince lay and then fetched the others to help. When the prince came to life again, he smiled upon those who stood confounded around him.
To the Little Mermaid, he sent no smile since he knew not that she had saved him. Dispirited, she dove into the water and sorrowfully retreated to her father’s castle.
Initially, the younger mermaid divulged nothing about what she had experienced during her first visit to the surface of the water. On frequent occasions, she rose to the place where she left the prince. She beheld the fruits in the garden ripen, and the snow on the tops of the mountains melt away, but she never caught a glimpse of the prince. Therefore, she returned home, always more depressed than before.
At length, when she could bear it no longer, she told her sisters everything. A confidante of one who happened to know who the prince was, said them where he came from and where his ornate palace stood.
Chapter 8
“Come, little sister,” encouraged the other princesses.
Eagerly they entwined their arms and led her near the prince’s palace, shining with fulgent yellow stone, long flights of marble steps, and gilded domes. Knowing where her prince lived, the Little Mermaid spent many evenings in the water near the palace. She would swim much nearer the shore than any of the others ventured to do. Indeed, one time, she paddled, unflaggingly up the narrow channel, under the marble balcony, which threw a broad shadow on the water. In this spot, she would watch the young prince who thought him quite alone in the bright moonlight. On many a night, too, when the fishermen with their torches were out at sea, she heard them relate so many exemplary doings of the young prince that she was thankful she had saved his life. Recalling how she had saved him, she realized ruefully that he knew nothing of that and could not even dream of her.
Increasingly, she marveled at humans and longed to be able to wander with those whose world seemed so much larger than her own. Because there was so much she wanted to know, she finally applied to her old grandmother, who knew all about the enchanting upper world, which they rightly called lands above the sea.
“If human beings don’t drown,” asked the Little Mermaid, “can they live forever? Do they ever die as we do here in the sea?”
“No. They must also die,” replied the old lady. “and their term of life is even more transitory than ours. Although we sometimes live three hundred years, after death, we merge with the foam on the surface of the water at the bottom of the sea. We have not even a watery grave for those whom we love. We do not possess eternal souls, but as the pullulating seaweed, after it has been cut off, we can never flourish more.”
Chapter 9
“By contrast, human beings have a soul that lives eternally. Their souls raise high through the pure, limpid air beyond the remotest stars. As we raise out of the water and behold the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown glorious regions, which we shall never witness.”
“I would give all the hundreds of years that I have to be human for only one day,” lamented the Little Mermaid. “and to hope to know that splendid world above the stars.”
“You must not envisage that,” shuddered the old woman.
“Then I shall die and be driven about as seafoam,” rued the Little Mermaid. “Can I do anything to win an immortal soul?”
“No,” answered the old woman. “You cannot gain an immortal soul unless a man loved you so much that he affianced him to you, and the priest joined your hands together. Then both you and he will have an immortal soul. Since you have a fish’s tail, this cannot happen.”
Sorrowful, the Little Mermaid sighed and looked at her fish’s tail. To distract her, the old lady told her about that evening’s gala.
“Be content, because this evening, we will have a court ball.”
The ballroom was illuminated by hundreds of shells, which burned with iridescent fire. Through the rooms, a broad stream of mermen and mermaids danced to the music of their own vibrant, harmonious singing. The little mermaid sang more sweetly than the rest. Fervently the whole court applauded her with hands and tails, and for a moment, the Little Mermaid felt content because she knew she had the loveliest voice of any.
Chapter 10
Despite the acclamation, she soon recalled the world above her, for she could not forget the charming prince or her regret that she had not an immortal soul like his. Silently the young mermaid crept away from her father’s palace and withdrew to her garden, where she sat melancholy and alone.
“He is certainly sailing above,” she thought. “He whose hands I should like to place the happiness of my life. I will venture all to win both he, and an immortal soul. While my sisters are dancing in my father’s castle, I will flee to the Sea Witch, who has long perturbed me but can provide advice and assistance.”
To reach the dominions of the Sea Witch, the Little Mermaid had to pass through crushing whirlpools and across warm, bubbling mire. Later on, came the forest, where polypi, half animals and half plants, attempted to grab anything passing through. Darting swiftly, the Little Mermaid narrowly escaped from the polypi’s clutches.
At last, she reached the marshy, fallow clearing around the Sea Witch’s house, built with the bones of shipwrecked human beings. There sat the Sea Witch, who allowed a toad to eat from her mouth, just as people sometimes feed a canary with a piece of sugar. Calling the loathsome water-snakes her little chickens, they repugnantly slithered all over her.
“I know what you long for,” the Sea Witch chortled. “you long to get rid of your fish’s tail and have two human supports instead so that the young prince may fall in love with you and you may acquire an immortal soul.”
“It’s ill-advised,” the Sea Witch sneered. “Although you shall have it your way, it will bring you misery.”
At that, she cackled so loudly and disgustingly that the toad and snakes fell to the ground and lay there wriggling about.
Chapter 11
“I will prepare a potent drink, which you must carry to land and drink before sunrise,” explained the Sea Witch. “Your tail will disappear and shrink into human legs. This will cause you immense pain. All who observe you will declare you the prettiest human and the lithest dancer ever seen. However, every step you take will feel as if you were treading upon sharp knives. If you bear all this, I will help you.”
Trembling with longing for both the prince and an immortal soul, the sea princess replied, “Yes. I will.”
“Reconsider,” advised the Sea Witch, “for you will never again return to your sisters or your father’s palace. Unless you win the unadulterated love of the prince, you will never have an immortal soul. The first morning after he marries another, your heart will break, and you will become foam on the crest of the waves.”
“I will do it,” uttered the Little Mermaid, pale as death.
“Wait!” exclaimed the Sea Witch. “I must also be paid a trifle that I exact. You have the sweetest voice of any who dwell in the depths of the sea. You believe that you will be able to charm the prince with your voice, but it is this very voice that You must abnegate to me,” insisted the Sea Witch. “I will gain your most cherished gift, as the price of my remedy.”
“If you take away my voice,” implored the mermaid. “What is left for me?”
“You still have your beautiful form, your floating gracefulness, and your expressive eyes. Surely with these, you can enfetter a man’s heart.”
“It shall be,” spoke the Little Mermaid unflinchingly.
When at last, the magic potion was prepared, the Sea Witch snarled. “here is what you crave.”
With that, she cut off the mermaid’s tongue so that she became dumb and would never again speak or sing.
Chapter 12
Hastily the Little Mermaid escaped the pernicious wood of the Sea Witch, lingering to steal a blossom from her sisters’ gardens. Since she was now mute and was going to depart forever, she felt like her heart would break. Kissing her hand a thousand times toward the palace, she then rose up through the translucent blue waters. The moon showed clear and bright as she approached the polished marble steps of the prince’s palace.
On the steps, the Little Mermaid drank the magic liquid. It seemed that a double-edged sword pierced her delicate body. Becoming listless, she fainted, laying like one dead.
When the sun rose, she recovered. Before she stood the prince who fixed his ebony eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast down her own, marveling, she became aware that her fish’s tail had metamorphosed into a graceful pair of white legs and petite feet as any maiden could have. The prince asked her who she was and where she came from. Although she gazed at him dolefully with her deep blue eyes, she could make no utterance.
Every step she took was like the Sea Witch had presaged. She felt like she was treading upon needles. However, she bore it willingly and stepped lightly by the prince’s side as a floating bubble so that all who beheld her wondered at her graceful swaying movements. After she was led into the palace, she was arrayed in costly robes of silk and acknowledged the most beautiful creature. Since she was mute, however, she could neither speak or sing.
As lissome slaves clothed in silk stepped forward to sing and dance before the prince and his royal parents. At her turn, the Little Mermaid glided over the floor and danced enchantingly. As she danced, her ethereal beauty revealed herself more and more.
Before long, the prince decreed that she must remain with him always and accompany him wherever he traveled. On sundry occasions, she would cheerfully climb with him to the very tops of steep, jagged mountains. Although her tender feet bled so that even her steps were marked, she laughed and followed him.
When everyone was asleep, she would sit on the marble steps because it assuaged her raw feet to bathe them in the cold seawater. Then she thought of all those below in the boundless deep.
One time during the night, her sisters rose from the depths, singing plaintively. When she beckoned to them, they spoke of how she grieved them. After that, they showed up at the palace every night. Another time, the Sea King, her father, appeared in the distance stretching her arms toward her, yet he would not venture near the nocuous land.
As the days elapsed, she loved the prince more and more devoted. Fondly, he held affection for her like he would a young child; the thought never entered his head to make her his wife.
“Do you not love me the best of all?” the eyes of The Little Mermaid seemed to implore.
The prince responded, “Yes. You’re dear to me for you have the best heart. Your loyalty bethinks me of a young maiden, who I once met, but shall never encounter again.”
“The unforgettable tale is briefly told — my shipwrecked. The turbulent waves cast me ashore near a convent, where a radiant maiden saved my life. Although I beheld her twice, she is the only one whom I could love. However, she will never be mine because she belongs to the convent.”
Chapter 14
Sighing with grief, the Little Mermaid thought, “Ah, he knows not that it was I who loyally saved his life. While I am by his side, I will watch over him, love him, and forfeit my life for his sake.”
In due time it was reported that the prince must wed and that a noble, virtuous daughter of a neighboring king would be his bride. An elegant ship was being fitted out for a promising journey.
“Since my parents desire it, I must travel to meet this beautiful princess,” he told his little foundling, “but they will not obligate me to lead her home as my bride.”
The next morning, they sailed into the tranquil harbor, where church bells reverberated, and trumpets sounded. Every day was a festival. Balls and entertainments succeeded one another.
When the princess arrived, the Little Mermaid was obliged to acknowledge that she had never witnessed more sublime beauty, for the laughing blue eyes of the princess’s shown with both truth and purity.
“It was you who saved my life when I laid all but dead on the beach.” He folded his blushing bride in his arms.
“O, I am too blissful,” he later confided to the Little Mermaid. “My most ardent hopes are fulfilled. You will rejoice at my delight for your unobtrusive devotion to me has been absolute and sincere.” Kissing his hand, the Little Mermaid’s heart felt like it already broke. His nuptials will bring death to her. Before long, she will transform into the foam of the sea.
Too soon, the heralds proclaimed the betrothal. The church bells rang joyously while the bride and the bridegroom received the holy sacrament from the bishop.
Chapter 15
Recalling all that she had lost, the Little Mermaid heeded not lavish the wedding ceremony but only contemplated the night of death, which approached apace.
On the same evening, the bride and the bridegroom boarded the ship while canons roared, and flags waved. With swelling sails and a favorable wind, the boat glided away smoothly and lightly over the tranquil sea. Everyone on board reveled with joy and jubilation.
Along the rest, the mermaid laughed and danced while thoughts of death pierced her heart. Grievously, she had no soul and now could never win one.
When all became still on board, the Little Mermaid leaned her trembling arms on the edge of the vessel and peered toward the east for the first blush of dawn, which would bring her inevitable death.
Palely, raising out of the sea, she was approached by her sisters.
“We have surrendered our silken, flowing tresses to the Sea Witch,” they told her, “to obtain help for you that you may not die tonight. Our aging grandmother so mourns for you that her hoary hair is falling off from sorrow, just like ours fell under the Sea Witch’s scissors.
“In exchange for our locks, the Sea Witch has given us a knife. Before the sun rises, you must plunge it into the prince’s heart. When his warm blood falls on upon your lacerated feet, they will form back into a fish’s tail. You or he must die before sunrise. Hasten, then. Do you not heed the first red streaks in the sky?” they asked.
Sighing deeply and mournfully, they sank beneath the waves.
Chapter 16
Soundlessly the Little Mermaid drew back the gossamer curtain of the tent and gazed at the sleeping prince and his bride. Kissing his brow, she then noticed the sky, where the rosy dawn glimmered more and more brightly. The knife trembled in her wavering hand. Gazing at the prince once more, she flung it far away from her into the waves, where the water turned crimson. Casting a lingering, half-fainting glance at the prince, she then threw herself from the ship into the sea. Dispiritedly she thought her body was dissolving into sea foam, but she did not feel as if she were dying. The sun’s warm rays fell on the frigid sea.
Around the Little Mermaid suddenly floated hundreds of transparent beings through whom she could distinguish the white sails of the ship and the red clouds in the azure sky. As mellifluous as a celestial choir, their speech nevertheless was too ethereal to be heard by mortal ears, just as the beings also were veiled to mortal eyes, and perceiving she had a body as theirs, she continued to rise higher out of the foam.
Chapter 17
“Where am I?” she asked. Her voice sounded supernal as the voices of those which were with her. No earthly music could imitate it.
Among the daughters of the air, one responded. “No mermaid has an immortal soul, and they cannot obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the curative powers of another hinges her eternal destiny. In contrast, the daughters of the air can procure an immortal soul for themselves by her altruistic deeds. After we have striven for three hundred years to accomplish all the good in our power, we receive an immortal soul and share in the joy of mankind.”
“Poor Little Mermaid. You have resolutely tried to act unselfishly. As you have suffered and endured, you have elevated you to the spirit world by noble deeds. Now, by striving assiduously for three hundred years, you may gain an immortal soul.”
Indebted to the airy beings, the Little Mermaids eyes lifted toward the sun and felt them filling with tears for the first time.
On the ship she left the prince, life and activity continued. She noticed the prince and his winsome bride searching for her. They gazed somberly at the pearly foam like they knew she had thrown herself into the waves.
Tenderly, the Little Mermaid kissed the forehead of the bride and fanned the prince. With a light heart she was the joyously lead the other children of the air to a rosy cloud that floated through the ether.
“After three hundred years,” contentedly thought the Little Mermaid, “we shall mount into the kingdom of Heaven.”
The End
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