
The Little Mermaid
'The Little Mermaid' Summary
The Little Mermaid lives in an underwater kingdom with her widowed father (Mer-King), her dowager grandmother, and her five older sisters, each of whom had been born one year apart. When a mermaid turns fifteen, she is permitted to swim to the surface for the first time to catch a glimpse of the world above, and when the sisters become old enough, each of them visits the upper world one at a time every 365 days. As each returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to their various descriptions of the world inhabited by human beings.
When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she rises up to the surface, watches a birthday celebration being held on a ship in honor of a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a safe distance. A violent storm hits, sinking the ship, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here, she waits until a young woman from the temple and her ladies in waiting find him. To her dismay, the prince never sees the Little Mermaid or even realizes that it was she who had originally saved his life.
The Little Mermaid becomes mad and asks her grandmother if humans can live forever. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than a mermaid's 300 years, but that, when mermaids die, they turn to sea foam and cease to exist, while humans have an eternal soul that lives on in heaven. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, visits the Sea Witch who lives in a dangerous part of the ocean. The witch willingly helps her by selling her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her tongue and beautiful voice, as the Little Mermaid has the most enchanting voice in the world. The witch warns the Little Mermaid that once she becomes a human, she will never be able to return to the sea. Consuming the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her body, yet when she recovers, she will have two human legs and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, she will constantly feel as if she is walking on sharp knives. In addition, she will obtain a soul only if she wins the love of the prince and marries him, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries someone else, the Little Mermaid will die with a broken heart and dissolve into sea foam upon the waves.
After she agrees to the arrangement, the Little Mermaid swims up to the surface near the prince's castle and drinks the potion. The liquid felt like a sword piercing through her body and she passes out on the shore, naked. She is found by the prince, who is mesmerized by her beauty and grace, even though she is mute. Most of all, he likes to see her dance, and she dances for him despite suffering excruciating pain with every step. Soon, the Little Mermaid becomes the prince's favorite companion and accompanies him on many of his outings but he does not fall in love with her. When the prince's parents encouraged their son to marry the neighboring princess in an arranged marriage, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, who he believes rescued him. It turns out that the princess from the neighboring kingdom was the temple woman, as she was sent to the temple for her education. The prince declares his love for her, and the royal wedding is announced at once.
The prince and princess celebrate their new marriage on a wedding ship, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has sacrificed and of all the pain she has endured for the prince. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters rise out of the water and bring her a dagger that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long, beautiful hair. If the Little Mermaid kills the prince and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid once more, all her suffering will end, and she will live out her full life in the ocean with her family. However, the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his new wife, and she throws the dagger and herself off the ship into the water just as dawn breaks. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warm sun and discovers that she has turned into a luminous and ethereal earthbound spirit, a daughter of the air. As the Little Mermaid ascends into the atmosphere, she is greeted by other daughters, who tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to obtain an immortal soul. Because of her selflessness, she is given the chance to earn her own soul by doing good deeds for mankind for 300 years, and will one day rise up into Heaven.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
DanishPublished In
1837Genre/Category
Tags/Keywords
Authors

Hans Christian Andersen
Denmark
Andersen's fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes and translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily acces...
Books by Hans Christian AndersenDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

The Song of the Cardinal by Gene Stratton-Porter
The Song of the Cardinal is about a big male Cardinal who lives in a tree near a farmer and his wife. The Cardinal immediately starts to sing to find...

Mystery of the Hasty Arrow by Anna Katharine Green
At a New York City museum, a teenage girl is found dead with an arrow through her heart. The only witness is an elderly woman who whispers incoherentl...

The Entertaining Story of King Brondé, his Lily and his Rosebud by Abby Morton Diaz
This is a captivating tale that takes readers on a delightful journey through the whimsical world of King Brondé and his enchanting companions. This e...

The Flint Heart by Eden Philpotts
The flint heart is a stone of heart shape, forged in prehistoric times, that changes whoever owns it into a wicked person. The story of the flint hear...

The Girl From Malta by Fergus Hume
During a voyage from Australia to Britain, Ronald Monteith is fascinated by fellow-traveller, Lionel Ventin. One sultry evening, shortly before arrivi...

The Palace in the Garden by Mary Louisa Molesworth
Beautiful simple tale of a brother and two sisters who go to live temporarily at a lovely house called Rosebuds. There they find a hidden door in the...

Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan by Richard Gordon Smith
This book presents a collection of ancient Japanese tales, offering a glimpse into the rich and often strange world of Japanese folklore. Readers will...

Nuoren Wertherin kärsimykset by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Sorrows of Young Werther is a seminal work of German literature and a key text of the Sturm und Drang movement. Written in the form of letters, th...

Driftwood by Sara Teasdale
Driftwood is a collection of poems by Sara Teasdale. The poems are mostly short and lyrical, and they often explore themes of nature, love, loss, and...

Pique-Dame by Alexander Pushkin
The Queen of Spades is a classic Russian novella by Alexander Pushkin. It tells the story of Herman, a young army engineer who becomes obsessed with g...
Reviews for The Little Mermaid
No reviews posted or approved, yet...