"The Little Mermaid," by Hans Christian Andersen

In which the young mermaid from under the sea wishes to be part of our world, makes a bargain with a sea witch, and attempts to win the love of a young prince in order to... get an immortal soul, a part of the story that our narrator had rather forgotten about.



Since "Snow White and Rose Red" was a bit on the short side, we're going to double up on our short story interlude by returning to Mr. Hans Christian Andersen. "The Little Mermaid," one of Andersen's popular "suffering is totally good for you" stories, was originally published in Denmark in 1836 as "Den lille havfrue," which literally translates as... "The Little Mermaid." As with "The Snow Queen" I had to pick a translation. Now, rather than just go with the one in the Andersen collection I own, because it inexplicably doesn't include "The Little Mermaid," which, what? I went with the original English translation from 1872, by H.P. Paull. As with Alice "Mrs. Edgar" Lucas," this is alternatively credited to H.B. Paull, Mrs. H.B. Paull, Mrs. H.H.B. Paull or various combinations thereof, when it seems her name is, in fact, Susannah Mary Paull.

Also, I, um, may have gone a bit overboard with the illustrations on this one. I found one rather extensive set of illustrations I really liked by Helen Stratton from 1899. Those are most of them, and all but one of the black-and-white illustrations. The full-color illustrations are by our friend Edmund Dulac, from the same 1911 edition that our "Snow Queen" illustrations came from. Then there are two others I threw in from Harry Clarke, 1916, and Hans Tegner, largely because I thought the others didn't include nearly enough pictures of the sea witch, who is awesome.

Oh, and it should be noted that whilst the Victorian era was one of rather notorious prudery, they were still kind of okay with breasts in art and illustrations. So... mermaid boobs ahead, if that kind of thing bothers you.

By the way, I apologize that this is late and that I didn't put in any timestamps for the images, but I need to stop pretending I can get these things done on time during tech week for a show I'm in. The theater people in the audience know what I'm sayin'. If I get a chance, I'll add the timestamps in.

The "F" from the opening line: "Far out in the ocean..." (Stratton)

More illustrations after the jump!

The Sea King had been for a widower for many years. (Dulac)

The fishes ate out of their hands, and allowed themselves to be stroked. (Stratton)

Somewhere around here is the sole note, needed for those of us who have forgotten our elementary school biology: the "calyx," used in the simile comparing the sun to a flower, is the leafy "cup" that forms the base of a flower bloom, surrounding the petals underneath. Yeah, I'd forgotten that word, too.

A statue, the representation of a handsome boy, hewn out of pure white stone. (Stratton)

They fled in a great fright. (Stratton)

All the ships sailed by rapidly. (Stratton)

As the waves lifted her up, she could look in through clear glass window-panes. (Stratton)

His limbs were failing him, his beautiful eyes were closed, and he
would have died had not the little mermaid come to his assistance. (Dulac)

She held his head above the water, and let the waves drift them where they would. (Stratton)

She did not wait long before she saw a young girl approach the spot where he lay. (Stratton)

It was her only comfort to sit in her own little
garden, and fling her arm round the beautiful
marble statue which was like the prince. (Stratton)

“You must not think of that,” said the old woman. (Stratton)

She darted forward as a fish shoots through the water, between the ugly polypi. (Stratton)

There sat the sea witch, allowing a toad to eat from her mouth. (Stratton)

And, because we can never have too many illustrations of the sea witch, here are two more:

(Tegner)

(Clarke)

The polypi sprang back in terror when they caught sight of the
glittering draught, which shone in her hand like a twinkling star. (Dulac)

She had no clothes, so she wrapped herself in her long thick hair. (Stratton)

The prince asked her who she was and how she came there, and she looked at him
mildly and sorrowfully with her deep blue eyes; but she could not speak. (Dulac)

Every one was enchanted, especially the prince, who called her his little foundling. (Stratton)

She would go and sit on the broad marble steps; for it eased
her burning feet to bathe them in the cold sea-water. (Stratton)

He kissed her rosy mouth and played with her long waving hair. (Stratton)

Okay, so, while my views on the so-called "friendzone" has previously been expressed, the prince is being kind of a jerk here, right? I mean, there are some seriously mixed signals going on here, right?

Gazing down through the clear water, she thought
she could distinguish her father’s castle. (Stratton)

She laughed and danced with the rest, while
the thoughts of death were in her heart. (Stratton)

She saw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself; but their
long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind, and had been cut off. (Stratton)

She threw herself from the ship into the sea. (Stratton)

The sun rose above the waves, and his warm rays fell on the cold foam of the little mermaid. (Dulac)

All right, so, most people aware that Disney's The Little Mermaid was based on a story are probably also aware that Disney quite distinctly changed the ending to be just a mite happier. I would say that most of these people remember the "turning to sea foam" bit, and that's usually where it ends. Broken heart, she dies in a poetic manner specific to mermaid, right? I know that I, at least, had completely forgotten about the "daughters of the air" bit at the end where she doesn't actually die. (Side note: interestingly, most translations give the line as something like "she felt her body dissolving into foam," while the Paull translation has it that she "thought her body was dissolving into foam." [Emphasis mine in both.] Does that mean it doesn't actually happen in Paull? Is that just an old mer-wives' tale? Although it does then immediately refer to "the cold foam of the little mermaid...") Apparently, the very original publication did actually end with her dissolving to foam, and Andersen later added the daughters of the air in, claiming it was his original plan. He then revised it again to add the bit about good and naughty children affecting the mermaid's fate, leading to this fantastic quote from P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins:

"But a year taken off when a child behaves and a tear shed and a day added whenever a child is naughty? Andersen, this is blackmail. And the children know it and say nothing. There's magnanimity for you."

So, anyway, the downer ending that Disney famously changed? That was the happy version.


If you would like to read along, the text of this translation can be found at Wikisource. No reading ahead, though!