The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid lives in an underwater kingdom with her father, the Sea King, her paternal grandmother, and her five older sisters, each one of them born a year apart. Fascinated by the world above the sea and human beings , The Little Mermaid keeps a statue of a human boy in her garden in the palace. 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. When the six mermaids become old enough, each of them visits the upper world one at a time every year.

As each returns, the Little Mermaid listens to their various descriptions of the world inhabited by human beings. The elder sisters soon become jaded of the world above and are content to remain below the sea. 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 prince, and falls in love with him from a distance. A violent storm then hits, sinking the ship, and the Mermaid saves the prince from drowning.

She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple . Here, the Mermaid waits until a young woman from the temple and her ladies-in-waiting find him. The prince never sees the Little Mermaid or even realizes that it was she who had originally saved his life. The Mermaid asks her grandmother if humans can live forever.

Her grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than mermaids (around 300 years), but that they have an eternal soul that lives on in Heaven , while mermaids turn to sea foam at death and cease to exist. The Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, visits the Sea Witch who lives in a dangerous part of the ocean, surrounded by a forest of polyps , mud , and whirlpools . The Witch helps her by offering a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her voice (her tongue), as the Mermaid has the most enchanting voice in the world. The Witch says that once the Mermaid 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. When she recovers, she will have human legs and will be able to dance as no human has ever danced before; however, the pain of losing her tail will never leave her: she will constantly feel as if she is walking on sharp knives, and her feet will bleed terribly. Moreover, she will obtain a soul only if she wins the prince's love 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 Mermaid will die with a broken heart and dissolve into sea foam upon the waves.

After agreeing to the arrangement, the Mermaid swims up to the surface near the prince's castle and drinks the potion. The liquid feels like a sword piercing her body and she passes out on the shore, naked. She is found by the prince, who is mesmerized by her beauty and grace and soon discovers that 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 Mermaid becomes the prince's favorite companion and accompanies him on many of his outings. He confides in her his deepest thoughts and feelings but does not fall in love with her. When the prince's parents encourage him to marry the neighboring princess in an arranged marriage , he tells the Mermaid that he will not because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say that he can only love the young woman from the temple, whom 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 marriage is celebrated aboard a wedding ship, and the Mermaid's heart breaks. 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 Witch has given them in exchange for their beautiful hair.

If the 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 Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with the princess, 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 turns into a luminous and ethereal earthbound spirit , a daughter of the air . While ascending into the atmosphere, she is greeted by other daughters, who say that she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to obtain an immortal soul.

Because of the Mermaid's sacrifice, she is given a chance to do good deeds for all her life. She will receive her soul and rise up into Heaven when her life ends.