The Little Mermaid

The story

Once, in the deepest, bluest part of the sea, there lived a Sea King and his family. He had six daughters, each with a shimmering, pearl-bright tail, and the youngest was the most graceful of all, with eyes as blue as the deep sea itself. Everyone called her the Little Mermaid. Unlike her sisters, who loved to play in the garden, she would sit for hours listening to her grandmother's stories about the world above the waves — walking, breathing humans, great ships, and church bells that rang out sweet and clear. "A mermaid may live three hundred years," her grandmother told her, "but when she dies, she only becomes foam on the sea. A human's life is short, but a human has a soul that lives on forever, rising up among the stars." From that day, a quiet wish took root in the Little Mermaid's heart: she wanted a soul like that, too.

One by one, her sisters turned fifteen and rose to the surface to see the world, coming home each time bursting with stories. At last it was the Little Mermaid's turn. The night she rose above the waves, a grand ship happened to be celebrating a young Prince's birthday. Fireworks bloomed like stars across the deck, and music drifted on the wind. The Little Mermaid floated quietly beside the ship, watching the dark-haired Prince smile in the lantern light — and for the first time in her life, her heart beat fast for someone she had only just seen.

Before long, the sky darkened, the wind rose, and the great ship capsized in a roaring storm. The Prince was flung into the icy water, growing weaker by the moment. Without a thought for herself, the Little Mermaid swam to him, held his head above the waves, and carried him all the way to shore. She laid him gently on the sand, then hid behind a rock, too shy to be seen. Soon a young woman from a nearby temple came out and found him, waking him with her voice. When the Prince opened his eyes, he saw only her face — never knowing that the one who had truly saved him had already slipped back into the sea.

The Little Mermaid was never quite the same after that. She would sit alone in the garden, thinking only of the Prince's face. At last she gathered her courage and asked her grandmother whether humans truly kept their souls forever. Her grandmother said yes — but only if a human loved a mermaid more than anything else in the world and married her could she share in that eternal soul. Otherwise, she said gently, a mermaid would always belong to the sea alone. When the Little Mermaid heard this, a determination lit in her eyes that nothing could talk her out of.

So, without telling her family, she swam alone to the darkest corner of the ocean, where the Sea Witch lived. When the Witch heard her wish, she narrowed her eyes and smiled. "I can give you a potion," she said. "Drink it, and your tail will split into two human legs. But —" she held out her hand, "the price is your voice. Your tongue must stay here with me." She gave one more warning: "Every step you take will feel as sharp as walking on knives. And if the Prince ever marries another, then at sunrise the next morning, you will turn to foam on the water, and you may never return to us again." The Little Mermaid clasped her hands tightly — and nodded all the same.

She drank the potion and fell into a deep, aching faint. When she woke, she lay before the Prince's palace, and where her tail had been, she now had two slender human legs. The Prince found her and, taking pity on the poor lost girl, welcomed her into his home. Though she could not speak, and every step felt like walking on knives, the Little Mermaid danced for him more lightly than anyone had ever danced before. The Prince was captivated, and soon thought of her as his dearest companion — though in his heart, he still longed for the young woman who had once saved him at the temple.

Some time later, the Prince sailed to a neighboring kingdom to meet a princess his parents hoped he would marry. The Little Mermaid went along, her heart aching with every wave. But the moment the Prince saw the princess, he cried out in joyful surprise — she was the very woman from the temple! She had been sent there to study as a girl, and now, at last, they had found each other again. Overjoyed, the Prince declared they would be married at once. The Little Mermaid stood quietly by, still smiling on the outside, while inside, her heart broke a little more with every passing moment.

On the night before the wedding, the Little Mermaid knew that when the sun rose, she would turn to foam. Just then, her five sisters rose from the sea — and their long, flowing hair was gone, cut short. They had traded it to the Sea Witch for a sharp knife. "Take this," they said, pressing it into her hands, tears in their eyes. "Before dawn, plunge it into the Prince's heart, and let his blood fall upon your legs — then you will become a mermaid again, and come home to us."

The Little Mermaid carried the knife quietly into the wedding tent. By moonlight, the Prince lay sleeping peacefully, his bride held close in his arms, a contented smile on his face. She lifted the knife — but her hand trembled. How could she ever bring herself to hurt the one she loved so dearly? She turned away, hurled the knife far out into the dark waves, and then leapt into the cold sea herself, believing she was about to dissolve into foam forever.

But her body did not fade away. Instead, she felt herself rising, light as air, surrounded by warm, glowing, transparent shapes — daughters of the wind. They told her that although mermaids have no eternal soul of their own, by spending three hundred years doing quiet good in the world, she could earn one, just the same. The Little Mermaid looked back once at the sleeping Prince and his bride, and smiled — soft, gentle, and at peace — before drifting up on the morning light, higher and higher into the sky.