The Little Mermaid
| "The Little Mermaid" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Hans Christian Andersen | |
 The Little Mermaid and the Prince in an illustration by Edmund Dulac. | |
| Original title | 'Den lille havfrue' |
| Country | Denmark |
| Language | Danish |
| Genre(s) | Fairy tale |
| Publication | |
| Publisher | C. A. Reitzel |
| Publication date | 7 April 1837 |
"The Little Mermaid" (Danish: Den lille havfrue, literally: "the little sea lady") is a very well known fairy tale by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince.
The tale was first published in 1837 and has been adapted to various media including musical theatre and animated film.
Summary
The Little Mermaid dwells in an underwater kingdom with her father (the sea king or mer-king), her grandmother, and her five sisters. Her five sisters are each born one year apart. When a mermaid turns 15, she is permitted to swim to the surface to watch the world above, and when the sisters become old enough, each of them visits the upper world every year. As each of them returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to their various descriptions of the surface and of human beings.
When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she rises up to the surface, sees a ship with a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a distance. A great storm hits, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from nearly drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here she waits until a young girl from the temple finds him. The prince never sees the Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid asks her grandmother if humans can live forever if they could breathe under water. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than merfolks' 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, eventually visits the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her tongue (as the Little Mermaid has the most enchanting voice in the world). The Sea Witch warns, however, that once she becomes a human, she will never be able to return to the sea. Drinking the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her, yet when she recovers she will have two beautiful legs, and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, it will constantly feel like she is walking on sharp swords hard enough to make her feet bleed most terribly. In addition, she will only obtain a soul if she finds true love's kiss and if the prince loves her and marries her, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries another woman, the Little Mermaid will die brokenhearted and disintegrate into sea foam.
The Little Mermaid drinks the potion and meets the prince, who is mesmerised 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 her suffering excruciating pain. When the prince's father orders his son to marry the neighboring king's daughter, 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 is the temple girl, who had been sent to the temple to be educated. The prince loves her, and the wedding is announced.
The prince and princess marry, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has given up and of all the pain she has suffered. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters bring her a knife that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long hair. If the Little Mermaid slays the prince with the knife and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid again, all her suffering will end, and she will live out her full life.
However the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride, and she throws herself into the sea as dawn breaks. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the sun; she has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to obtain an immortal soul. She will earn her own soul by doing good deeds and she will eventually rise up into the kingdom of God.
Publication
"The Little Mermaid" was written in 1836, and first published by C.A. Reitzel in Copenhagen 7 April 1837 in Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection. Third Booklet. 1837. (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Tredie Hefte. 1837.). The story was republished 18 December 1849 as a part of Fairy Tales. 1850. (Eventyr. 1850), and again 15 December 1862 as a part of Fairy Tales and Stories. First Volume. 1862. (Eventyr og Historier. Første Bind. 1862.).[1]
Debate over ending
Some scholars consider the last sequence with its happy ending to be an unnatural addition. Jacob Bøggild and Pernille Heegaard point out that:
One of the crucial aspects which any interpretation must confront is the final sequence of the tale, in which the little mermaid, against all odds, is redeemed from immediate damnation and accepted into the spiritual sphere, where the "daughters of the air" reside. In this, she is apparently promised the "immortal soul", which it has been her main motivation to obtain — along with the prince, of course. This ending has baffled critics because the narrative that precedes it points rather to a tragic conclusion than to a happy one.
— Jacob Bøggild & Pernille Heegaard, Ambiguity in Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, Andersen og Verden [Andersen and the World] (1993)[2]
Andersen originally ended the tale with the mermaid dissolving, but then later added the "daughters of air" coda, stating that it was his original intention and, in fact, the working title of the story.[3] The daughters of air say they can earn souls simply by doing three hundred years' worth of good deeds, but Andersen later revised it to state that all this depends upon whether children are good or bad. Good behavior takes a year off the maidens' time of service while bad behavior makes them weep and a day is added for every tear they shed. This has come under much criticism from scholars and reviewers, stating that, "This final message is more frightening than any other presented in the tale. The story descends into the Victorian moral tales written for children to scare them into good behavior. P. L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins and noted folklore commentator, says, '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' (Travers 1979, 93)."[3][4]
Psychoanalytic interpretations
In Maria Tatar's The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, the transformation of the little mermaid from sea creature to mermaid in human form to a creature of the air is believed to reflect Andersen's constant engagement with mutability and changes in identity.[5]
Tatar also suggests that the Little Mermaid did not give up everything for love alone. The tale presents a rare heroine with investigative curiosity because she is fascinated by the unknown, the forbidden, and is intent on broadening her horizons from the beginning. Even before she saw the prince, she displayed an intense longing to visit the world above the sea by arranging the flowers in her garden into the shape of the sun, listening to her grandmother and sisters' stories of the surface, and peeking in through the window of the prince's cabin during his birthday celebrations. She wants, above all, to explore the world and discover things that are beyond what she already knows. The world above seems larger than her own and holds a greater range of possibilities to exercise her adventurous spirit. This is demonstrated in some versions of the story when the prince has a page boy's costume made for her so that she may ride on horseback and explore the land with him. Her willingness to cross-dress implies a willingness to transgress gender boundaries and take risks to be able to see the world. Tatar feels this also comments on Andersen's interests in changes in identity.[6]
The tale itself is considered by some feminists to contain a message about love and self-sacrifice, and the dangers of accepting abuse or inconsiderate treatment in the name of love.[7][8]
The story has been interpreted as the difficult liminal passage of the girl into the order of speech and social symbolism (power, politics and agency) which is symbolically understood as masculine.[9]
The artist Pen Dalton has made use of Laura Mulvey's interpretation of fetishism in art[10] to link The Little Mermaid story to the wearing of fetishistic clothes, and obsessive cosmetic surgery with masculine fears of loss.
Rictor Norton, in My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries, theorizes that The Little Mermaid was written as a love letter by Hans Christian Andersen to Edvard Collin. This is based on a letter Andersen wrote to Collin, upon hearing of Collin’s engagement to a young woman, around the same time that the Little Mermaid was written. Andersen wrote ”I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench... my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery.”[11] Norton interprets this as a declaration of Andersen's homosexual love for Collin.[12]
Adaptations
- It was first translated into English by H. P. Paull in 1872.
- It was made into an opera entitled Rusalka, music composed by Dvorak, first performed in Prague in 1901.
- Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky's 40-minute long symphonic poem, Die Seejungfrau ("The Mermaid"), received its premiere in 1905.
- The 1914 play The Garden of Paradise written by Edward Sheldon was adapted from it.
- The 1952 film Hans Christian Andersen features a ballet version of the story.
- In 1957, the French composer Germaine Tailleferre wrote a three-act opera version of The Little Mermaid (called La Petite Sirène in French) on a libretto adapted by Philippe Soupault.
- Classics Illustrated Junior, a 1950s American comic book series, published a version of the tale as issue #525.
- In 1960 was serializate Angel no Oka (Angel's Hill) a manga by Osamu Tezuka based on Andersen's history.
- In 1961, Shirley Temple Theatre broadcast a television version of "The Little Mermaid", starring Shirley Temple as the Mermaid.
- "Coralina: La Doncella del Mar" starring Dyanik Zurakowska is the first segment of the 1966 Spanish anthology film Fantasia...3.
- In 1966 the story appeared in the live action/stop-motion animated movie "The Daydreamer (film)" produced by Rankin/Bass. It centers on a young Hans Christian Andersen (played by Paul O'Keefe) and features the voices of Burl Ives as Father Neptune, Hayley Mills as The Little Mermaid, and in what would be her last film role Tallulah Bankhead is the voice of the Sea Witch.
- One of the earliest animated films based on the story was the Soviet Union's 29-minute The Little Mermaid ([Русалочка] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)), released in 1968.
- In 1974, Richard Chamberlain narrated a Reader's Digest animated version.
- There are several anime adaptations of the story, including Anderusen Dowa Ningyo Hime (Andersen's Story: The Mermaid Princess), a feature film directed by Tomoharu Katsumata (1975); and the 1991 NHK TV series Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid. There have also been the magical girl adaptions Mahō no Mako-chan and Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.
- In 1976, a live-action Rusalochka (Русалочка), a joint production by the USSR and Bulgaria, was released. Directed by Vladimir Bychkov, starring Vyctoriya Novikova as the mermaid and Valentin Nikulin.
- Film adaptaption Czech production 1976, The little Mermaid (Malá mořská víla); Miroslava Šafránková- Mermaid and Libuse Safránková.
- Japanese Jazz-Fusion Band "The Square" (now known as T-Square) wrote and released a song called "Little Mermaid" in 1982, with the album called "Magic".
- In 1987, Shelley Duvall produced a version of the story for Faerie Tale Theatre.
- In 1989, the fairy tale was adapted into an animated film by the Walt Disney studio called The Little Mermaid, after which a TV series of the same name followed, also by Disney, taking place before the movie's storyline, with a few episodes guest starring Mark Hamill of the Star Wars Original Trilogy fame as the original novel's author, Hans Christian Andersen. This animation, however, differs so substantially from Andersen's original in so many details (including a happy ending in which the mermaid in fact marries the prince) that it has been said to "betray Andersen's tale while it exploits society's obsession with physical beauty and romantic love."[13] In 2000, a sequel titled The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, concerning the adventures of the Little Mermaid's human daughter Melody, who longs to be a mermaid, was released by The Walt Disney Company. A prequel was released in 2008 entitled The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning; the story is set before the events of the original film, in which King Triton has banned music from Atlantica. The movie also explains the absence of the Little Mermaid's mother.
- Golden Films adapted the story in 1992 as The Little Mermaid. The production was distributed by GoodTimes Entertainment.
- In the late 1990s, the HBO series Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child did an episode based on The Little Mermaid.
- The novel, My Love, My Love: Or The Peasant Girl by Rosa Guy is based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale, and inspired the musical Once on This Island, set in the French Antilles.
- Japanese artist Junko Mizuno adapted The Little Mermaid as Princess Mermaid, the third and final part of her "fractured fairy tales".
- In 2004, the animated TV series Hans Christian Andersen The Fairytaler had an episode telling the story of The Little Mermaid.
- The Royal Danish Ballet commissioned Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach to create a modern rendition of this fairy tale. It was choreographed by John Neumeier and premiered on 15 April 2005.[14]
- On 28 July 2007, the premiere of Lior Navok's version for actress, two pianos and chamber ensemble/orchestra.[15]
- The Russian movie Rusalka (2007) by Anna Melikyan is a modern-day adaptation, set in Russia.[16]
- On January 10, 2008, the stage version of the Disney film opened on Broadway.The music in the play is by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken were also the composing and song writing team for the Disney original film.
- The 2008 Hayao Miyazaki film, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, was inspired by and based loosely on The Little Mermaid.[17][18]
- In 2009, an upcoming movie from the upcoming series, "Tales from H.C. Andersen" will have a shortened version.
- Producers using the software Vocaloid have made two songs based on The Little Mermaid. One is sung by Luka Megurine and is called 人魚姫/Ningyo Hime (The Little Mermaid). The other is sung by Miku Hatsune, Luka Megurine, Meiko and Kaito and is called リトマメ / Rito Mame (Little Mermaid).
- On March 20, 2010, San Francisco Ballet performed the United States premier of John Neumeier's "The Little Mermaid".
- An episode of the anime Devil May Cry: The Animated Series is loosely based on the story of The Little Mermaid, including a narration of part of the story.
- In July 2010, it was announced that director Joe Wright will helm a live action adaptation of the story.
- In the book "The Mermaid's Madness (2010) by Jim C. Hines the Mermaid is named Lirea, and she is on a quest of revenge on the human prince who denied her advances, having been driven insane due to a side-effect of her transformation and a plan of her grandmother to use her as a means of granting the merfolk true souls (Although Lirea's younger sister argues that the belief that they do not have souls is based around superstition rather than fact).
- Korean/Chinese band EXO's track titled Baby, Don't Cry is based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid".
- Japanese visual kei band LM.C's track titled "Ningyo No Namida" (Literally "Tears of the Mermaid") is based loosely on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid".
- In 2013, the 3D re-release of Disney's The Little Mermaid is scheduled for September 13, after the success of The Lion King (1994), which was re-released in 3D in September 16, 2011. However, it was cancelled on January 14, 2013 due to the underperformances of other Disney 3D re-releases.
- After Disney's Sing Along Songs: Fun With Music, this story has been a Sing Along Songs DVD which is Under The Sea. When the video is over, Fun With Music is replaced by Under The Sea.
- Adapt Theatre Productions, a small fringe-theatre production company located in Chicago, Illinois, will premier an adaptation of the story from the perspective of the little mermaid's sisters, who have kidnapped the story's Prince to judge his compassion for their deceased sister. The play, titled "Below", was written in blank verse by actor/playwright Lane Flores. The play will premier in March 2013.
The Little Mermaid statue
A statue of the Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the Copenhagen harbor in Langelinie. This small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction.
The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, after he had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale. The sculptor Edward Eriksen created the statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. His wife, Eline Eriksen, was the model. It has been severely vandalized several times.[19]
In May 2010, it was moved from its Copenhagen harbor emplacement for the first time ever, for transport to Expo 2010 in Shanghai where it remained until October 20, 2010. In the Disney version of The Little Mermaid when Ariel is sitting on top of the rock looking longingly at Prince Eric, she is in exactly the same position that the statue is in.
In other languages
- Afrikaans - Die Kleine Meermin /Die Meerminnetjie
- Albanian - Sirena e vogel
- Arabic - الحورية الصغيرة - Al-houriya As-saghira
- Armenian - Ծովահարս - Tsovahars
- Bulgarian - Малката русалка - Malkata Rusalka
- Catalan - La sireneta
- Chinese - 小美人鱼 - Xiǎo Měirényú. It is also called 小魚仙 in Hong Kong.
- Croatian - Mala Sirena
- Czech - Malá Mořská Víla
- Danish - Den Lille Havfrue
- Dutch - De kleine zeemeermin
- English - The Little Mermaid
- Estonian - Väike Merineitsi
- Filipino- Ang Munting Sirena
- Finnish - Pieni merenneito
- French - La petite sirène
- German - Die Kleine Meerjungfrau
- Greek - Η Μικρή Γοργόνα - I Mikrí Gorgóna
- Hebrew - בת הים הקטנה - Bat Hayam Haktana
- Hindi - छोटी मत्स्यस्त्री - Chōtī Matsyastrī
- Hungarian - A kis hableány
- Icelandic - Litla Hafmeyjan
- Indonesian - Putri Duyung Kecil
- Irish - An Mhaighdean Mhara Bheag
- Italian - La sirenetta
- Japanese - 人魚姫 - Ningyo Hime (literally Mermaid Princess)
- Korean - 인어 공주(人魚公主) - In-eo Gongju (literally Mermaid Princess)
- Latvian - Mazā Nāriņa
- Lithuanian - Undinėlė
- Macedonian - Малата Сирена - Malata Sirena
- Malaysian - Puteri Duyung Kecil - Puteri Duyung Kecil
- Malti - Is-Sirena ż-żgħira/ Is- Sirenetta
- Mongolian - Лусын дагина - Lusiin dagina
- Norwegian - Den lille havfrue
- Persian - پری دریایی کوچولو - Pari Daryayi-e Kuchulu
- Polish - Mała Syrenka
- Portuguese - A Pequena Sereia
- Romanian - Mica Sirenă
- Russian - Русалочка - Rusalochka
- Serbian - Мала сирена - Mala Sirena
- Slovak - Malá Morská Víla
- Slovenian - Mala Morska Deklica
- Sinhala - පුංචි දියකිඳුරිය - Punchi Diyakinduriya
- Swedish - Den Lilla Sjöjungfrun
- Spanish - La sirenita
- Thai - เงือกน้อย - Ngueak Noi
- Turkish - Küçük Deniz Kızı
- Vietnamese - Nàng Tiên Cá
- West Frisian - De Lytse Wetterfaam
References
- ^ Hans Christian Andersen Center: Hans Christian Andersen: The Little Mermaid
- ^ Bøggild, Jacob, & Pernille Heegaard, "Ambiguity in Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid", published in Andersen og Verden, Odense, 1993. Via Summaries of papers from previous international HCA conferences, Hans Christian Andersen Center, Institute of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of South Denmark
- ^ a b Sur La Lune fairy tales, notes on The Little Mermaid
- ^ Altmann, Anna E. and Gail deVos, Tales, Then and Now: More Folktales as Literary Fictions for Young Adults (Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2001), pp. 179-183.
- ^ Tatar, Maria, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002), pp.308.
- ^ Tatar, Maria, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002), pp. 305,311,315,320,323.
- ^ Borges, Virginia, A Million Little Mermaids, article in Journal of Mythic Arts Summer 2007, webpage found 15 May 2007.
- ^ Why The Little Mermaid Should Be Told To Every Child, webpage found 15 May 2008.
- ^ White, S. (1993) Split Skins, Female Agency and Bodily Mutilation in 'The Little Mermaid in Collins, J & Radner, H. "Film Theory Goes to the Movies".
- ^ Mulvey, L. (1973) Fears, Fantasies and the Male Unconscious or You Don't Know What is Happening, Do You Mr Jones? Spare Rib Magazine, reprinted in Laura Mulvey, 2007, "Visual and Other Pleasures"
- ^ Hans Christian Andersen's correspondence, ed Frederick Crawford6, London. 1891
- ^ http://rictornorton.co.uk/andersen.htm
- ^ Altman, Anne E., DeVos, Gail (2001). Tales, Then and Now: More Folktales As Literary Fictions for Young Adults. Libraries Unlimited. p. 187. ISBN 1-56308-831-2. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Britannica Book of the Year 2006, "Performing Arts, Europe: Dance"
- ^ "Lior Navok's 'The Little Mermaid'"
- ^ "Rusalka (2007)"
- ^ "Ponyo". Walt Disney Studios.
- ^ Fred Topel (12 August 2009). "Legendary animator Miyazaki reveals Ponyo's inspirations". Sci Fi Wire.
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4860562.stm.
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External links
- The Little Mermaid Gallery
- See photos of The Little Mermaid
- "The Little Mermaid" Jean Hersholt's English translation
- Den lille Havfrue Original Danish text from the Danish Royal Library
- Den lille havfrue Original manuscript (Odense City Museum)
- Surlalune: Annotated "The Little Mermaid" Paull's translation, with annotations, scans from six illustrated editions, bibliography.
