Far out in the ocean the water is as blue as thepetals of the loveliest cornflower, and as clear as the purestglass. But it is very deep too. It goes down deeper than anyanchor rope will go, and many, many steeples would have to bestacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to thesurface of the sea. It is down there that the sea folk live.
Now don't suppose that there are only bare whitesands at the bottom of the sea. No indeed! The most marveloustrees and flowers grow down there, with such pliant stalks andleaves that the least stir in the water makes them move about asthough they were alive. All sorts of fish, large and small, dartamong the branches, just as birds flit through the trees up here.From the deepest spot in the ocean rises the palace of the seaking. Its walls are made of coral and its high pointed windows ofthe clearest amber, but the roof is made of mussel shells thatopen and shut with the tide. This is a wonderful sight to see,for every shell holds glistening pearls, any one of which wouldbe the pride of a queen's crown.
The sea king down there had been a widower foryears, and his old mother kept house for him. She was a cleverwoman, but very proud of her noble birth. Therefore she flauntedtwelve oysters on her tail while the other ladies of the courtwere only allowed to wear six. Except for this she was analtogether praiseworthy person, particularly so because she wasextremely fond of her granddaughters, the little sea princesses.They were six lovely girls, but the youngest was the mostbeautiful of them all. Her skin was as soft and tender as a rosepetal, and her eyes were as blue as the deep sea, but like allthe others she had no feet. Her body ended in a fish tail.
The whole day long they used to play in thepalace, down in the great halls where live flowers grew on thewalls. Whenever the high amber windows were thrown open the fishwould swim in, just as swallows dart into our rooms when we openthe windows. But these fish, now, would swim right up to thelittle princesses to eat out of their hands and let themselves bepetted.
Outside the palace was a big garden, with flamingred and deep-blue trees. Their fruit glittered like gold, andtheir blossoms flamed like fire on their constantly wavingstalks. The soil was very fine sand indeed, but as blue asburning brimstone. A strange blue veil lay over everything downthere. You would have thought yourself aloft in the air with onlythe blue sky above and beneath you, rather than down at thebottom of the sea. When there was a dead calm, you could just seethe sun, like a scarlet flower with light streaming from itscalyx.
Each little princess had her own small gardenplot, where she could dig and plant whatever she liked. One ofthem made her little flower bed in the shape of a whale, anotherthought it neater to shape hers like a little mermaid, but theyoungest of them made hers as round as the sun, and there shegrew only flowers which were as red as the sun itself. She was anunusual child, quiet and wistful, and when her sisters decoratedtheir gardens with all kinds of odd things they had found insunken ships, she would allow nothing in hers except flowers asred as the sun, and a pretty marble statue. This figure of ahandsome boy, carved in pure white marble, had sunk down to thebottom of the sea from some ship that was wrecked. Beside thestatue she planted a rose-colored weeping willow tree, whichthrived so well that its graceful branches shaded the statue andhung down to the blue sand, where their shadows took on a violettint, and swayed as the branches swayed. It looked as if theroots and the tips of the branches were kissing each other inplay.
Nothing gave the youngest princess such pleasureas to hear about the world of human beings up above them. Her oldgrandmother had to tell her all she knew about ships and cities,and of people and animals. What seemed nicest of all to her wasthat up on land the flowers were fragrant, for those at thebottom of the sea had no scent. And she thought it was nice thatthe woods were green, and that the fish you saw among theirbranches could sing so loud and sweet that it was delightful tohear them. Her grandmother had to call the little birds "fish,"or the princess would not have known what she was talking about,for she had never seen a bird.
"When you get to be fifteen," her grandmothersaid, "you will be allowed to rise up out of the ocean and sit onthe rocks in the moonlight, to watch the great ships sailing by.You will see woods and towns, too."
Next year one of her sisters would be fifteen, butthe others - well, since each was a whole year older than thenext the youngest still had five long years to wait until shecould rise up from the water and see what our world was like. Buteach sister promised to tell the others about all that she saw,and what she found most marvelous on her first day. Theirgrandmother had not told them half enough, and there were so manything that they longed to know about.
The most eager of them all was the youngest, thevery one who was so quiet and wistful. Many a night she stood byher open window and looked up through the dark blue water wherethe fish waved their fins and tails. She could just see the moonand stars. To be sure, their light was quite dim, but looked atthrough the water they seemed much bigger than they appear to us.Whenever a cloud-like shadow swept across them, she knew that itwas either a whale swimming overhead, or a ship with many humanbeings aboard it. Little did they dream that a pretty youngmermaid was down below, stretching her white arms up toward thekeel of their ship.
The eldest princess had her fifteenth birthday, sonow she received permission to rise up out of the water. When shegot back she had a hundred things to tell her sisters about, butthe most marvelous thing of all, she said, was to lie on a sandbar in the moonlight, when the sea was calm, and to gaze at thelarge city on the shore, where the lights twinkled like hundredsof stars; to listen to music; to hear the chatter and clamor ofcarriages and people; to see so many church towers and spires;and to hear the ringing bells. Because she could not enter thecity, that was just what she most dearly longed to do.
Oh, how intently the youngest sister listened.After this, whenever she stood at her open window at night andlooked up through the dark blue waters, she thought of that greatcity with all of its clatter and clamor, and even fancied that inthese depths she could hear the church bells ring.
The next year, her second sister had permission torise up to the surface and swim wherever she pleased. She came upjust at sunset, and she said that this spectacle was the mostmarvelous sight she had ever seen. The heavens had a golden glow,and as for the clouds - she could not find words to describetheir beauty. Splashed with red and tinted with violet, theysailed over her head. But much faster than the sailing cloudswere wild swans in a flock. Like a long white veil trailing abovethe sea, they flew toward the setting sun. She too swam towardit, but down it went, and all the rose-colored glow faded fromthe sea and sky.
The following year, her third sister ascended, andas she was the boldest of them all she swam up a broad river thatflowed into the ocean. She saw gloriously green, vine-coloredhills. Palaces and manor houses could be glimpsed through thesplendid woods. She heard all the birds sing, and the sun shoneso brightly that often she had to dive under the water to coolher burning face. In a small cove she found a whole school ofmortal children, paddling about in the water quite naked. Shewanted to play with them, but they took fright and ran away. Thenalong came a little black animal - it was a dog, but she hadnever seen a dog before. It barked at her so ferociously that shetook fright herself, and fled to the open sea. But never couldshe forget the splendid woods, the green hills, and the nicechildren who could swim in the water although they didn't wearfish tails.
The fourth sister was not so venturesome. Shestayed far out among the rough waves, which she said was amarvelous place. You could see all around you for miles andmiles, and the heavens up above you were like a vast dome ofglass. She had seen ships, but they were so far away that theylooked like sea gulls. Playful dolphins had turned somersaults,and monstrous whales had spouted water through their nostrils sothat it looked as if hundreds of fountains were playing allaround them.
Now the fifth sister had her turn. Her birthdaycame in the wintertime, so she saw things that none of the othershad seen. The sea was a deep green color, and enormous icebergsdrifted about. Each one glistened like a pearl, she said, butthey were more lofty than any church steeple built by man. Theyassumed the most fantastic shapes, and sparkled like diamonds.She had seated herself on the largest one, and all the ships thatcame sailing by sped away as soon as the frightened sailors sawher there with her long hair blowing in the wind.
In the late evening clouds filled the sky. Thundercracked and lightning darted across the heavens. Black waveslifted those great bergs of ice on high, where they flashed whenthe lightning struck.
On all the ships the sails were reefed and therewas fear and trembling. But quietly she sat there, upon herdrifting iceberg, and watched the blue forked lightning strikethe sea.
Each of the sisters took delight in the lovely newsights when she first rose up to the surface of the sea. But whenthey became grown-up girls, who were allowed to go wherever theyliked, they became indifferent to it. They would become homesick,and in a month they said that there was no place like the bottomof the sea, where they felt so completely at home.
On many an evening the older sisters would rise tothe surface, arm in arm, all five in a row. They had beautifulvoices, more charming than those of any mortal beings. When astorm was brewing, and they anticipated a shipwreck, they wouldswim before the ship and sing most seductively of how beautifulit was at the bottom of the ocean, trying to overcome theprejudice that the sailors had against coming down to them. Butpeople could not understand their song, and mistook it for thevoice of the storm. Nor was it for them to see the glories of thedeep. When their ship went down they were drowned, and it was asdead men that they reached the sea king's palace.
On the evenings when the mermaids rose through thewater like this, arm in arm, their youngest sister stayed behindall alone, looking after them and wanting to weep. But a mermaidhas no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.
"Oh, how I do wish I were fifteen!" she said. "Iknow I shall love that world up there and all the people who livein it."
And at last she too came to be fifteen.
"Now I'll have you off my hands," said hergrandmother, the old queen dowager. "Come, let me adorn you likeyour sisters." In the little maid's hair she put a wreath ofwhite lilies, each petal of which was formed from half of apearl. And the old queen let eight big oysters fasten themselvesto the princess's tail, as a sign of her high rank.
"But that hurts!" said the little mermaid.
"You must put up with a good deal to keep upappearances," her grandmother told her.
Oh, how gladly she would have shaken off all thesedecorations, and laid aside the cumbersome wreath! The redflowers in her garden were much more becoming to her, but shedidn't dare to make any changes. "Good-by," she said, and up shewent through the water, as light and as sparkling as abubble.
The sun had just gone down when her head roseabove the surface, but the clouds still shone like gold androses, and in the delicately tinted sky sparkled the clear gleamof the evening star. The air was mild and fresh and the seaunruffled. A great three-master lay in view with only one of allits sails set, for there was not even the whisper of a breeze,and the sailors idled about in the rigging and on the yards.There was music and singing on the ship, and as night came onthey lighted hundreds of such brightly colored lanterns that onemight have thought the flags of all nations were swinging in theair.
The little mermaid swam right up to the window ofthe main cabin, and each time she rose with the swell she couldpeep in through the clear glass panes at the crowd of brilliantlydressed people within. The handsomest of them all was a youngPrince with big dark eyes. He could not be more than sixteenyears old. It was his birthday and that was the reason for allthe celebration. Up on deck the sailors were dancing, and whenthe Prince appeared among them a hundred or more rockets flewthrough the air, making it as bright as day. These startled thelittle mermaid so badly that she ducked under the water. But shesoon peeped up again, and then it seemed as if all the stars inthe sky were falling around her. Never had she seen suchfireworks. Great suns spun around, splendid fire-fish floatedthrough the blue air, and all these things were mirrored in thecrystal clear sea. It was so brilliantly bright that you couldsee every little rope of the ship, and the people could be seendistinctly. Oh, how handsome the young Prince was! He laughed,and he smiled and shook people by the hand, while the music rangout in the perfect evening.
It got very late, but the little mermaid could nottake her eyes off the ship and the handsome Prince. The brightlycolored lanterns were put out, no more rockets flew through theair, and no more cannon boomed. But there was a mutter and rumbledeep down in the sea, and the swell kept bouncing her up so highthat she could look into the cabin.
Now the ship began to sail. Canvas after canvaswas spread in the wind, the waves rose high, great cloudsgathered, and lightning flashed in the distance. Ah, they were infor a terrible storm, and the mariners made haste to reef thesails. The tall ship pitched and rolled as it sped through theangry sea. The waves rose up like towering black mountains, as ifthey would break over the masthead, but the swan-like shipplunged into the valleys between such waves, and emerged to ridetheir lofty heights. To the little mermaid this seemed goodsport, but to the sailors it was nothing of the sort. The shipcreaked and labored, thick timbers gave way under the heavyblows, waves broke over the ship, the mainmast snapped in twolike a reed, the ship listed over on its side, and water burstinto the hold.
Now the little mermaid saw that people were inperil, and that she herself must take care to avoid the beams andwreckage tossed about by the sea. One moment it would be black aspitch, and she couldn't see a thing. Next moment the lightningwould flash so brightly that she could distinguish every soul onboard. Everyone was looking out for himself as best he could. Shewatched closely for the young Prince, and when the ship split intwo she saw him sink down in the sea. At first she was overjoyedthat he would be with her, but then she recalled that humanpeople could not live under the water, and he could only visither father's palace as a dead man. No, he should not die! So sheswam in among all the floating planks and beams, completelyforgetting that they might crush her. She dived through the wavesand rode their crests, until at length she reached the youngPrince, who was no longer able to swim in that raging sea. Hisarms and legs were exhausted, his beautiful eyes were closing,and he would have died if the little mermaid had not come to helphim. She held his head above water, and let the waves take themwherever the waves went.
At daybreak, when the storm was over, not a traceof the ship was in view. The sun rose out of the waters, red andbright, and its beams seemed to bring the glow of life back tothe cheeks of the Prince, but his eyes remained closed. Themermaid kissed his high and shapely forehead. As she stroked hiswet hair in place, it seemed to her that he looked like thatmarble statue in her little garden. She kissed him again andhoped that he would live.
She saw dry land rise before her in high bluemountains, topped with snow as glistening white as if a flock ofswans were resting there. Down by the shore were splendid greenwoods, and in the foreground stood a church, or perhaps aconvent; she didn't know which, but anyway it was a building.Orange and lemon trees grew in its garden, and tall palm treesgrew beside the gateway. Here the sea formed a little harbor,quite calm and very deep. Fine white sand had been washed upbelow the cliffs. She swam there with the handsome Prince, andstretched him out on the sand, taking special care to pillow hishead up high in the warm sunlight.
The bells began to ring in the great whitebuilding, and a number of young girls came out into the garden.The little mermaid swam away behind some tall rocks that stuckout of the water. She covered her hair and her shoulders withfoam so that no one could see her tiny face, and then she watchedto see who would find the poor Prince.
In a little while one of the young girls came uponhim. She seemed frightened, but only for a minute; then shecalled more people. The mermaid watched the Prince regainconsciousness, and smile at everyone around him. But he did notsmile at her, for he did not even know that she had saved him.She felt very unhappy, and when they led him away to the bigbuilding she dived sadly down into the water and returned to herfather's palace.
She had always been quiet and wistful, and now shebecame much more so. Her sisters asked her what she had seen onher first visit up to the surface, but she would not tell them athing.
Many evenings and many mornings she revisited thespot where she had left the Prince. She saw the fruit in thegarden ripened and harvested, and she saw the snow on the highmountain melted away, but she did not see the Prince, so eachtime she came home sadder than she had left. It was her oneconsolation to sit in her little garden and throw her arms aboutthe beautiful marble statue that looked so much like the Prince.But she took no care of her flowers now. They overgrew the pathsuntil the place was a wilderness, and their long stalks andleaves became so entangled in the branches of the tree that itcast a gloomy shade.
Finally she couldn't bear it any longer. She toldher secret to one of her sisters. Immediately all the othersisters heard about it. No one else knew, except a few moremermaids who told no one - except their most intimate friends.One of these friends knew who the Prince was. She too had seenthe birthday celebration on the ship. She knew where he came fromand where his kingdom was.
"Come, little sister!" said the other princesses.Arm in arm, they rose from the water in a long row, right infront of where they knew the Prince's palace stood. It was builtof pale, glistening, golden stone with great marble staircases,one of which led down to the sea. Magnificent gilt domes roseabove the roof, and between the pillars all around the buildingwere marble statues that looked most lifelike. Through the clearglass of the lofty windows one could see into the splendid halls,with their costly silk hangings and tapestries, and walls coveredwith paintings that were delightful to behold. In the center ofthe main hall a large fountain played its columns of spray up tothe glass-domed roof, through which the sun shone down on thewater and upon the lovely plants that grew in the big basin.
Now that she knew where he lived, many an eveningand many a night she spent there in the sea. She swam much closerto shore than any of her sisters would dare venture, and she evenwent far up a narrow stream, under the splendid marble balconythat cast its long shadow in the water. Here she used to sit andwatch the young Prince when he thought himself quite alone in thebright moonlight.
On many evenings she saw him sail out in his fineboat, with music playing and flags a-flutter. She would peep outthrough the green rushes, and if the wind blew her long silverveil, anyone who saw it mistook it for a swan spreading itswings.
On many nights she saw the fishermen come out tosea with their torches, and heard them tell about how kind theyoung Prince was. This made her proud to think that it was shewho had saved his life when he was buffeted about, half deadamong the waves. And she thought of how softly his head hadrested on her breast, and how tenderly she had kissed him, thoughhe knew nothing of all this nor could he even dream of it.
Increasingly she grew to like human beings, andmore and more she longed to live among them. Their world seemedso much wider than her own, for they could skim over the sea inships, and mount up into the lofty peaks high over the clouds,and their lands stretched out in woods and fields farther thanthe eye could see. There was so much she wanted to know. Hersisters could not answer all her questions, so she asked her oldgrandmother, who knew about the "upper world," which was what shesaid was the right name for the countries above the sea.
"If men aren't drowned," the little mermaid asked,"do they live on forever? Don't they die, as we do down here inthe sea?"
"Yes," the old lady said, "they too must die, andtheir lifetimes are even shorter than ours. We can live to bethree hundred years old, but when we perish we turn into merefoam on the sea, and haven't even a grave down here among ourdear ones. We have no immortal soul, no life hereafter. We arelike the green seaweed - once cut down, it never grows again.Human beings, on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever,long after their bodies have turned to clay. It rises throughthin air, up to the shining stars. Just as we rise through thewater to see the lands on earth, so men rise up to beautifulplaces unknown, which we shall never see."
"Why weren't we given an immortal soul?" thelittle mermaid sadly asked. "I would gladly give up my threehundred years if I could be a human being only for a day, andlater share in that heavenly realm."
"You must not think about that," said the oldlady. "We fare much more happily and are much better off than thefolk up there."
"Then I must also die and float as foam upon thesea, not hearing the music of the waves, and seeing neither thebeautiful flowers nor the red sun! Can't I do anything at all towin an immortal soul?"
"No," her grandmother answered, "not unless ahuman being loved you so much that you meant more to him than hisfather and mother. If his every thought and his whole heartcleaved to you so that he would let a priest join his right handto yours and would promise to be faithful here and throughout alleternity, then his soul would dwell in your body, and you wouldshare in the happiness of mankind. He would give you a soul andyet keep his own. But that can never come to pass. The very thingthat is your greatest beauty here in the sea - your fish tail -would be considered ugly on land. They have such poor taste thatto be thought beautiful there you have to have two awkward propswhich they call legs."
The little mermaid sighed and looked unhappily ather fish tail.
"Come, let us be gay!" the old lady said. "Let usleap and bound throughout the three hundred years that we have tolive. Surely that is time and to spare, and afterwards we shallbe glad enough to rest in our graves. - We are holding a courtball this evening."
This was a much more glorious affair than is everto be seen on earth. The walls and the ceiling of the greatballroom were made of massive but transparent glass. Manyhundreds of huge rose-red and grass-green shells stood on eachside in rows, with the blue flames that burned in each shellilluminating the whole room and shining through the walls soclearly that it was quite bright in the sea outside. You couldsee the countless fish, great and small, swimming toward theglass walls. On some of them the scales gleamed purplish-red,while others were silver and gold. Across the floor of the hallran a wide stream of water, and upon this the mermaids and mermendanced to their own entrancing songs. Such beautiful voices arenot to be heard among the people who live on land. The littlemermaid sang more sweetly than anyone else, and everyoneapplauded her. For a moment her heart was happy, because she knewshe had the loveliest voice of all, in the sea or on the land.But her thoughts soon strayed to the world up above. She couldnot forget the charming Prince, nor her sorrow that she did nothave an immortal soul like his. Therefore she stole out of herfather's palace and, while everything there was song andgladness, she sat sadly in her own little garden.
Then she heard a bugle call through the water, andshe thought, "That must mean he is sailing up there, he whom Ilove more than my father or mother, he of whom I am alwaysthinking, and in whose hands I would so willingly trust mylifelong happiness. I dare do anything to win him and to gain animmortal soul. While my sisters are dancing here, in my father'spalace, I shall visit the sea witch of whom I have always been soafraid. Perhaps she will be able to advise me and help me."
The little mermaid set out from her garden towardthe whirlpools that raged in front of the witch's dwelling. Shehad never gone that way before. No flowers grew there, nor anyseaweed. Bare and gray, the sands extended to the whirlpools,where like roaring mill wheels the waters whirled and snatchedeverything within their reach down to the bottom of the sea.Between these tumultuous whirlpools she had to thread her way toreach the witch's waters, and then for a long stretch the onlytrail lay through a hot seething mire, which the witch called herpeat marsh. Beyond it her house lay in the middle of a weirdforest, where all the trees and shrubs were polyps, half animaland half plant. They looked like hundred-headed snakes growingout of the soil. All their branches were long, slimy arms, withfingers like wriggling worms. They squirmed, joint by joint, fromtheir roots to their outermost tentacles, and whatever they couldlay hold of they twined around and never let go. The littlemermaid was terrified, and stopped at the edge of the forest. Herheart thumped with fear and she nearly turned back, but then sheremembered the Prince and the souls that men have, and shesummoned her courage. She bound her long flowing locks closelyabout her head so that the polyps could not catch hold of them,folded her arms across her breast, and darted through the waterlike a fish, in among the slimy polyps that stretched out theirwrithing arms and fingers to seize her. She saw that every one ofthem held something that it had caught with its hundreds oflittle tentacles, and to which it clung as with strong hoops ofsteel. The white bones of men who had perished at sea and sunk tothese depths could be seen in the polyps' arms. Ships' rudders,and seamen's chests, and the skeletons of land animals had alsofallen into their clutches, but the most ghastly sight of all wasa little mermaid whom they had caught and strangled.
She reached a large muddy clearing in the forest,where big fat water snakes slithered about, showing their foulyellowish bellies. In the middle of this clearing was a housebuilt of the bones of shipwrecked men, and there sat the seawitch, letting a toad eat out of her mouth just as we might feedsugar to a little canary bird. She called the ugly fat watersnakes her little chickabiddies, and let them crawl and sprawlabout on her spongy bosom.
"I know exactly what you want," said the seawitch. "It is very foolish of you, but just the same you shallhave your way, for it will bring you to grief, my proud princess.You want to get rid of your fish tail and have two props instead,so that you can walk about like a human creature, and have theyoung Prince fall in love with you, and win him and an immortalsoul besides." At this, the witch gave such a loud cackling laughthat the toad and the snakes were shaken to the ground, wherethey lay writhing.
"You are just in time," said the witch. "After thesun comes up tomorrow, a whole year would have to go by before Icould be of any help to you. J shall compound you a draught, andbefore sunrise you must swim to the shore with it, seat yourselfon dry land, and drink the draught down. Then your tail willdivide and shrink until it becomes what the people on earth calla pair of shapely legs. But it will hurt; it will feel as if asharp sword slashed through you. Everyone who sees you will saythat you are the most graceful human being they have ever laideyes on, for you will keep your gliding movement and no dancerwill be able to tread as lightly as you. But every step you takewill feel as if you were treading upon knife blades so sharp thatblood must flow. I am willing to help you, but are you willing tosuffer all this?"
"Yes," the little mermaid said in a tremblingvoice, as she thought of the Prince and of gaining a humansoul.
"Remember!" said the witch. "Once you have taken ahuman form, you can never be a mermaid again. You can never comeback through the waters to your sisters, or to your father'spalace. And if you do not win the love of the Prince socompletely that for your sake he forgets his father and mother,cleaves to you with his every thought and his whole heart, andlets the priest join your hands in marriage, then you will win noimmortal soul. If he marries someone else, your heart will breakon the very next morning, and you will become foam of thesea."
"I shall take that risk," said the little mermaid,but she turned as pale as death.
"Also, you will have to pay me," said the witch,"and it is no trifling price that I'm asking. You have thesweetest voice of anyone down here at the bottom of the sea, andwhile I don't doubt that you would like to captivate the Princewith it, you must give this voice to me. I will take the verybest thing that you have, in return for my sovereign draught. Imust pour my own blood in it to make the drink as sharp as atwo-edged sword."
"But if you take my voice," said the littlemermaid, "what will be left to me?"
"Your lovely form," the witch told her, "yourgliding movements, and your eloquent eyes. With these you caneasily enchant a human heart. Well, have you lost your courage?Stick out your little tongue and I shall cut it off. I'll have myprice, and you shall have the potent draught."
"Go ahead," said the little mermaid.
The witch hung her caldron over the flames, tobrew the draught. "Cleanliness is a good thing," she said, as shetied her snakes in a knot and scoured out the pot with them. Thenshe pricked herself in the chest and let her black blood splashinto the caldron. Steam swirled up from it, in such ghastlyshapes that anyone would have been terrified by them. The witchconstantly threw new ingredients into the caldron, and it startedto boil with a sound like that of a crocodile shedding tears.When the draught was ready at last, it looked as clear as thepurest water.
"There's your draught," said the witch. Andshe cut off the tongue of the little mermaid, who now was dumband could neither sing nor talk.
"If the polyps should pounce on you when you walkback through my wood," the witch said, "just spill a drop of thisbrew upon them and their tentacles will break in a thousandpieces." But there was no need of that, for the polyps curled upin terror as soon as they saw the bright draught. It glittered inthe little mermaid's hand as if it were a shining star. So shesoon traversed the forest, the marsh, and the place of ragingwhirlpools.
She could see her father's palace. The lights hadbeen snuffed out in the great ballroom, and doubtless everyone inthe palace was asleep, but she dared not go near them, now thatshe was stricken dumb and was leaving her home forever. Her heartfelt as if it would break with grief. She tip-toed into thegarden, took one flower from each of her sisters' little plots,blew a thousand kisses toward the palace, and then mounted upthrough the dark blue sea.
The sun had not yet risen when she saw thePrince's palace. As she climbed his splendid marble staircase,the moon was shining clear. The little mermaid swallowed thebitter, fiery draught, and it was as if a two-edged sword struckthrough her frail body. She swooned away, and lay there as if shewere dead. When the sun rose over the sea she awoke and felt aflash of pain, but directly in front of her stood the handsomeyoung Prince, gazing at her with his coal-black eyes. Loweringher gaze, she saw that her fish tail was gone, and that she hadthe loveliest pair of white legs any young maid could hope tohave. But she was naked, so she clothed herself in her own longhair.
The Prince asked who she was, and how she came tobe there. Her deep blue eyes looked at him tenderly but verysadly, for she could not speak. Then he took her hand and led herinto his palace. Every footstep felt as if she were walking onthe blades and points of sharp knives, just as the witch hadforetold, but she gladly endured it. She moved as lightly as abubble as she walked beside the Prince. He and all who saw hermarveled at the grace of her gliding walk.
Once clad in the rich silk and muslin garmentsthat were provided for her, she was the loveliest person in allthe palace, though she was dumb and could neither sing nor speak.Beautiful slaves, attired in silk and cloth of gold, came to singbefore the Prince and his royal parents. One of them sang moresweetly than all the others, and when the Prince smiled at herand clapped his hands, the little mermaid felt very unhappy, forshe knew that she herself used to sing much more sweetly.
"Oh," she thought, "if he only knew that I partedwith my voice forever so that I could be near him."
Graceful slaves now began to dance to the mostwonderful music. Then the little mermaid lifted her shapely whitearms, rose up on the tips of her toes, and skimmed over thefloor. No one had ever danced so well. Each movement set off herbeauty to better and better advantage, and her eyes spoke moredirectly to the heart than any of the singing slaves coulddo.
She charmed everyone, and especially the Prince,who called her his dear little foundling. She danced time andagain, though every time she touched the floor she felt as if shewere treading on sharp-edged steel. The Prince said he would keepher with him always, and that she was to have a velvet pillow tosleep on outside his door.
He had a page's suit made for her, so that shecould go with him on horseback. They would ride through the sweetscented woods, where the green boughs brushed her shoulders, andwhere the little birds sang among the fluttering leaves.
She climbed up high mountains with the Prince, andthough her tender feet bled so that all could see it, she onlylaughed and followed him on until they could see the cloudsdriving far below, like a flock of birds in flight to distantlands.
At home in the Prince's palace, while the othersslept at night, she would go down the broad marble steps to coolher burning feet in the cold sea water, and then she would recallthose who lived beneath the sea. One night her sisters came by,arm in arm, singing sadly as they breasted the waves. When sheheld out her hands toward them, they knew who she was, and toldher how unhappy she had made them all. They came to see her everynight after that, and once far, far out to sea, she saw her oldgrandmother, who had not been up to the surface this many a year.With her was the sea king, with his crown upon his head. Theystretched out their hands to her, but they did not venture sonear the land as her sisters had.
Day after day she became more dear to the Prince,who loved her as one would love a good little child, but he neverthought of making her his Queen. Yet she had to be his wife orshe would never have an immortal soul, and on the morning afterhis wedding she would turn into foam on the waves.
"Don't you love me best of all?" the littlemermaid's eyes seemed to question him, when he took her in hisarms and kissed her lovely forehead.
"Yes, you are most dear to me," said the Prince,"for you have the kindest heart. You love me more than anyoneelse does, and you look so much like a young girl I once saw butnever shall find again. I was on a ship that was wrecked, and thewaves cast me ashore near a holy temple, where many young girlsperformed the rituals. The youngest of them found me beside thesea and saved my life. Though I saw her no more than twice, sheis the only person in all the world whom I could love. But youare so much like her that you almost replace the memory of her inmy heart. She belongs to that holy temple, therefore it is mygood fortune that I have you. We shall never part."
"Alas, he doesn't know it was I who saved hislife," the little mermaid thought. "I carried him over the sea tothe garden where the temple stands. I hid behind the foam andwatched to see if anyone would come. I saw the pretty maid heloves better than me." A sigh was the only sign of her deepdistress, for a mermaid cannot cry. "He says that the other maidbelongs to the holy temple. She will never come out into theworld, so they will never see each other again. It is I who willcare for him, love him, and give all my life to him."
Now rumors arose that the Prince was to wed thebeautiful daughter of a neighboring King, and that it was forthis reason he was having such a superb ship made ready to sail.The rumor ran that the Prince's real interest in visiting theneighboring kingdom was to see the King's daughter, and that hewas to travel with a lordly retinue. The little mermaid shook herhead and smiled, for she knew the Prince's thoughts far betterthan anyone else did.
"I am forced to make this journey," he told her."I must visit the beautiful Princess, for this is my parents'wish, but they would not have me bring her home as my brideagainst my own will, and I can never love her. She does notresemble the lovely maiden in the temple, as you do, and if Iwere to choose a bride, I would sooner choose you, my dear mutefoundling with those telling eyes of yours." And he kissed her onthe mouth, fingered her long hair, and laid his head against herheart so that she came to dream of mortal happiness and animmortal soul.
"I trust you aren't afraid of the sea, my silentchild ' he said, as they went on board the magnificent vesselthat was to carry them to the land of the neighboring King. Andhe told her stories of storms, of ships becalmed, of strangedeep-sea fish, and of the wonders that divers have seen. Shesmiled at such stories, for no one knew about the bottom of thesea as well as she did.
In the clear moonlight, when everyone except theman at the helm was asleep, she sat on the side of the shipgazing down through the transparent water, and fancied she couldcatch glimpses of her father's palace. On the topmost tower stoodher old grandmother, wearing her silver crown and looking up atthe keel of the ship through the rushing waves. Then her sistersrose to the surface, looked at her sadly, and wrung their whitehands. She smiled and waved, trying to let them know that allwent well and that she was happy. But along came the cabin boy,and her sisters dived out of sight so quickly that the boysupposed the flash of white he had seen was merely foam on thesea.
Next morning the ship came in to the harbor of theneighboring King's glorious city. All the church bells chimed,and trumpets were sounded from all the high towers, while thesoldiers lined up with flying banners and glittering bayonets.Every day had a new festivity, as one ball or levee followedanother, but the Princess was still to appear. They said she wasbeing brought up in some far-away sacred temple, where she waslearning every royal virtue. But she came at last.
The little mermaid was curious to see howbeautiful this Princess was, and she had to grant that a moreexquisite figure she had never seen. The Princess's skin wasclear and fair, and behind the long, dark lashes her deep blueeyes were smiling and devoted.
"It was you!" the Prince cried. "You are theone who saved me when I lay like a dead man beside the sea." Heclasped the blushing bride of his choice in his arms. "Oh, I amhappier than a man should be!" he told his little mermaid. "Myfondest dream - that which I never dared to hope - has cometrue. You will share in my great joy, for you love me more thananyone does."
The little mermaid kissed his hand and felt thather heart was beginning to break. For the morning after hiswedding day would see her dead and turned to watery foam.
All the church bells rang out, and heralds rodethrough the streets to announce the wedding. Upon every altarsweet-scented oils were burned in costly silver lamps. Thepriests swung their censers, the bride and the bridegroom joinedtheir hands, and the bishop blessed their marriage. The littlemermaid, clothed in silk and cloth of gold, held the bride'strain, but she was deaf to the wedding march and blind to theholy ritual. Her thought turned on her last night upon earth, andon all she had lost in this world.
That same evening, the bride and bridegroom wentaboard the ship. Cannon thundered and banners waved. On the deckof the ship a royal pavilion of purple and gold was set up, andfurnished with luxurious cushions. Here the wedded couple were tosleep on that calm, clear night. The sails swelled in the breeze,and the ship glided so lightly that it scarcely seemed to moveover the quiet sea. All nightfall brightly colored lanterns werelighted, and the mariners merrily danced on the deck. The littlemermaid could not forget that first time she rose from the depthsof the sea and looked on at such pomp and happiness. Light as aswallow pursued by his enemies, she joined in the whirling dance.Everyone cheered her, for never had she danced so wonderfully.Her tender feet felt as if they were pierced by daggers, but shedid not feel it. Her heart suffered far greater pain. She knewthat this was the last evening that she ever would see him forwhom she had forsaken her home and family, for whom she hadsacrificed her lovely voice and suffered such constant torment,while he knew nothing of all these things. It was the last nightthat she would breathe the same air with him, or look upon deepwaters or the star fields of the blue sky. A never-ending night,without thought and without dreams, awaited her who had no souland could not get one. The merrymaking lasted long aftermidnight, yet she laughed and danced on despite the thought ofdeath she carried in her heart. The Prince kissed his beautifulbride and she toyed with his coal-black hair. Hand in hand, theywent to rest in the magnificent pavilion.
A hush came over the ship. Only the helmsmanremained on deck as the little mermaid leaned her white arms onthe bulwarks and looked to the east to see the first red hint ofdaybreak, for she knew that the first flash of the sun wouldstrike her dead. Then she saw her sisters rise up among thewaves. They were as pale as she, and there was no sign of theirlovely long hair that the breezes used to blow. It had all beencut off.
'We have given our hair to the witch," they said,"so that she would send you help, and save you from deathtonight. She gave us a knife. Here it is. See the sharp blade!Before the sun rises, you must strike it into the Prince's heart,and when his warm blood bathes your feet they will grow togetherand become a fish tail. Then you will be a mermaid again, able tocome back to us in the sea, and live out your three hundred yearsbefore you die and turn into dead salt sea foam. Make haste! Heor you must die before sunrise. Our old grandmother is sogrief-stricken that her white hair is falling fast, just as oursdid under the witch's scissors. Kill the Prince and come back tous. Hurry! Hurry! See that red glow in the heavens! In a fewminutes the sun will rise and you must die." So saying, they gavea strange deep sigh and sank beneath the waves.
The little mermaid parted the purple curtains ofthe tent and saw the beautiful bride asleep with her head on thePrince's breast. The mermaid bent down and kissed his shapelyforehead. She looked at the sky, fast reddening for the break ofday. She looked at the sharp knife and again turned her eyestoward the Prince, who in his sleep murmured the name of hisbride. His thoughts were all for her, and the knife bladetrembled in the mermaid's hand. But then she flung it from her,far out over the waves. Where it fell the waves were red, as ifbubbles of blood seethed in the water. With eyes already glazingshe looked once more at the Prince, hurled herself over thebulwarks into the sea, and felt her body dissolve in foam.
The sun rose up from the waters. Its beams fell,warm and kindly, upon the chill sea foam, and the little mermaiddid not feel the hand of death. In the bright sunlightoverhead,she saw hundreds of fair ethereal beings. They were sotransparent that through them she could see the ship's whitesails and the red clouds in the sky. Their voices were sheermusic, but so spirit-like that no human ear could detect thesound, just as no eye on earth could see their forms. Withoutwings, they floated as light as the air itself. The littlemermaid discovered that she was shaped like them, and that shewas gradually rising up out of the foam.
'Who are you, toward whom I rise?" she asked, andher voice sounded like those above her, so spiritual that nomusic on earth could match it.
"We are the daughters of the air," they answered."A mermaid has no immortal soul, and can never get one unless shewins the love of a human being. Her eternal life must depend upona power outside herself. The daughters of the air do not have animmortal soul either, but they can earn one by their good deeds.We fly to the south, where the hot poisonous air kills humanbeings unless we bring cool breezes. We carry the scent offlowers through the air, bringing freshness and healing balmwherever we go. When for three hundred years we have tried to doall the good that we can, we are given an immortal soul and ashare in mankind's eternal bliss. You, poor little mermaid, havetried with your whole heart to do this too. Your suffering andyour loyalty have raised you up into the realm of airy spirits,and now in the course of three hundred years you may earn by yourgood deeds a soul that will never die."
The little mermaid lifted her clear bright eyestoward God's sun, and for the first time her eyes were wet withtears.
On board the ship all was astir and lively again.She saw the Prince and his fair bride in search of her. Then theygazed sadly into the seething foam, as if they knew she hadhurled herself into the waves. Unseen by them, she kissed thebride's forehead, smiled upon the Prince, and rose up with theother daughters of the air to the rose-red clouds that sailed onhigh.
"This is the way that we shall rise to the kingdomof God, after three hundred years have passed."
"We may get there even sooner," one spiritwhispered. "Unseen, we fly into the homes of men, where there arechildren, and for every day on which we find a good child whopleases his parents and deserves their love, God shortens ourdays of trial. The child does not know when we float through hisroom, but when we smile at him in approval one year is taken fromour three hundred. But if we see a naughty, mischievous child wemust shed tears of sorrow, and each tear adds a day to the timeof our trial."
