Andersen avoids the (perhaps expected) happy ending whereby the prince and the little mermaid are married and live happily ever after, with her gaining a soul and truly joining the world of humans. This is one of the aspects of ‘The Little Mermaid’ which make it such a rewarding tale (see the picture above for the popular statue in Copenhagen depicting the title character). Although the mermaid fails in her quest to gain the prince’s hand in marriage and thus a human soul, she does learn when she dies that there is ‘life’ after being a mermaid, and that her kind actions in her life (saving the prince’s life, and then letting him live even though it will mean her own death) carry some (long-term) reward.
‘The Little Mermaid’ is that rare and paradoxical thing: a tragic tale with a happy ending. And that is how the story of the little mermaid ends. But if they travel into a house where a bad child is bringing shame to its parents, a year is added onto their time in this ‘limbo’. Each house they travel into on the breeze, if they find a good child who is a credit to its parents, one year is taken off their three hundred. Her spirit floats up into the air and she is informed by other mermaid spirits or ‘daughters of the air’ that, whilst they cannot gain a soul, they have a chance to do so if they provide a useful service to the world by bringing cooling breezes to the hot winds in warmer parts of the globe.Īt the end of their three centuries of service, they can create their own everlasting soul – and they can shorten the period of time it takes to earn one. This beautiful unabridged edition brings together many of the Danish writer’s favorite stories that have become literary classics, including "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Snow Queen", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Emperor’s New Clothes", and more.But when the mermaid sees the prince and his bride sleeping together in his tent on the ship, she cannot go through with it, and hurls the dagger into the sea before diving overboard and dispersing into foam on the surface of the water. Nearly two hundred years after its publication in 1837, Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless fairytales continue to inspire young imaginations. Featuring beloved characters such as the Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and the Snow Queen, a deluxe full-color edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairytales, illustrated with stunning drawings and interactive artwork from MinaLima, the award-winning design studio behind the graphics for the Harry Potter film franchise-the perfect companion for fans of the Disney live-action film The Little Mermaid which will include a mix of songs from Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken.
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