View source for The Little Mermaid

{{For|the Disney movie|The Little Mermaid (1989 movie)}}
{{Infobox fairy tale
| name                 = The Little Mermaid
| image                = [[File:Vilhelm Pedersen-Little mermaid.jpg|220px]]
| caption              = Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen
| title_orig           = Den lille Havfrue 
| other_titles         = 
| translator           =  
| author               = [[Hans Christian Andersen]]
| country              = [[Denmark]]
| language             = Danish
| characters           = Little Mermaid<br />Sea Witch<br />Human Prince<br />Prince's bride<br />Little Mermaid's sisters<br />Daughters of the Air
| genre                = Literary [[fairy tale]]
| published_in         = Fairy Tales Told for Children (third volume)
| publication_type     = Fairy tale collection
| publisher            = C. A. Reitzel 
| media_type           = Print
| pub_date             = 7 April 1837 
| english_pub_date     = 
| preceded_by          = 
| followed_by          = [[The Emperor's New Clothes]]
| notable_adaptations  = ''The Little Mermaid'' (animated movie, Disney)
}}

"'''The Little Mermaid'''" is a literary [[fairy tale]] by [[Hans Christian Andersen]]. It was first [[publish]]ed in [[Copenhagen, Denmark]] in 1837 in the third volume of ''Fairy Tales Told for Children'' with "[[The Emperor's New Clothes]]".  The tale glorifies suffering and self-denial.<ref>Zipes, p. 300</ref> There is a [[statue]] of The Little Mermaid in the [[harbor]] of [[Copenhagen]]. The story has been adapted to opera and [[animation|animated]] [[movie]]s.

== Story ==
A Beautiful mermaid princess , red hair delicate white skin and blue eyes swims to the surface of the sea. 
As it happens, she sees a human prince and falls in love with him. She wants to meet him again; however, she is a mermaid, and her father, who is the king of the sea, would not let her do so. She wants to find a way to win the prince's love, so she goes to the sea witch's cave. She will get an immortal soul if she wins the love of a human. She sacrifices her voice and her tail to the sea witch for two human legs. The prince becomes her companion. But, he falls in love with another person. The mermaid has the chance to return to the sea. She must kill the prince to go back, and so she refuses. She dies, and is transformed into a daughter of the air. She will receive an immortal soul if she does good deeds for three hundred years.

== Adaptations ==
In 1957, [[Germaine Tailleferre]] wrote a three act [[opera]] with the subject. In 1968, there was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] animated movie. In 1976, a co-production of the Soviet Union and [[Bulgaria]] resulted in a [[live-action]] movie. In 1989, [[The Walt Disney Company]] also made an animated movie. In 2008, [[Studio Ghibli]] made a movie inspired by the story called [[Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea|Ponyo]].

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
* Zipes, Jack. 2000. ''The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales''. Oxford UP.

== Other websites ==
{{wikisource|The Little Mermaid}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.kb.dk/elib/lit/dan/andersen/eventyr.dsl/hcaev008.htm ''Den lille Havfrue''] Original text in [[Danish language|Danish]] from the Danish Royal Library website.
* [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/index.html ''The Annotated Little Mermaid''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023151152/http://surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/index.html |date=2018-10-23 }} by Heidi Anne Heiner, Paull's translation, with scholarly annotations, scans from six illustrated editions, bibliography.


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[[Category:Fairy tales]]
[[Category:Works by Hans Christian Andersen]]
[[Category:1830s books]]