The Little Mermaid
A mermaid who gave up the sea for love, and found a gentler destiny in the sky
Page 1
Far, far out to sea, where the water is as blue as cornflowers and clear as glass, and so deep that no anchor can reach the bottom, there lies the kingdom of the merfolk. There, in a splendid palace of coral and pearl with amber windows, lived the old Sea King with his six mermaid daughters. They were all lovely, but the youngest was the loveliest and the most thoughtful of them all. The merfolk lived a merry life down in the blue, riding seahorses and tending gardens of glowing sea-flowers, far below the reach of ships and storms, in a world of shimmering light and endless water that the people above had never even dreamed of.
Page 2
Of all the sisters, the youngest mermaid loved most to hear her old grandmother's tales of the world above the waves — of ships and towns, of forests and flowers, and of the people who walked on two legs instead of swimming with a tail. In a corner of the coral city she kept a little garden of her own, round as the sun, planted all with flowers as red as the glow she imagined the sky must hold, and in its centre she had set a beautiful marble statue of a boy that had sunk down from some lost ship above. There she would sit for hours, gazing upward at the far pale shimmer of the surface, longing with all her heart for the day she would at last be old enough to rise and see that bright world for herself.
Page 3
At last the youngest mermaid was old enough to rise to the surface for the first time. She swam up and up through the darkening blue until her head broke through the waves into the cool evening air, and she gazed about her in wonder. The sun had just set, the first stars were coming out, and nearby floated a great sailing ship hung with coloured lanterns, full of music and laughter. Aboard it a splendid celebration was being held for a young prince's birthday, and the little mermaid, resting her arms on the swell and letting the waves rock her, could not take her eyes from the handsome young prince at its heart.
Page 4
But the fine evening turned, as sea-weather does, and a terrible storm rose up out of the night. The great ship was tossed like a toy, its mast snapped, and the young prince was flung into the churning black water. The little mermaid, who feared nothing for herself, dived to him at once and held his head above the waves all through the long wild night, swimming with the last of her strength toward land. By morning the storm had blown itself out, and she brought the prince safely to a quiet beach near a great white building, laid him gently on the warm sand, and slipped back into the shallows to watch, unseen, until he was found.
Page 5
The little mermaid could not forget the prince. Day after day she returned to the quiet bay below his white palace and watched him from among the rocks — walking the shore, sailing his little boat, laughing with his friends — though he never once knew that the gentle creature in the waves was the very one who had saved his life. The more she watched the human world, the more she longed to be a part of it, not only for love of the prince but for love of that bright life of sunlight and laughter and warmth. And so at last she made up her mind to do a bold and dangerous thing: she would seek out the Sea Witch in the deepest trench of the ocean, and ask for a way to walk upon the land.
Page 6
A mermaid has no legs, and only a human who loved her could ever give her a soul to live among them. So, bravely, the little mermaid swam down into the deepest, strangest part of the sea to the cavern of the Sea Witch, and asked for help. The witch could give her legs, she said — a potion that would let her walk on land, graceful as any human girl. But the price was dear: the mermaid must give up her beautiful singing voice in exchange, and every step she took upon the land would feel as if she trod on sharp blades. Loving the prince and the bright world more than she loved the sea, and braver than anyone guessed, the little mermaid agreed to the hard bargain.
Page 7
At dawn the little mermaid rose to the surface and swam to the beach below the prince's palace, and there she drank the witch's potion. At once a sharp pain swept through her, and her shimmering tail divided into two slender human legs — though every step she would ever take upon the land would feel like treading on knives, she bore it without a single sound, for she had no voice now to cry out. When the sun came up the prince himself came walking along the shore and found her there, lovely and gentle and mysterious, unable to speak a word. Moved by the sight, he wrapped his cloak about her, raised her kindly to her feet, and took the silent stranger home to live at his palace.
Page 8
The little mermaid came to live at the prince's palace, where everyone marvelled at the lovely silent stranger. She could not speak a single word, but she danced more beautifully than anyone at court, light as sea-foam despite the pain in every step, and the prince grew very fond of his sweet, gentle companion and kept her always by his side. Yet it grieved her deeply that he loved her only as a dear friend — for he believed that the one who had truly saved him from the storm was a girl from a temple on the shore, and he did not dream it had been the little mermaid all along. And she, having given away her voice, could never tell him the truth of what she had done for love of him.
Page 9
In time the prince was betrothed to the very girl he believed had saved him — a kind princess from a neighbouring kingdom — and a great wedding was held aboard a magnificent ship in the harbour. The little mermaid, though her heart was breaking, held a torch at the celebration and danced for them more beautifully than ever, for she wished the prince only happiness. She knew what the wedding meant for her: that the human soul she had hoped to win could never be hers now, and that by the next sunrise she would melt away into the foam of the sea. Yet she bore her sorrow with such grace and gentleness that none of the laughing wedding guests ever guessed the depth of what she gave.
Page 10
As the sun rose over the sea, the little mermaid looked for the last time at the prince she loved, and prepared to dissolve gently into the foam. But she had given so much, and loved so truly and so unselfishly, that the sea did not claim her after all. Instead, in a wash of warm morning light, she rose up — not as foam, but as one of the shining daughters of the air, gentle spirits who drift over the world doing small kindnesses, bringing cool breezes to tired travellers and the scent of flowers to the sick. She was not sorrowful now, but light and free and full of hope; for by her goodness she had earned a chance at a soul of her own, and a gentle, endless place among the sky and the sunrise.
About this story
- Audience: kids (ages 6–12)
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