
ONCE UPON A TIME there was a little mermaid. She had a voice as melodious as water running through the strings of a harp, skin like rose petals and eyes as blue as the deepest oceans. But she was a solemn child, filled with a deep yearning to visit The Land Above The Sea.
It was the custom for mer children to swim to the surface on their fifteenth birthday, but not before. So the little mermaid had to wait and wait. Every year another of her five elder sisters visited the surface and returned with more tales of its wonders and every year the littlest mermaid grew more and more full of longing. Until at last she too was fifteen and she rose to the surface as fast and eager as a bubble.
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Her first sight on breaking through was a magnificent ship garlanded with colored lights. As the sea swell lifted her up she
could see a happy crowd on board celebrating the birthday of a handsome prince. He had the deepest darkest eyes our little mermaid
had ever seen. All night she bobbed beside the ship hoping to glimpse him whenever the waves carried her high enough. She stayed
until the dancing and fireworks were over and the feasting was done. She stayed until the only voice was a low grumble sounding
up from the sea bed. Suddenly the grumble became a rumble, the rumble grew to a roar and a great storm began to rage.
The little mermaid was flung high and low as she rode the waves. She saw the humans flounder and drown as their great ship broke apart. Desperately she dived into the wreckage in search of the prince. When she found him he was near death and she held him in her arms all night to keep his head above water letting the sea wash them where it would. |
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As the sun rose she saw they had been carried to a calm bay fringed with oranges groves. The prince was still unconscious as she brought him ashore, his beautiful eyes were closed. The little mermaid lay him down, pushed back his wet hair and kissed his handsome forehead before retreating behind some rocks to keep watch. Soon a young girl appeared on the beach and the prince revived enough to smile his glorious smile at her. But he didn't smile at the little mermaid, he didn't know she had saved him or even that she was there. Sadly she turned and dived back under the water. She had alway been solemn and pensive but now the little mermaid was quieter than ever and she wouldn't speak about the surface at all. Longing for the prince but not knowing where to find him, she returned over and over to the beach by the orange trees. The oranges ripened and fell and still she would not tell her story. |
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At last she could keep her secret no longer and confided in her sisters. One knew where his castle lay and they all linked arms to show their little sister the way Now that she knew where the prince lived, the little mermaid went often to gaze upon the prince. If he was away she watched the fishermen who worked by torchlight. She grew to love humans and went to ask her grandmother, who understood The Land Above The Sea, how to join the mortal world. "The difference between us is not just their lack of a beautiful tail" explained the old queen. "We mer-folk live for centures but when we die we're just foam upon the sea. Humans, on the other hand have a thing called a soul that lives even after their bones are dust. The only way for you to become a human is to marry one of them. Then his soul will be shared with you. But my dear," she added, "that will never happen. Up there one must have two clumsy stumps, called legs, to be beautiful. They would find your lovely fishtail disgusting." |
| The little mermaid would have done anything to win the prince and an immortal soul. So she left home at once in search of the fearsome Sea Witch and her powerful magic. After braving maelstroms and forests of murderous polyps the little mmermaid finally found her sitting in a house made of human bones. |
| The old witch laughed when she saw the mermaid. "I know what you want and you're stupid to want it" she said. "But you can have your wish, for a price. I've got a potion that'll make you're tail split and shrink. You'll have lovely legs and you'll be as graceful as a little wave, but it'll hurt. Every step will be like walking on knives. And remember, if the prince won't marry you, you can never come home, your heart will break and you will die." The little mermaid trembled when she heard this but agreed to the terms. "There is more" said the witch, "you must pay me too, and my price is your voice. Stick out your little tongue so I can cut it off and you shall have the drink." |
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"So be it" said the little mermaid.
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| The next morning the black-eyed prince found a beautiful young girl on the beach. She was naked and mute, but she moves as sweetly as ripples over a moonlit sea. |
As the witch had promised every step the little mermaid took on her long white legs hurt. But she endured this wilingly to be beside the prince. He, in his turn, was so fascinated by the beauty who danced her love with unsupassed grace that he let her sleep outside his door on a velvet cushion. He had boy's clothes made for her so she could ride and climb with him. His kissed her rosey lips an rested his head upon her heart. But he never though of marrying her. Instead he told her of his love for the girl who had found him, shipwrecked and half dead. She was, he said, the only one he could marry in this world but she was consecrated to a holy temple. Instead of marrying another he would always keep the little mermaid with him for she looked like his beloved.
"He doesn't know that it was me who carried him to the beach and saved his life." thought the sad little mermaid. But then another idea cheered her. "This girl he loves will never leave the temple but I'm with him every day. It's me who'll take care of him, love him, lay down my life for him."
Even when the prince had to visit a nearby princess the little mermaid waved him cheerfully off, sure that he would come home, alone, to her.
But the little mermaid was mistaken, when the prince finally came back he brought a girl. It was his love from the beach. By some miracle she was the princess he must marry. "You will be overjoyed at my good fortune," he told the little mermaid, "for you love me best of all." She kissed his hand and felt her heart begin to break.
At the royal wedding the little mermaid danced more magnificently that ever. As always it was as though sharp knives cut into her delicate feet. But this time she felt nothing, her heart was too full of pain. In the morning she would die.
Long after the dance had stopped and the prince had led his bride to bed the little mermaid stood by the sea and waited for the first rays of dawn to kill her. But then she saw her sisters rising through the waves.
They were as pale as she and each and each had cut her long flowing hair. "We gave it to the sea witch in exchange for this knife" they said. "If you plunge it into the prince's hear before sunrise your feet will become a glorious tail once more. You can come home to us. But hurry, hurry! In a few moments the sun will rise and you must die!"
Gripping her knife, the little mermaid ran to the royal bedchamber. She stoodover the royal bed adn watched the sleeping prince as he lay with his bride. She looked at the lightening sky, at the sharp blade and again at the entwined couple. She kissed the handsom forehead of the blak eyed prince and turned away to meet the morning.
The little mermaid stood in the waves waiting to become cold sea foam. But when the sun rose she didn't feel death. Instead she saw hundreds of transparent creatures floating about her. "We are the Daughters of the Air" they whispered sweetly. "Like you we have no immortal soul, but by good deeds we can earn one. Come with us while we waft fragrant breezes through hot places and cry over wicked children, your sufferings have earned you a chance at eternal happiness."
Invisible now, the little mermaid kissed the prince's bride, smiled down at the prince and rose up to create a soul for herself.
The End