The Little Mermaid is one of Andersen's key characters. She has become a symbol of the Danish capital and the heroine of one of the storyteller's most famous tales.
When creating this work, the author drew inspiration from legends and myths about magnificent aquatic creatures. In his work, he created new worlds, but the trials of his life inevitably influenced his creativity.
The Life of Hans Christian Andersen: A Tale of Resilience and Creativity
Hans was born into a poor family. His father had a basic education, while his mother was completely illiterate. His father died when Hans was only 11 years old. From a young age, Hans loved stories and could tell them endlessly. His mother did not particularly support her son’s passions. After his father's death, Hans began working in a textile factory and later became an apprentice to a tailor. He was sent to a school for the poor, but he hated it, preferring to spend his free time entertaining others with his stories. He often danced while telling his tales, making them even more expressive.
The young Andersen decided to leave Odense for the capital, Copenhagen, in hopes of a better life. He tried singing in a choir but lost his voice. He then turned to ballet, but his physique and poor coordination quickly became obstacles. For three years, he lived in poverty, in conditions far harsher than at home. The harshness and tragedy of these years deeply marked his life and revealed a passion for fairy tales. Poverty significantly nurtured the moral thread that would later run through all his works. In each story, Hans celebrated the poor and the unfortunate.
In "The Little Mermaid", he embodied his own tragedy: a being of a different nature, unable to find a response to its love.
The Creation of "The Little Mermaid": Between Suffering and Inspiration
"The Little Mermaid" was published in 1837 as an open letter from Hans Christian Andersen to his friend, the Stockholm official Edward Collin, for whom Hans had tender feelings. When Andersen learned of Collin’s engagement to a young woman, he confessed his love, but Collin rejected it with disgust. Andersen then wrote "The Little Mermaid", symbolically depicting the impossibility of being with Collin. Like Andersen, she does not receive the kiss of true love that could save her life and make her human. Nevertheless, the Little Mermaid chooses sacrifice over revenge, disappearing into eternity and reuniting with her element.
He sent his manuscript to Collin, which went down in history as the most poignant love letter ever written.
The Mythological Roots of "The Little Mermaid"
When composing the tale, Andersen relied heavily on European folklore. Marine goddesses appear as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Egyptian mythology and spread across Eurasian culture. Depictions of birds with women's heads are not uncommon. In Egypt, this figure is called "Ba" and represents the soul of the deceased leaving the body. Ba often adorned sarcophagi and tombs, surrounding mummies. They are often seen in funerary decorations.
These images also entered Greek culture in the form of Sirens and Harpies (half-women, half-birds of prey; unlike the Sirens, these were ugly creatures known for their cruelty). In ancient Greece, a legend circulated that the Sirens were companions of Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter, who lost her when the god of the Underworld, Hades, kidnapped Persephone to make her his wife. As punishment, Demeter transformed the Sirens into birds, either to help them find their friend or as a punishment for their negligence. Eventually, the Sirens, embittered against the world, were banished to a remote island where they were forced to feed on carrion like vultures. They lured sailors with their songs, leading them to crash on rocks, causing their deaths. The Sirens then feasted on the bodies of the shipwrecked.
The Sirens are first mentioned in Homer's epic "The Odyssey" in the 8th century BC, in the famous episode where Odysseus has himself tied to the mast of his ship to resist the Sirens' songs, while his rowers plug their ears with wax to avoid their deadly fate.
The Sirens' song was not just a simple melody, but a gift of prophecy with which they were endowed, in addition to their enchanting voices, and it was their tales of the past and the future that drove sailors mad.
From Ancient Divinities to Legendary Creatures
From the 3rd century BC, the classics began to assimilate Greek Sirens with Nereids (or sea nymphs), leading to the depiction of Homeric heroines with one or even two scaly fish tails.
In the Middle Ages, at the height of Christian religion, Sirens were considered an allegory of singing courtesans, symbols of worldly temptations. Instead of traditional musical instruments, they were now depicted in art as ordinary mermaids, with a comb and mirror in hand, symbolizing vanity. All chimerical creatures were perceived not as mythical beings but as messengers of the Devil, impurities, and demons, banned from entering Paradise, capable only of harming and killing humans.
In Denmark, sea nymphs could provoke storms, not with a trident, but simply by appearing in the sailors' line of sight. This would foretell a great storm, described by Andersen in his famous tale.
In the 16th century, the alchemist and physician Paracelsus, author of an occult philosophy, developed the theory of elements, in which gnomes, salamanders, sylphs, and undines embodied the four elements: earth, fire, air, and water. They were represented not as opposites to the divine essence but as part of the nature created by God. Paracelsus believed that God created these beings so they could become guardians of the four elements—the treasures of the world, which humans could destroy or plunder. These creatures physically resembled humans, but they were composed of a single element and did not possess an immortal soul. Upon death, they returned to the element to which they belonged.
This theme became popular during the Romantic period of the 19th century, sparking numerous discussions and even finding a place in literature. The first to endow these strange mythological creatures with divine qualities in literature was Friedrich de La Motte Fouqué, with his novella "Undine" written in 1811. Then came the poem "Lorelei" by Heinrich Heine in 1824. Later, Hans Christian Andersen, inspired by his predecessors, wrote "The Little Mermaid" in 1837, a story of impossible and forbidden love that prevented the attainment of an eternal soul. In 1891, Oscar Wilde wrote the novella "The Fisherman and His Soul", where the protagonist seeks to rid himself of his soul to join a mermaid.
According to late Romantic legends, a mermaid is a soulless creature seeking to marry a mortal man to become human. If one decides to live underwater with a mermaid (or an undine), years will pass like minutes. The man, exhausted by the caresses of these half-woman, half-fish creatures, will never return to the surface.
The Piety and Quest for the Immortal Soul in "The Little Mermaid"
Andersen, deeply religious, made many of his stories (with the exception of perhaps "The Princess and the Pea", "The Swineherd", and "The Emperor's New Clothes", where he satirized the vices of society with a touch of satire) Christian parables, skillfully merging with European folklore.
The Little Mermaid in Andersen's tale is less concerned with the pursuit of personal happiness than with the quest for the immortality of the human soul. According to Christian religion, every believer is endowed from birth with a soul capable of surviving the physical death of the body and living eternally, either in Hell for sins after the Last Judgment or in the presence of God in Heaven, praying for others if the soul is righteous.
In Andersen's tale, the Little Mermaid discusses the immortality of the soul with her grandmother. After saving the Prince during a storm, the fifteen-year-old Little Mermaid (15 was the age of majority for girls in Denmark at the time) asks her grandmother a strange question: "If humans do not drown, do they live forever, not dying like us?" The old lady answers affirmatively, noting that the life span of sea nymphs is three hundred years compared to human years. Andersen also slightly paraphrases a biblical quote by saying, "We are like a reed: pull it up by the roots, and it will never green again. When our end comes, we are not buried among our kin; we don't even have a grave; we simply turn into sea foam."
Through the Grandmother's voice, Andersen emphasizes the main difference between sea nymphs and humans, which lies not only in the possession of legs or fish tails. The Little Mermaid is told that sea nymphs do not have an immortal soul and are doomed to an inglorious death, whereas humans, that is, we, "can, after death, rise to unknown blessed heaven, which we will never see!" Disappointed by her Grandmother's answer, the Little Mermaid momentarily forgets the Prince she saved and wonders if it is possible to obtain an immortal soul. It is then that the Grandmother informs her that there is indeed a way to achieve this, prompting the Mermaid to undertake new deeds.
As for the other heroine in Andersen's tale, the Princess, her story is told succinctly. It is only towards the end of the story that we learn that this sweet and innocent girl was raised not in a palace surrounded by governesses, but in a monastery, where she met the Prince whom the Little Mermaid had left on the shore. She cannot be called an intriguer—the Princess simply helped a person in distress, without knowing that she would soon marry this man! The circumstances simply took a strange turn, but the Princess is not to blame.
The true opposition between the Little Mermaid and the Princess in Andersen's tale lies in the fact that the latter possesses piety and a soul, and considering that the Princess outwardly resembles the Little Mermaid, one might conclude that she is a kind of alter ego. The pious girl from the monastery earned happiness and eternal life through her righteousness, unlike the sea nymph, who dreams of becoming human and acquiring an immortal soul. And there is no drama, no betrayal, or jealousy among the characters in this story.
In 1891, about 50 years after the publication of Andersen's tale, Oscar Wilde continued to develop this idea of the immortality of the soul and mermaids in his work 'The Fisherman and His Soul.' While Undine and Lorelei perish at the end of their stories, and kill their lovers out of revenge, like the Greek Sirens, without gaining anything, Andersen's heroine transcends the need for revenge. Even in death, she feels no anger but joy, and she shows human generosity, letting the Prince go with a smile. And the path of the Little Mermaid leads to the Kingdom of God—to Paradise...
Reflections on the Ending of "The Little Mermaid": Between Controversy and Appreciation
Many literary critics, including Pamela Travers, accused Andersen of illogicality and absurdity in the ending of his tale, arguing that the Little Mermaid should have disappeared forever. However, other critics, including Søren Baggesen and James Massengale, argued that the story's conclusion was a natural part of the tale's structure as a religious narrative.
In 1837, shortly after completing his manuscript on The Little Mermaid, Andersen wrote to a friend:
"I did not want, like De La Motte Fouqué in 'Undine,' for the mermaid's acquisition of an immortal soul to depend on an alien being, on a man's love. I am sure that is incorrect! It largely depends on chance, doesn't it? I will not tolerate that in this world. I allowed my mermaid to follow a more natural, more divine path."
Yes, to deserve an immortal soul, one does not need to be loved; a human being can, through their actions, manifest their humanity and thus earn God's grace. Andersen chose the path of acceptance, forgiveness, and resignation for his heroine.
Andersen himself ended his life in solitude, either struggling with his nature or accepting his difference, with fame doing nothing to improve his personal life.
You can discover the story of "The Little Mermaid" through the captivating and philosophical sand art performances with orchestra, chamber music, and solo shows by Katerina Barsukova.
Katerina Barsukova, Sand Artist
Olga Aleksandrova, Artist Director
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