The most famous faerietale of mermaids would have to be Hans Christian Andersen's THE LITTLE MERMAID. On this page you will find other faerietales dealing with mermaids and water-sprites or water-beings that have enchanted children for centuries,proving that some mythologies can past the test of time. One thing to look for is the role the watery being plays. It is never really a happy ending for the souless being and that is perhaps the main difference between todays stories, or indeed interpretations of these stories. . .

All entries, except for Kalevala, are from "THE OXFORD COMPANION TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, which can be found in SOURCES

"Little Mermaid, The, a fairy story by Hans ANDERSEN.

When she is 15 years old the youngest daughter of the mer-king is allowed to swim to the suface and view the world above. She rescues a young prince from a shipwreck and falls in love with him. Hoping that he will return her love if she adopts human form, she visits the sea-witch and begs that her fishtail be changed into legs. The wish is granted, but at a terrible price: the legs will always be horribly painful to walk upon and the witch cuts out the mermaid's tongue in payment, so that she becomes dumb. She is also told that should she become the bride of the prince she will gain an immortal soul, but if he marries another she will immediately perish and go into oblivion. The mermaid, now in human form, is found on the shore by the prince, who takes her to his palace and treats her with great affection; but he eventually marries another. The mermaid's body dissolved into foam, thought her spirit does not perish as the witch had foretold: it becomes one of the 'daughters of air', who will gain immortality if they can perform good deeds or discover truly good children among human families.

Andersen published the story in 1836, and said that it 'did receive some applause, which encouraged me to try to write more tales of my own invention'. It was translated into English in 1846. The motif of a mermaid rescuing a human being from shipwreck appears in the PENTAMERONE, and elsewhere in folk-literature, while the detail of the mermaid gaining immortality if the prince marries her resembles UNDINE by La Motte Fouque, which was published in 1811 and to which The Little Mermaid corresponds in many points. Both stories seem to be descended from the French tale of the water-sprite Melusine, who marries an human knight. But The Little Mermaid is chiefly the product of Hans Andersen's own unhappiness in love." Below can be found the sculpture of The Little Mermaid that can be seen in Copenhagen today, click on the image for more information.

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"Undine, a story by La Motte Fouque, published in German in 1811 and first translated ito English in 1818.

The water-sprite Undine, whose name the author took from Goethe, has been adopted and brought up by an old fisherman and his wife who have lost their own child. She meets the knight Huldbrand, who comes to the fisherman's cottage; the two fall in love and Undine marries him, only then revealing that she is not human. By the marriage she gains a soul. Huldbrand subsequently falls in love with Bertalda, who proves to be the fisherman's long-lost daughter. Undine return to her watery element, but when Huldbrand marries Bertalda the water-sprite reappears and kills the knight with a kiss.

The story, which has resemblences the THE LITTLE MERMAID by Andersen, is descended from Melusine, the French folk-tale of a water-sprite who who marries a knight on condition that he shall never see her on Saturdays, when she resumes her mermaid shape. Undine has been made ito a ballet and an opera. An unabridged English edition of the story published in 1909 has fine illustrations by Rackhan. George Macdonald thought Undine 'the most beautiful' of all fairy stories, and the references to it in such works as Charlotte Yonge's THE DAISY CHAIN and Louisa Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN show that it was one of the best loved of all books for many 19th-century children."

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"Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up,a play by J. M. Barrie, first performed in London in 1904, and since its initial appearance on the stage regarded as a permanent piece of children's mythology.

To the night nursery of the Darling children, Wendy, John and Michael, comes Peter Pan, a motherless half-magical boy who teaches them how to fly and takes them through the skies to the Never Never Land, a country peopled with the most thrilling beings from children's stories: Indian, Mermaids, wolves, and most of all Pirates, who are under the leadership of the dreadfull Captain Hool, so named from the steel hook he wears instead of a right hand. This hand was bitten off by a crocodile, who, as Hook explains, 'liked my arm so much. . . that he has followed me ever since. . . licking his lips for the rest of me.' The crocodile eventually gets his man, but not before Hook has tried to poison Peter, has nearly killed Peter's Fairy Tinker Bell, and has made prisoners of Wendy, her bothers, and the Lost Boys who live with Peter. Hook having been despatched, the Darling children return home, and are reunited with their sorrowing parents and with Nana, the huge dog who is their nusemaid; but every spring Wendy is allowed to go back to the Never Never Land to do Peter's spring-cleaning for him, in the little house that he and the Lost Boys once built for her which now nestles in the tree-tops.'

. . . For the 1905 revival Barrie wrote a new act to follow the first Never Never Land scene; this was 'The Mermaids' Lagoon', which called for the most elaborate stage effects, and concluded with Peter's remark 'To die will be an awfully big adventure.'This scene's technical requirements, and the fact that it is not essential to the development of the plot, has caused it to be omitted from many modern performances."

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"The Sea Egg, 1967, by L. M. Boston:

the story of two boys, who acquire a strange green egg-shaped stone which they place in a rock-pool; from it there hatches a Triton in whose company they explore the sea. The Sea Egg is Boston's most popular book outside her 'Green Knowe' series."

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"Wet Magic, 1913, a novel by E. Nesbit

about children who rescue a Mermaid they find captive in a fairground."

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"The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby, 1863, by Charles Kinsley, appeared in print two years before Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and was one of the first classicfantasies by an English author.

Tom, a small boy with neither father nor mother is employed by Grimes, a villainous chimney-sweep, to climb up flues and brush down the soot. His master beats him and uses foul language but Tom is cheerful enough, knowing no better life. Early one morning they go to Harthover, a grand mansion, to sweep the chimneys. Tom loses his way in the dark flues and comes down into the bedroom of Ellie, the squire's little daughter, who screams in alarm at the sight of him. Losing his nerve, he jumps out of the window, and is soon being pursued across the park by Sir John Harthover's household, who believe that he has been caught in the act of stealing. Tom gives them the slip, descends a steep limestone cliff, and comes to Vendale, where he is given refreshment by the old woman who keeps the dame-school. But Tom is exhausted and feverish after his ten-mile run and wanders in a daze down to the river, thinking he hears church-bells. Longing to cool himself, he strips off his clothes and gets into the water, where he falls asleep. His physical body, in fact, is drowned, but he is given a new form - that of a water-baby, tiny, amphibious, and immortal.

For a long time he stays in the shallow stream at Vendale, learning the ways of the river-creatures, and behaving towards them with the same kind of selfishness that he had displayed when a human child. At last, longing to find the company of other water-babies like himself, he sets off downstream. Through an act of kindness to a lobster he acquires the ability to see the other water-babies, who were there all the time but were invisible to him because fo his selfish character. With them, he swims to the magical St Brandan's Isle, out in the sea, where he meets the fierce Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid, who reward and punishes the water-babies for their good and bad befaviour, and the tender and motherly Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby, who is pure love.

On dry land, Tom's death through drowning has caused great sorrow. Ellie, the squire's daughter, is at the seaside one day when she catches a glimpse of Tom the water-baby beneath the sea and, struggling to see him again, loses her footing and hits her head on a rock. The injury proves fatal, and Ellie herself soon comes to Tom's undersea world as a water-baby. Her pure character has earned her a special reward: On Sundays she leaves the water-babies and goes to a special place, where Tom may not accompany her. He longs to go with her, but can only gain this privilege if he sets off on a quest to the Other-end-of-Nowhere, to resue his old master Grimes from the particular hell in which he is immured. After seeing many strange lands and peoples and encountering the great Mother Carey, maker of the sea-creatures, he accomplishes his quest, and is rewarded by going 'home' with Ellie on Sundays - in other words, to Heaven."

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Kalevala, first published in 1835,

with a larger edition being published in 1849. Kalevala is a Finnish national epos that comprised Finnish folk stories and gathered together here by Elios Lonnrot.

"It tells of the weaknesses and spiritual strength of ancient heroes. The epos has been translated into over thirty languages and many artists have received inspiration from it."

Books four and five deal with the story of Aino, a young maiden who drowned herself and joined the muses rather than marry an obnoxious, old man. This is an example of a mermaid, or watery female figure was thought to be the spirit of a drowned woman.

Just beyond she saw three maidens, Bathing there amid the waters, Aino made the fourth among them. (Kalevala: IV 305-7)

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