The Confusing Mermaid

It was past twelve, somewhat cold outside, and all together quiet in the house. Prime time for reading Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales. I decided to work my way backward, for once, and read this curious note from Anderson himself.

"I decided to place [The Little Mermaid] among a group of tales that I had already begun. The others in this booklet are more children stories than this one, whose deeper meaning only an adult can understand; but I believe that I child will enjoy it for the story's sake only."

From what I could remember, I had never even thought of a 'deeper meaning' to the story. I just remembered one detail very clearly - that every step she took was like knives piercing through her feet. I reread the tale, then again, and again.

It got curiouser and curiouser...

The tale has so much ambiguity. Everyone knows the Disney-fied version, but the real one is quite, quite different. It has an almost ethereal feel to it.

Brief Summary: Mermaids live up to 300 years, then they become the foam on the sea. They have no immortal souls. The only way for a mermaid to have a soul is to have a human fall in love, and thus give a 'part' of his soul to her. Little mermaid saves a prince, falls in love with him, becomes human at the cost of her voice, and will have an immortal soul if - and only if - the prince falls in love with her. But the prince falls in love with someone else. And our little mermaid has the choice to either die when the sun rises or kill the prince and then live her 245 mermaid years. The sun rises upon a living prince and a resigned mermaid. But! She does not die and become foam on the sea, but she becomes a 'daughter of the air' who can earn an immortal soul by doing good deeds for 300 years.

Heh, that definitely wasn't in the Disney version.

I first thought this was all sentimental, a universalism akin to George MacDonald's writings. But that does not fit in with the rest of Anderson's writings. Remember the little girl with the red shoes? She got her feet chopped off for her vanity. Or the naughty girl? The pavement opened up for her. There's countless examples of justive and morality in Anderson's writings. Which makes The Little Mermaid even more of a puzzle. I wouldn't read into it, if Anderson hadn't written about that 'deeper meaning'. Now I'm floundering. Pun intended.

I'm curious if any of you have ideas/theories on this. In part, it could be a redemptive story, with the little mermaid spending those 300 years atoning for... well, what? Her love for the prince? Leaving her family? And then there's that curious factor that the mermaid became human because she loved the prince, not because she wanted a soul. She dances for his wedding and laughs, but all the while with 'thoughts of death in her heart.'