Book Review:The Little Mermaid

You may have seen the Disney movie “The Little Mermaid,” but have you ever read the original story?  Well if not, you really should!  The little mermaid has 5 sisters, her father is the king, and her grandmother is very proud of her granddaughters.  When the mermaids are 15 years of age, they are allowed to look at the land.  When the book first mentions her, it says the oldest sister will turn 15 that year, and that each sister is one year older than the one before, so this means that the little mermaid was 10.  Finally, she turns 15, and she sees a boat, and on the boat were sailors and among the sailors was a prince with”lovely black eyes”.  But then, the waves crashed, the wind rushed, and the boat was sadly wrecked.  But there was hope, for the prince that is; the little mermaid put the unconscious prince on her and let the wind carry them wherever it liked.  When the little mermaid reached the shore, she put the prince down, and hid between two large rocks.  She waited.  Then a young woman found him, and one by one other people crowded around the prince. When the prince awoke, he thought that the young woman had found him and that the other people had helped her, and so he smiled at them; but did not smile at the little mermaid, this saddened her very much.  She sadly swam back to her home under the sea.  Her sisters wanted to know what was the matter, but she would not tell them; but after a few days she told them, for she could not bear it alone any more.  When her sisters heard what was bothering her, they brought her above the water and showed her where the prince was living.  With the information that her sisters had given her, she decided that she would like to have a human soul, and leave her home to live with the prince.  So, one night while her family was busy with a ball, she went to the witch mermaid.  The witch was horrible.  She was scary. She was wicked. The witch gave the little mermaid a potion that would give her human legs, and if she married the prince she would become a human and have a soul.  But if the prince married another, she would die.  And before she left, she had to give the witch her tongue as payment for the potion.  The little mermaid got on shore and drank the potion and her tail became human legs.  The prince found her and brought her to his palace.  While she was there she danced like no human could, when people spoke to her she would have to answer with the emotions of her eyes.  But one day the prince got an invitation to come to another kingdom to decide if he would marry the princess there.  But he told the little mermaid that  he would marry her instead of the princess.  He then left with the little mermaid. When he arrived in the other kingdom and saw the princess, he recognized her and said,”It was you!” for she was the one who had found him on the beach after the little mermaid had left him there.  And so he decided to marry the princess.  That night the little mermaid knew she was going to die, and so she prepared herself to die.  Then she saw her sisters, but their hair was cut.  They said, “We cut off our hair for this knife that the witch gave us; if you kill the prince then you can get your mermaid tail back and continue living with us.”  So, the little mermaid took the knife, but realized she loved the prince more than ever and threw the knife back into the sea.  Then she jumped in with it and felt herself turning into sea-foam.  Then she felt herself rising to the sky.  She was suddenly surrounded by other mermaids; and they said that they have to do 300 years of good deeds and then go to heaven.  This story reminds me of the Bible verse that says,”(love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”  ( 1 Corinthians 13:7)  What is your favorite fairy tale?