“Yes,” said the old lady, “they die, too, and besides, their lifetime is shorter than ours. We can live for three hundred years, but then we only turn to foam on the water. We have no immortal souls, we never live again. Humans, on the other hand, have a soul that lives always. It rises up through the clear air, up to all the shining stars; just as we rise out of the sea. And then they live in the heavenly world “.
“Why did we have no immortal souls?” said the little mermaid, very sadly. “I can give all my hundreds of years for only one human day. I want to live in the heavenly world.”
“Don’t think about that,” said the old lady, “we are much happier and better!”
“So when I die and float like foam on the sea, I won’t get an everlasting soul?”
“No,” said the old lady, “only if a human being loves you, then his soul will flow over into your body. He will give you a soul. But that can never happen. Your beautiful fish’s tail, which is very beautiful here, people treat like a horrid one. Up there people must have two clumsy props which they call legs”.
The little mermaid sighed and looked sadly at her fish’s tail.
“Let’s be cheerful,” said the old lady. “We’ll jump and dance about for the three hundred years. After that we can sleep in peace”.
But the little mermaid began to think again about the world above her. She could not forget the handsome Prince. So she left her father’s palace, and sat sadly in her little garden. There she heard nice music. Sure, the Prince is sailing up there, she thought. I love him more than father or mother. I will risk everything to win him and an immortal soul. So I will go to the old Sea Witch. She can advise me and help me.
So the little mermaid went off out of her garden, towards the maelstrom behind which the witch lived. No flowers grew there, and no sea grass: only the gray sandy bottom round the maelstrom, where the water whirled round like a millwheel. Behind it lay the Witch’s house, in the middle of a hideous wood. All the trees and bushes of it were polypi, half animal and half plant, which looked like hundred-headed snakes. All their branches were long slimy arms with fingers like pliant worms. The little mermaid was in terrible fear as she stopped outside the wood. Her heart beat with terror, and she almost turned back. Then she thought of the Prince and of the human soul, and she took courage. She joined her two hands together on her breast, and darted along through the water.
Now she came to a great slimy clearing in the wood, where large fat water-snakes wallowed. In the centre of the clearing was a house built of the white bones of men. There the Sea Witch sat.
“I know well enough what you want,” said the Sea Witch, “and it’s a silly thing. But all the same, you will get what you want. It’ll bring you to a bad end, my pretty Princess. You want to be rid of[14] your fish tail and have two props to walk on instead, like humans. You think the young Prince may fall in love with you, and you may get him and an immortal soul. Ha!”
With that the Witch laughed loud and hideously.
“So”, said the Witch; “I shall make a drink for you, and with it you must swim to the land before the sun rises. Put yourself on the beach there, and drink it up. Then your tail will part and transform into what men call ‘pretty legs’. But it’ll hurt, it’ll be like a sharp sword. Everybody that sees you will say you are the prettiest human child they ever saw. You’ll keep your gait, and no dancer will be able to dance like you. But every your step will be as if you were treading on a sharp knife. If you can bear all that, I will do what you wish.”
“Yes,” said the little mermaid; and she thought of the Prince and an immortal soul.
“But remember,” said the Witch, “when you take a human shape, you can never become a mermaid again. You can never go down through the water to your sisters or to your father’s palace. And if you don’t win the love of the Prince, then you won’t get your immortal soul. On the first morning after he is married to anyone else, your heart will break and you will become foam on the water.”
“It is my wish,” said the little mermaid, pale as a corpse.
“But you must pay,” said the witch. “You have the loveliest voice of anyone down here at the bottom of the sea. With it no doubt you think you’ll be able to charm him. But you must give me that voice. I must have the best thing you possess as the price of my precious drink. I shall give you my own blood in it, and the drink will be as sharp as a sword.
“But if you take away my voice,” said the little mermaid, “what shall I have?”
“Your beautiful form,” said the witch, “and your gait, and your eyes. With them you can easily delude a human heart. Don’t be afraid. Just put out your little tongue, and I’ll cut it off. And you’ll have the potent drink.”
“So be it,” said the little mermaid, and the witch put her cauldron on the fire to boil the magic drink.
“Cleanliness is a good thing,” said she, and scoured out the cauldron with snakes which she tied in a knot. Then she scratched herself in the breast and dripped the black blood into the pot. The steam took the most dreadful shapes. When the drink was boiling, the sound was like that of a crocodile weeping. At last the drink was ready, and it looked like the clearest of water.
“There you are”, said the witch, and cut off the tongue of the little mermaid. Now she was dumb, she could neither sing nor speak.
“If the polypi want to catch you when you are going back through my wood,” said the Witch, “just throw one drop of that drink on them, and their arms and fingers will break into a thousand bits”.
But there was no need for the little mermaid to do that. The polypi shrank back in fear before her when they saw the drink which glittered in her hand. So she passed quickly through the wood, and the marsh, and the maelstrom.
She saw her father’s palace. No doubt everyone in there was asleep. But she was dumb and was going to leave them for ever. She went into the garden and took one flower from each of her sister’s flower-beds. Then rose up through the dark blue sea.
She saw the Prince’s palace, and clambered up the marble steps. The moon was shining bright. The little mermaid swallowed the drink. She felt like a sword was piercing her delicate body. She swooned with the pain and fell asleep. When the sun shone out over the sea, she awoke and felt a torturing pang. But right in front of her stood the beautiful young Prince. He looked at her. She saw that her fish’s tail was gone and that she now had the pretty small white legs.
But she was quite naked, so she wrapped herself in her long hair. The Prince asked who she was. She gazed at him sweetly and yet sadly with her dark blue eyes. She could not speak. Then he took her by the hand and led her into the palace. Her every step was as if she was treading on sharp swords and knives. But she walked freely, and the Prince and everyone else marvelled at her graceful gait.
They gave her robes of silk and muslin, and she was the fairest of all in the palace. But she was dumb and could neither speak nor sing. Beautiful slave girls came forward and sang to the Prince and his royal parents. One sang more sweetly than all the rest, and the Prince applauded her and smiled on her. Then the little mermaid was sad.
Then the slave girls danced graceful dances. Now the little mermaid raised her pretty white arms and rose on tiptoe and floated over the floor. Everyone was enraptured by it, and more than all, the Prince. She danced again and again, though every time her foot touched the ground it was as though she was treading on sharp knives.
The Prince decided to be with her all the time, and she was allowed to sleep outside his door on a cushion of silk.
He gave her a boy’s dress, and she rode with him on horseback. They rode through the woods, where the green boughs brushed her shoulders, and the little birds sang. With the Prince she clambered up the high mountains, and though her delicate feet were cut, she only laughed, and followed him.
At the Prince’s palace, when at night all the others were asleep, she went out to the broad marble stairs,