The Little Mermaid
Den lille Havfrue. A sea princess trades her voice for legs to win a prince and an immortal soul. Pages 5 to 51 of the first edition.
Fairy Tales Told for Children: Third Booklet
Hans Christian Andersen
Fairy Tales Told for Children: Third Booklet
Two tales in one thin booklet: a mermaid who trades her voice for legs, and an emperor who walks through town in clothes that are not there.
- 1837
- 60
About Hans Christian Andersen
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe third booklet of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children came out in Copenhagen on 7 April 1837. The bookseller C. A. Reitzel published it at 24 skilling, and it ran to 60 pages. The booklet held only two tales, and both became world famous. The Little Mermaid fills most of the booklet: a sea king's youngest daughter gives up her voice to become human for the prince she loves. The Emperor's New Clothes starts on page 52: two swindlers sell a vain emperor cloth that does not exist.
The story, in more detail
Andersen was working on The Little Mermaid by early 1836. The earliest mention of it, in a letter from his friend Henriette Hanck in February, gives it another title, Daughters of the Air. The Andersen Centre notes that it drew partly on Undine, the 1811 tale of a water spirit by the German writer Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué.[1]
Andersen was proud that he had made the story up. In his autobiography he called The Little Mermaid the longest tale in the booklet and his own invention. He said it created a special interest in the tales, which the later booklets only increased.[2]
The Emperor's New Clothes was not his own idea. The plot comes from a Spanish story of 1335 by Don Juan Manuel, in his book of moral tales called Count Lucanor. Andersen knew it in a German translation. In the Spanish original, the cloth is invisible to any man who is not really his father's son.[3]
What's inside
The Little Mermaid is the youngest of six sea princesses. Her grandmother tells her that mermaids live for three hundred years and then become foam on the sea. Human beings live shorter lives but have a soul that lives for ever. At fifteen the little mermaid rises to the surface, sees a prince on a ship, and saves him from drowning in a storm.[4]
She goes to the sea witch, whose house is built from the bones of shipwrecked sailors. The witch gives her a potion that will turn her tail into legs. The price is her voice, and every step she takes will feel like treading on sharp knives. If the prince marries someone else, her heart will break on the first morning after the wedding, and she will turn into foam.[4]
In The Emperor's New Clothes, an emperor cares about nothing but clothes. Two swindlers say they can weave a cloth that is invisible to anyone unfit for his office, or very dull. The emperor's ministers cannot see anything on the looms, and nor can the emperor. Nobody dares say so. The emperor walks through the town in his new clothes, under a canopy, while the whole crowd praises them.[4]
How it ends — spoilers ahead
The prince loves the little mermaid like a child but marries a princess he believes saved him. On the wedding night her sisters bring her a knife from the sea witch. If she kills the prince, she can be a mermaid again. She throws the knife into the waves and turns to foam. She rises instead among the daughters of the air, who can earn an immortal soul in three hundred years of good deeds.
A little child in the crowd says the emperor has got nothing on. The whole town takes up the cry. The emperor knows it is true, but he holds himself stiffer than ever and finishes the procession. His chamberlains go on carrying a train that is not there.
Themes and analysis
The Little Mermaid and the Paris exhibition
Thirty years later, Andersen came back to The Little Mermaid in a tale set in Paris. The Andersen Centre traces several of his later tales back to The Little Mermaid, and names The Dryad of 1868 as one. The Dryad is his tale of the Paris world's fair of 1867. A tree spirit comes to the city with a chestnut tree and gives up her long life for a single night among the crowds.
Andersen was in Paris twice in 1867, in the spring and in September, and went to the fair on both stays. The fair was held on the Champ de Mars, the open ground by the Seine where the Eiffel Tower now stands. He wrote The Dryad the following year. Like the little mermaid, the tree spirit trades a long life for one short chance at something she longs for.
Two tales that travelled
By 1847 The Little Mermaid was known in England. Lucie Duff Gordon had translated it for Bentley's, a London magazine. That summer Andersen met Charles Dickens at Lady Blessington's house in London. Andersen wrote that among his stories, Dickens mentioned The Little Mermaid.
At home, actors performed the tales aloud. Andersen singled out the comic actor Ludvig Phister, who in his words made a complete dramatic work out of telling The Emperor's New Clothes.
In Paris, David Soldi's French translation, Contes d'Andersen, came out with Hachette in 1856. The 1862 second edition has both tales. The Little Mermaid is La Petite sirène. The emperor became a grand duke, and the tale is called Les Habits neufs du Grand-Duc, The Grand Duke's New Clothes.
Quotes from Fairy Tales Told for Children: Third Booklet
I would give all my three hundred years to be a human being for one day, and afterwards to have a share in the heavenly kingdom.
We may live here for three hundred years, but when we cease to exist, we become mere foam on the water and do not have so much as a grave among our dear ones.
It is as light as a spider's web. One might think one had nothing on, but that is the very beauty of it!
Why we recommend it
The original Little Mermaid
The tale as Andersen published it in 1837, with its sea witch, its knives and its daughters of the air.
The Emperor's New Clothes in six pages
A whole court talks itself into seeing clothes that are not there, until a child speaks up.
A Paris sequel of sorts
The Andersen Centre traces The Dryad, his 1868 tale of the Paris world's fair, back to The Little Mermaid.
Free and out of copyright
The Danish text is in the public domain, and so is the 1899 English translation by Mrs. E. Lucas.
What this book explores
The people in its pages
The little mermaid
The youngest of six sea princesses. Quiet and dreamy, she keeps a marble statue of a boy in her garden before she ever sees the prince. She has no name in the tale.
The prince
Saved from the sea by the little mermaid, he never learns who rescued him.
The sea witch
Lives in a house of drowned men's bones and takes the little mermaid's voice as payment.
The emperor
Has a costume for every hour of the day and cares nothing for his soldiers except as a chance to show off his clothes.
The two swindlers
Pretend weavers who set up empty looms, demand silk and gold thread, and keep it.
Also in the book
The grandmother
The sea king's mother, who explains to the little mermaid that humans have souls and mermaids do not.
The little child
The one person in the crowd who says what everyone can see.
Bring it to book club
- The little mermaid wants the prince and an immortal soul. Which does she want more?
- Why do you think Andersen gave the tale an ending in the air rather than in the sea?
- The prince never learns who saved him. Is he to blame?
- In The Emperor's New Clothes, why is it a child who speaks?
- The emperor keeps walking after the crowd laughs. What does that say about him?
- Andersen took the emperor's plot from a Spanish tale about fathers and sons. Why might he have changed the test?
Inside the book
The Emperor's New Clothes
Keiserens nye Klæder. Two swindlers, an invisible cloth, and a child who says what everyone can see. Starts on page 52.
Timeline
1335
Don Juan Manuel writes the Spanish tale of the invisible cloth that Andersen will later adapt.
February 1836
The earliest mention of The Little Mermaid, then called Daughters of the Air, in a letter from Henriette Hanck.
7 April 1837
C. A. Reitzel publishes the third booklet in Copenhagen: The Little Mermaid and The Emperor's New Clothes, 60 pages.
1846
The booklet is reprinted.
1847
In London, Charles Dickens mentions The Little Mermaid to Andersen. Lucie Duff Gordon's translation had appeared in Bentley's magazine.
1856
Hachette in Paris publishes David Soldi's Contes d'Andersen.
1868
Andersen publishes The Dryad, his tale of the 1867 Paris world's fair, which the Andersen Centre traces back to The Little Mermaid.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- C. A. Reitzel
- 1837
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Hachette, Paris
- 1856
- David Soldi
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- J. M. Dent, London, and E. P. Dutton, New York
- 1899
- Mrs. E. Lucas
- Paperback
- Anchor Press
- 1983
- 9780385189514
- Erik Christian Haugaard
- Hardcover
- W. W. Norton
- 2008
- 9780393060812
- Maria Tatar and Julie K. Allen
- Paperback
- Penguin Classics
- 2006
- 9780143039525
- Tiina Nunnally
Reader reviews
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Read our takeFairy Tales Told for Children: Third Booklet: frequently asked questions
When was The Little Mermaid first published?
On 7 April 1837, in Copenhagen, in the third booklet of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The Danish title is Den lille Havfrue. The tale fills pages 5 to 51 of the 60-page booklet.
When was The Emperor's New Clothes first published?
In the same booklet, on 7 April 1837, starting on page 52. The Danish title is Keiserens nye Klæder.
Did Andersen make up The Little Mermaid?
Yes. He called it his own invention. The Andersen Centre notes that it drew partly on Undine, an 1811 tale of a water spirit by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué.
Where does The Emperor's New Clothes come from?
From a Spanish tale of 1335 by Don Juan Manuel, which Andersen read in German. In the Spanish version, the cloth is invisible to any man who is not his father's true son.
How does the original Little Mermaid end?
The prince marries someone else. The little mermaid refuses to kill him to save herself, and turns to foam. She rises among the daughters of the air, who can earn a soul through three hundred years of good deeds.
Does The Little Mermaid have a Paris connection?
Yes, through The Dryad. The Andersen Centre traces that 1868 tale back to The Little Mermaid. The Dryad is set at the 1867 world's fair on the Champ de Mars, which Andersen visited twice that year.
What is The Emperor's New Clothes called in French?
In David Soldi's translation for Hachette, the emperor became a grand duke: Les Habits neufs du Grand-Duc.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Fairy Tales Told for Children: Third Booklet, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1↑The Timetable Year By Year: A Chronology of Hans Christian Andersen's Life
WebsiteThe Hans Christian Andersen Centre, University of Southern DenmarkUsed forThe early title of The Little Mermaid, its debt to Undine, its link to The Dryad, and Andersen's 1867 Paris visits.
2↑The Story of My Life
MemoirHurd and Houghton, 1871Used forAndersen on The Little Mermaid, meeting Charles Dickens, and Ludvig Phister's readings.
3↑The Emperor's New Clothes: Tales of Type 1620, edited by D. L. Ashliman
WebsiteFolklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, University of PittsburghUsed forD. L. Ashliman's collection of tales of this type, with Don Juan Manuel's Spanish source in translation.
4abcFairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Mrs. E. Lucas (Alice Lucas), illustrated by Thomas, Charles and William Heath Robinson — Internet Archive scan
NovelJ. M. Dent (London) and E. P. Dutton (New York), 1899Used forThe public-domain English translation used for the plots and quotations.
5Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Tredie Hefte. 1837 — register of works, no. 303
WebsiteThe Hans Christian Andersen Centre, University of Southern Denmark, 1837Used forThe Andersen Centre's record of the booklet: contents and publication date.
6H.C. Andersen Bibliografi: Digterens danske Værker 1822–1875 (online edition)
WebsiteThe Hans Christian Andersen Centre, University of Southern Denmark, 1942Used forTitle page, page count, price, reprint and the page where each tale starts.
7The Dryad (Dryaden), translated by Jean Hersholt
WebsiteThe Hans Christian Andersen Centre, University of Southern Denmark, 1868Used forThe text of The Dryad, Andersen's 1868 tale of the Paris exhibition.
8Contes d'Andersen, trans. D. Soldi, with a biographical notice by X. Marmier (Paris: Hachette, 1856) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1856Used forThe Bibliothèque nationale de France record of the first Hachette edition, Paris, 1856.
9Contes d'Andersen, 2nd edition, trans. D. Soldi, notice by X. Marmier, 40 vignettes by Bertall (Paris: Hachette, 1862) — digitised copy with table of contents
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica, 1862Used forThe 1862 second edition, with La Petite sirène and Les Habits neufs du Grand-Duc.
10The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories, trans. Erik Christian Haugaard (Anchor Press, 1983) — Open Library edition record
WebsiteOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forLibrary record for ISBN 9780385189514.
11The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen, ed. Maria Tatar (W. W. Norton) — Open Library edition record with contents
WebsiteOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forLibrary record for ISBN 9780393060812, with contents.
12Fairy Tales, trans. Tiina Nunnally, ed. Jackie Wullschläger (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) — publisher page
WebsitePenguin Random HouseUsed forPublisher page for ISBN 9780143039525.
13Fairy Tales Told for Children: Third Booklet
NovelHans Christian Andersen, 1837Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
i
Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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