The Little Mermaid

The youngest daughter of the Sea King longed more than anything to see the world above the water.On the night she was finally allowed to rise, she watched a ship where a young prince was keeping his birthday.A storm broke the ship apart, and the little mermaid caught the drowning prince and held his head above the waves until she reached the shore.

She left him on the sand, where a girl from a nearby temple found him, so he never knew who had saved his life.After that the mermaid could think of nothing but the prince, and of the human soul that mermaids do not have.Her grandmother told her that only a man's true love and marriage could give her a share of such a soul.

So the mermaid swam to the sea witch, who made a drink that would turn her tail into legs.But every step would feel like walking on knives, she could never be a mermaid again, and if the prince married someone else she would melt into sea foam.The price for the drink was the mermaid's voice, and the witch took it from her.

On the prince's shore she drank the potion, and in the morning he found a lovely, silent girl and took her to his palace.She danced for him, though each step gave her great pain, and he grew to love her as his dearest friend.But he said he could only marry the girl from the temple, whom he believed had saved him from the sea.

Then that very girl was found, the prince married her with great joy, and the mermaid knew that at sunrise she would turn to foam.That night her sisters rose from the water and offered her a way to save herself, but it would mean harming the prince, and she could not do it.As the sun came up, she let herself fall into the sea.

But instead of becoming foam, she felt herself lifted into the warm air among bright, kind spirits.They told her she was now a daughter of the air, and that through many years of good deeds she could still win a soul of her own.