Mermaid

My home is a kingdom of shimmering coral and deep blue silence, a place humans can only dream of. I am the youngest of six sisters, and down here, beneath the waves, I have always felt a strange pull toward the world above, a world of sun, air, and two-legged creatures. My story is known to you as The Little Mermaid. My grandmother would tell us tales of the surface, of ships as big as floating mountains and cities that sparkled like fallen stars. While my sisters decorated their gardens with treasures from shipwrecks, I cared for only one thing: a marble statue of a handsome human boy that had sunk to the bottom long ago. I would spend hours just looking at it, dreaming of the life he must have lived. I yearned for something more than my underwater world, something my family couldn't understand. I wanted not just to see the human world, but to be part of it.

On my fifteenth birthday, the day I was finally allowed to swim to the surface, my heart beat like a trapped fish. The world above was a kaleidoscope of color and sound, so much louder and brighter than I ever imagined. There, I saw a grand ship with music spilling across the waves. A handsome prince was celebrating his own birthday, and his laughter was the most wonderful sound I had ever heard. But the sky turned dark in an instant. A violent storm, like a monster from the deepest trenches, tore the ship apart. Planks splintered and sails ripped as the ocean roared. I watched in horror as the prince was thrown into the churning waves, sinking into the dark water. I couldn't let him go. I dove deep, found him, and held his head above the water, swimming for hours until I carried him to a sandy shore near a beautiful white temple. I kissed his forehead before slipping back into the sea, my heart aching with a love I couldn't explain.

My longing for the prince and his world grew into an unbearable ache. Every day felt empty without him. Finally, I made a terrifying journey to the Sea Witch, whose grotto was a place of twisted coral and grasping sea serpents. Her voice was like grinding stones. "You want the prince?" she rasped. "I can help you, little one. I will give you a potion that will change your tail into two human legs." But her price was terrible. "In exchange," she hissed, "I must have your most beautiful feature: your voice." With a sharp, magical shell, she took my voice away forever, leaving me mute. She warned me that every step I took would feel like walking on the sharpest knives. And the worst part of the bargain? If the prince married another, my heart would break, and I would dissolve into sea foam at sunrise on his wedding day. Can you imagine making such a risky choice?

I drank the foul-tasting potion near the prince's castle, and a pain like a sword splitting me in two swept over me before I fainted. I woke up on the shore with legs, found by the prince himself. He was kind and asked who I was, but of course, I could not answer. He was charmed by my mysterious eyes and the way I seemed to dance instead of walk, not knowing that each graceful movement was a torment for me. I danced for him, spinning and leaping, pushing through the agony because his smile was my only reward. But without my voice, I could never tell him that I was the one who had saved his life from the storm. He treated me like a dear friend, a beloved little sister, or even a treasured pet he could dress in fine silks. His heart, however, longed for the girl he thought had rescued him—a princess he had briefly seen at the temple where I had left him.

My worst fears came true. The prince was ordered to marry a neighboring princess, and when he met her, he realized she was the very same girl from the temple. He announced their wedding, and my heart shattered into a thousand icy pieces. I knew my time was almost over. That night, as I stood on the ship's deck watching the joyful wedding celebrations, my sisters rose from the waves. Their faces were pale with grief, and their long, beautiful hair was gone. "We gave our hair to the Sea Witch," they cried, holding out a gleaming dagger. "She gave us this in return. If you use it to end the prince's life and let his warm blood touch your feet, you will become a mermaid again and live." I crept into the tent where the prince and his new bride were sleeping. He murmured her name in his sleep. I looked at his peaceful face, the face I loved more than my own life, and I couldn't do it. I threw the dagger into the sea and then followed it, expecting to become nothing but foam. But instead of disappearing, I felt myself rising, lighter than air. I had become a spirit. Other glowing spirits told me that because I had tried so hard and loved so selflessly, I was given a chance to earn an immortal soul through 300 years of good deeds.

My story was written down so humans would remember it by a kind man from Denmark named Hans Christian Andersen on April 7th, 1837. It’s not just a simple story about wanting to be loved, but about the deep, powerful wish for something more, something eternal like a human soul. It teaches that true love is about sacrifice and putting someone else’s happiness before your own. Today, if you visit the harbor of Copenhagen, you can see a bronze statue of me sitting on a rock, gazing toward the shore forever. My tale continues to inspire ballets, movies, and art, reminding everyone that even when things don't end the way we plan, courage and selfless love can transform us into something beautiful, new, and everlasting.