The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid is a fairy tale by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid who wanted to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince. The Little Mermaid lived in an underwater kingdom with her father the sea king, her grandmother and her six sisters. When she turned 15, she was allowed to swim to the surface to watch the world above. When she went to the surface, she saw a ship with a handsome prince and fell in love with him from a distance. A great storm came and the Little Mermaid saved the prince from drowning. She brought him unconscious near a temple and waited until a young girl from the temple found him. The prince never saw the Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince, eventually visited the Sea Witch who sold her a potion that gave her legs in exchange for her voice. In addition, she would only get a soul if the prince loved and married her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he married another woman, the Little Mermaid would have died brokenhearted and disintegrated into sea foam. The Little Mermaid drank the potion and met the prince, who was attracted by her beauty and grace even though she was mute. He liked to see her dance, and she danced for him despite the pain to her feet. But the prince's father ordered his son to marry the neighboring king's daughter and the prince, thinking she was the girl who had saved him, announced his marriage.
The prince and princess married, and the Little Mermaid's heart broke. The Little Mermaid could not kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride and threw herself into the sea. Her body dissolved into foam but, instead of ceasing to exist, she felt the warmth of the sun; she had turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air because she wanted with all her heart to gain an eternal soul. She earned her own soul by doing good deeds, and she eventually rose up into the kingdom of God.
A statue of the Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the Copenhagen harbor and is a tourist attraction.
A. Read the text and answer the following questions:
Who was the author of the Little Mermaid?
What did the little mermaid want to do?
Where did she live?
What did she do when she turned 15?
Who did she fall in love with?
Why couldn’t she marry him?
What did the Sea Witch give her?
Why did the prince decide to marry the princess?
What did the mermaid do after the marriage of the prince?
Did she really cease to exist? Why?
Why did she gain eternal soul?
B. Now narrate a story....
C. Learn more:
A fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters (such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, witches, giants, and talking animals) and enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events. The term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy tale romance," though not all fairy tales end happily. Fairy tales are a genre in literature. They have their roots in the oral tradition. Fairy tales with very similar plots, characters, and motifs are found spread across many different cultures. Fairy tales also tend to take on the color of their location, through the choice of motifs, the style in which they are told, and the depiction of character and local color.
Go on reading the complete text of THE LITTLE MERMAID, it's more difficult but more fascinating...
Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales. Second Series by H. C. Andersen
It starts like this:
Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could sound it, and many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. There dwell the Sea King and his subjects.
We must not imagine that there is nothing at the bottom of the sea but bare yellow sand. No, indeed, for on this sand grow the strangest flowers and plants, the leaves and stems of which are so pliant that the slightest agitation of the water causes them to stir as if they had life. Fishes, both large and small, glide between the branches as birds fly among the trees here upon land ...........
If you are interested in teaching and learning more about fairy tales visit the Fairy tale theme page here
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/themes/fairytales.html
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