The Little Mermaid | Fairy Tales and Bedtime Stories for Kids | Princess Story

The Little Mermaid | Fairy Tales and Bedtime Stories for Kids | Princess Story
"The Little Mermaid" (Danish: Den lille havfrue) is a fairy tale by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul.

The tale was first published in 1837 and has been adapted to various media, including musical theatre and an animated film.

This article is about the fairy tale. For the Disney film, see The Little Mermaid (1989 film). For other uses, see The Little Mermaid (disambiguation).

THE LITTLE MERMAID - PLOT :

The Little Mermaid dwells in an underwater kingdom with her father (the sea king or mer-king), her dowager grandmother, and her five older sisters, each of whom had been born one year apart. When a mermaid turns 15, she is permitted to swim to the surface for the first time to glimpse the world above, and when the sisters become old enough, each of them visits the upper world one at a time every year. As each returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to their various descriptions of the world inhabited by human beings.

When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she rises up to the surface, watches a birthday celebration being held on a ship in honor of a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a safe distance. A violent storm hits, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here, she waits until a young girl from the temple and her companions find him. To her dismay, the prince never sees the Little Mermaid or even realizes that it was she who had originally saved his life..................