The Little Sea Maid

*The Little Sea Maid*, more commonly known as **The Little Mermaid**, is the fourth story explored in the series. The iteration this series uses is the Hans Christian Andersen version, and it is different from its Disney counterpart.

## Original Story

The Sea King dwells in an underwater kingdom with his mother and six daughters, each born a year apart. The youngest daughter travels to the surface for her fifteenth birthday, as per tradition for all her older sisters, the Sea Princesses. When she reaches the surface, she sees a prince on a ship nearby and falls in love with him. A storm breaks out, and the prince falls overboard. The Little Sea Maid saves him and brings him to a nearby shore, where he is found by a girl from a convent.

The Little Sea Maid is then told by her grandmother that while mermaids turn into sea foam after 300 years and have no afterlife, humans live shorter lives but have an immortal soul that lives forever. The only way a mermaid can have an immortal soul is if a human falls in love with and marries her. The Little Sea Maid, wanting to be with her prince and gain an immortal soul, goes to the Sea Witch to become human. The Sea Witch agrees, but warns the Little Sea Maid that every step she takes will feel like she's walking on knives. She tells the Little Sea Maid that if the prince marries her, she will be a true human and gain an immortal soul, but if she fails and the prince marries another, the little maid will die the sunrise after his wedding and turn to seafoam and never have an immortal soul. The Sea Witch cuts out the Little Sea Maid's tongue as payment and gives her a potion.

The Little Sea Maid goes to shore and drinks it, passing out from pain. She awakes the next morning to see the prince standing over her, her fishtail having turned to legs. The Little Sea Maid is taken in by the prince who calls her his "little foundling", and spends everyday with her, admiring her graceful dancing. The prince says the Little Sea Maid reminds him of the girl from the convent who he thinks saved his life. He tells the Little Sea Maid that he cannot marry the girl from the convent because she serves the church, but she is the only one he loves. The Little Sea Maid is sad that she cannot let the prince know she is the one who saved him, but is rest assured that he cannot marry the other girl.

One day, the prince takes the Little Sea Maid on a trip to another kingdom to visit a princess that his parents want him to marry. The prince is going to please his parents, but assure the sea maid that he has no intention of actually marrying the princess. When they arrive at the kingdom and see the princess, they find she is actually the same girl from the convent that found the prince, as she was only there for schooling and not actually preparing for a church career. The prince is overjoyed, and declares that he will marry the princess after all, to the Little Sea Maid's grief. The prince and princess are married soon after, with the Little Sea Maid carrying the bridal train. They board the ship that night and celebrate while sailing back to the prince's own kingdom, with the Little Sea Maid faking joy as she dances, knowing that she will die come morning. After everyone goes to bed, the Little Sea Maid waits on the deck for sunrise to bring her death.

Her sisters then appear, having sold their long hair to the Sea Witch for a magical dagger. They tell their youngest sister that if she kills the prince before sunrise and lets his blood fall on her feet, they will turn back into a fishtail, and she will regain her mermaid form and her 300 years of life. The Little Sea Maid sneaks into the prince's bedchamber where he sleeps with his new bride, but ultimately is unable to go through with killing him. She kisses him goodbye and then throws herself into the ocean to turn into sea foam. However, she opens her eyes and finds herself surrounded by spirits of women, who introduce themselves as Daughters of the Air. The Daughters are spirits who watch over children, and after a hundred years of duty, they pass into God's Kingdom. If they see a child being good, they smile, and a year is deducted from their wait. If they see a child being bad, every tear they shed is a day added. They explain that the Little Sea Maid's selfless sacrifice of love was enough to earn her an immortal soul, a place as a Daughter of the Air herself, and thus, an eventual place in Heaven.

## Altered Story

Robin and Tank enter the story on the Little Sea Maid, Aurelia's fifteenth birthday. Her father, the Sea King, won't let her go to the surface as tradition because she is too obsessed with humans. Aurelia moons over the statue of Prince Damir and expresses her desire to go to the surface and see him, with the hope that he will marry her and pass his immortal soul to her so she could have a place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Aristina, her oldest sister, expresses horror at Aurelia as she describes the deal the Sea Witch offered her to give her legs in exchange for her tongue cut out, even though it will hurt her to walk. Robin convinces Aristina to let her and Tank sneak Aurelia to the surface, since keeping her from it will only make her desire stronger.

As per the story, Aurelia sees Prince Damir celebrating his birthday on a ship and falls in love with him. When the storm breaks, Aurelia thinks that if the ship breaks, she can bring Damir home, but Robin and Tank tell her that if Damir stays too long underwater, he will die. Again, as per the story, Aurelia rescues Prince Damir from drowning and brings him to shore, singing to him sweetly. She returns home, more desperate for legs than ever. Robin and Tank try taking her to Prince Damir's castle to see him, to get her infatuation out of her system. However, this only fuels Aurelia's desires, as she realizes Damir forgets her after seeing her every time she swims away, and worries that trying to get him used to her as a mermaid will take too long, and he will fall in love with someone else in the meantime. She swims away from Robin and Tank.

The latter two swim back to the Sea King's palace, only to find Aurelia isn't there. They realize she must have gone to the Sea Witch to take her up on her deal for legs. Aristina breaks Damir's statue and gives Robin and Tank a map to the Sea Witch's lair. Once there, Robin tells the original story with the tragic ending to Tank, who is only familiar with the Disney version with the happier ending, and is horrified at the thought of Aurelia dying so young. Meanwhile, Aurelia, who is already there and trying to muster the courage to face the Sea Witch, overhears them talking. Robin says she wants a happier ending for Aurelia, that the mermaid has her whole life ahead of her. Aurelia hears Robin say that while she doesn't fully believe in souls, there is no way a creature as full of heart and faith as Aurelia doesn't have one. This brings Aurelia out of hiding, and Robin and Tank explain to her the importance of caring for others and wishing for herself instead of changing herself for someone else. Tank encourages her to say the first wish that comes into her heart, and Aurelia confesses she wants to see the human world.

Robin and Tank take her on a tour of the human realms, beaches and villages and forests and glaciers and ports. Aurelia takes notes of the things she sees, like sailing ships and ports with ships. She returns to her underwater kingdom and rants happily to her sisters about everything she has seen and learned, expressing her plans to use what she's learned about humans and ships to map and track their fishing habits and navigations to help their people. Robin then opens the book and declares that Aurelia "lived happily ever after."

## Characters

### Original Characters

Aurelia

Aurelia's Family

Damir

Kesten

Sea Witch

### Altered In Characters

Tank

Robin

Messengers