non designated

Jan. 15, 2012 at 12:40am with 78 notes

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid

I don’t know what it is about this story, but after (apparently) being obsessed with it when I was into the Disney version as a kid, I find myself thinking about it a lot now, after I just bought Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairytales a few weeks ago.

For those who don’t know, Disney changed the story a lot and the original version implies a lot more sacrifice from the character. The sea witch makes it so that, if the prince does not fall in love with the little mermaid and ends up with someone else instead, she will turn into foam when the sun rises in his wedding day. Her potion endows her with legs, but every step she takes “will make her feel as if she was treading on a sharp knife, enough to make her feet bleed” - even though she keeps her graceful movements. And of course, like in the Disney version, the witch gets her voice as payment. Might as well, otherwise she would be whining in pain any she took a step.

In the end, the prince marries another girl and the little mermaid’s sisters come up with a last chance for her to live: she must stab the prince’s heart with the knife they brought her, let the blood drip on her legs so she turn into a mermaid again and can go back into the sea. And she can’t do, so she dissolves into foam. (well, sort of, then some weird scene with “the daughters of the air” happens and the story goes into a weird tangent with souls and God and children’s tears, idk)

Anyway. For some reason this character stays with me. She strikes me as someone… really sad, for some reason. I mean, she had to be, going around mute and in pain, away from her family and everything she knows, hoping this guy would fall for her so she wouldn’t turn into foam. And we’re talking about a 15 year old here. There’s a lot to be said about this story and character, but well. I’m not a writer, I just draw. So there you have it.

Either way, as much as I love Ariel’s red hair and green fins, the original version stirs my imagination in oh so many ways. The third image was actually the first one I created, and I ended up liking the dress I came up with. The first one I just did on the plane back to London. I still want to make a finished illustration on this, some time soon.