The Little Mermaid > IDEAS & IDEALS

On returning home from a week-long sightseeing trip to four Northern European countries this summer including Denmark, what I felt like to do first and actually did was to take down the anthology of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales from the bookshelf and read "The Little Mermaid" among them. I had already read it and some of his tales such as "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Match-Seller" in Korean translation when I was a schoolboy, and I remembered vaguely that "The Little Mermaid" was a sad story in which a mermaid fell in love with a man, a royal prince - a fabulous and farfetched story, that was, simply a fairy tale.

     Now, after reading the tale once more, this time in English translation, very carefully and slowly, after making a visit to Odense, the very place where Andersen was born, and, especially after seeing with my own naked eyes within striking distance the little bronze statue of the Mermaid at Langelinie pier in Copenhagen, I have to own that my perception of the story and the author has undergone a sea change. During the re-reading my heart broke and I was almost moved to tears. Advanced age seems to make a man more sentimental and easier to break.

     The Little Mermaid in Andersen's tale is a wistful, thoughtful and yearning creature who wants to be a human, to be loved by a human and to have an immortal soul after death like the human beings. It is this strong and unnatural desire that causes her to abandon the royal palace and dear families deep down under the sea, to sacrifice her bodily form at great pain, and finally drives her to great sorrow and death.

     But, to my great consolation, the Little Mermaid has resurrected herself and enjoys an immortal life as she wished. As a slender female figure of bronze statue she now stands and gazes at the stately ships sailing the waters of Copenhagen harbor. Young as she is in comparison to the harbor and the city, The Little Mermaid has become a landmark of Copenhagen for millions of the visitors every year and a symbol of immortality applying both to art and artist. Truly, art is long and life is short. 
 
     As a literary form the so-called "fairy tale' is a disadvantageous category compared to poetry, novel or drama. It is a genre usually given to some kind of writings by the less gifted or not so earnest or less ambitious writers who are simply contented by writing for unsophisticated children only. It is supposed to be mild, light and mostly educational. But truly great writers or geniuses are those who can make the best use of the given form and transcend it. Andersen wrote his unique stories in the old form in a quite new way. Herein lies Hans Christian Andersen's genius.
    
     The genius of Andersen can not be fully appreciated until one can feel and experience the rich variety of his literary imagination. Among 159 fairy tales ever in print "The Shirt Collar", for example, delights us with its witty playfulness. "The Story of a Mother" is a moving portrayal of a mother's tragic plight. Each of "Aunty Toothache," "Lucky Peer," and "Anne Lisbeth" has an unforgettable story with a character. Whether comedy, tragedy or morality tale, his stories abound with poetry, depth and subtleties, and commend themselves to people of all ages.

     Just look! Measured in number of translations and published editions all over the world, plus the actual dissemination among the populace, Andersen is the author whose works are most widely spread and read. His fairy tales are said to be translated into almost 200 different languages. The works of international literary figures such as Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe might be translated in equally many languages, but their works are not usually read as are Andersen's by the general public, I suppose, nor understood, nor so much loved.

     Today, just as in antiquity and the Middle Ages, mermaid is known to us as a desirable, favorable and enigmatic creature, not uninterested in man and perhaps not without danger. For this reasons probably traditions have grown up around The Little Mermaid at Langelinie quay in Copenhagen. Sailors from all over the world visiting the harbor honour her with flowers and kisses, believing and wishing that she brings them good luck. She is undoubtedly the most photographed "girl" in the world. Countless people from all corners of the world have allowed themselves to be immortalized alongside her, including me.

     Unfortunately, however, not everyone seems to love The Little Mermaid. She has been vandalized on several occasions, usually with paint since her unveiling in 1912. The worst act of vandalism occurred in 1964, when her head was sawed off with a hacksaw and removed. It was generally believed that the motive was hate for the "sensitive" style of the sculpture. The perpetrator was never found. Fortunately the plaster original was (and is) still kept at a bronze foundry, so exactly the same stature was re-made without any sign of the disfigurement. However, the waterfront of the Copenhagen harbor was once without its mermaid for a month.
  
     Fondly I recall the hustle and bustle of the Langelinie quay in Copenhagen when I visited the place for the first time in my life. She was sitting on a granite stone in drizzling rain surrounded by the noisy crowds competing for a better place to take pictures. There she sat, a melancholy dreamer somewhere between our world and her own, gazing far out to sea. "If she had been thoughtful and silent before, she now became far more so. And when her sisters enquired of her what she had seen on the first day when she visited the upper world, she answered them not. Evening after evening, she visited the shore where she had left the prince," as Andersen wrote in "The Little Mermaid."
     (August 4, 2009)