“The Little Mermaid” (1913) by Edvard Eriksen
The sculpture located in the harbor of Copenhagen, Denmark has become a symbol of sorts for Denmark and a major tourist destination. It was commissioned by Carl Jacobsen, the son of Jacob Christian Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg Group. Carl wished to memorialize the fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen in his collection Fairy Tales Told for Children published in 1837 by C. A. Reitzel.
The statue is a copy of the original in the safekeeping of the Eriksen family.
The mermaid is notably two-tailed and represents a creature originating in French folklore known as the Mélusine. The two-tailed mermaid is also familiar as the mascot featured in the Starbucks logo.
Many who see the statue for the first time will be perplexed by the inexplicable feature traversing between the left and right hands of the figure—some say that it’s seaweed, which is plausible.
The fairy tale in full:
“The tale of Danish origin, the original Little Mermaid story, is about an adorable young mermaid, out of a family of six motherless mermaid sisters, who live with their father, the sea king, and their grandmother in an underwater world of mermaids and mermen. At fifteen, her grandmother lets her swim to the surface to observe life above the sea. The Little Mermaid then discovers a prince inside a royal sailing ship who is the precise same prince whom she keeps a statue of in her underwater garden made of various parts of shipwrecks. Seemingly, they celebrate his birthday on board the ship.
“However, shortly after, the ship with the prince sinks in a disastrous storm, where only the prince survives, thanks to the mermaid. She is aware that he, as a human, cannot live underwater and takes him to a nearby temple. However, before he reveals her identity, she flees, and instead, a young woman happens to be at the prince’s side when he regains consciousness. He then believes that it was this woman who rescued him.
“A sea witch now appears with a potion that can transform The Little Mermaid’s tail into proper legs. She can now walk on land and get acquainted with the handsome prince, to whom she is deeply attracted. The disadvantage or price is that she will have to give up her beautiful voice and no longer be able to sing, and her feet will hurt every time she takes a step. Moreover, to become ‘human’ and make her soul mortal, she will have to make the prince fall in love and marry her. If not, she will die.
“The Little Mermaid is so desperate to marry the prince that she gives up her mermaid life. She drinks the liquid and passes out. It is now the prince’s turn to find her. However, when meeting the prince, she cannot explain to him that she was the one who rescued him since she is now mute.
“The prince is soon supposed to marry a princess in a neighbouring kingdom, who turns out to be the girl who found him after he was brought ashore. The prince is convinced that he can only love the one who rescued him, who he now believes is the foreign princess, and he happily accepts to marry her.
“The Little Mermaid now realises she will die since she has failed to gain his love. Her mermaid sisters now bring her a magical dagger they have received from the sea witch in exchange for their hair. Their poor sister is now supposed to plunge it into the prince’s heart to get his blood to fall onto her feet and merge into a fishtail. She will then be able to return to the underwater world again.
“Although tempting, the little mermaid cannot kill the prince and destroy the marriage between the prince and the princess. Determined, she throws the dagger into the sea, immediately dissolves into foam and becomes a daughter of the air. Miraculously, she now has the chance to gain an eternal soul by providing cooling breezes to the hot global winds for three centuries. She may even shorten the period if she finds children who bring credit to their parents, whereas she will extend it if the children disgrace them instead.”
https://travelinculture.com/little-mermaid-statue-hans-christian-andersen-story/
—Anlundbye, “The Little Mermaid Statue & Story – Hans Christian Andersen,” Travel in Culture, March 8, 2025
The original text of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale:
https://www.andersenstories.com/en/andersen_fairy-tales/the_little_mermaid
—“The little mermaid,” Andersen's fairy tales
The character of the mermaid in the fairy tale represents, among other lasting literary motifs, human love, longing, and sacrifice, and the inexorability of misfortune and tragedy.
History of vandalism of the copy—not the original, fortunately—is an entire story by itself.
“Some parts of the statue on display at Langelinie Pier are not original, however. The statue has been vandalized multiple times, and the damage has at times been severe. In 1964, the statue’s head was cut off, presumably by political dissidents. Despite an intense investigation and several confessions, the perpetrators were not caught and the original head was never found. A replacement head was grafted on to the statue instead.
“In 1984, two drunken men sawed off a section of the statue’s arm. They returned it a few days later and admitted what they had done. The arm was repaired. In 1990, someone attempted to remove the head but was unsuccessful. The resulting gash to the statue’s neck was repaired. In 1998, vandals once again removed the head. This time, the alleged perpetrators were radical feminists who wanted to make a statement against the way men viewed women. The head was found outside a Danish television station’s facility and reattached.
“In 2003, the statue was blown off the boulder, presumably by people protesting Denmark’s involvement in the war in Iraq. The statue was retrieved from the sea and returned to its usual place.
“In the early part of the twenty-first century, the statue was the target of some less damaging attention. Protestors added a burqa in protest when Turkey applied to join the European Union in 2004. On International Women’s Day in 2006, a sex toy was found in the mermaid’s hand. In 2007, the statue was dressed in Muslim-style clothing and a head scarf for unknown reasons.
“The statue was vandalized with paint twice in 2017. In May, the mermaid was covered with red paint. The ground nearby was painted with a message protesting Denmark’s allowance of the killing of pilot whales near Faroe Island in Danish waters. On June 14, 2017, the statue was coated with blue and white paint. The message left was thought to refer to [a] Somali hospitalized in a Danish psychiatric clinic”
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/visual-arts/little-mermaid-statue
—Janine Ungvarsky, “The Little Mermaid (statue),” EBSCO, 2023
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| The Little Mermaid (1913) by Edvard Eriksen, Copenhagen harbor in background |
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| The Little Mermaid (1913) by Edvard Eriksen |
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| The Little Mermaid (1913) by Edvard Eriksen, side view |
The nine-foot tall statue is located at Mikladalur Harbor, Kalsoy, one of the Faroe Islands.
The story of the seal wife is a darkly sexual narrative convergent with the temper of Viking mythology.
“The legend tells that the seals around the Faroe Islands were once upon a time people like you and me, sad souls who have taken their own lives in the sea.
“Once a year, these seals are allowed to come ashore on the twelfth night of Christmas. There, they will take off their seal skin and play, sing, and dance, recovering their human shapes—but only until the sun rises.
“The legend tells of a young farmer from the village of Mikladalur on the island of Kalsoy who had heard that there was a seal cave south of his town. It was said that the seals gathered for their one night as humans here. Wanting to find out if this was true, the young man decided to go and have a look.
“As night fell, he hid behind a large rock and watched in astonishment as a large group of seals approached the shore. One by one, they popped their heads above the waves, checking that it was safe to come out of the sea. Then, they went onto the shore, slipping out of their seal skin and recovering their human shapes.
“On this twelfth night, many seals—male and female, young and old—came together and began to sing, dance, and play, not knowing that they were being watched.
“Suddenly, the young farmer noticed a young female seal approaching the rock where he was hiding. She took off her sealskin and transformed into the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Fascinated, he watched her running along to play with the others, and an idea began to grow in his mind: ‘This woman shall be mine.’ He crept out from his hiding place and snatched the seal skin she had cast onto the ground.
“When the sun rose and the seals began to hurry back into the ocean at dawn, the beautiful young woman couldn't find her skin. Desperately, she searched for it while the other seals waited in the water, calling out for her. But she couldn’t find it; without it, she was trapped on land. Now, the farmer came out from his hiding place with her sealskin in his arm, and the beautiful seal woman realised that she had no choice but to follow him.”
—Ria Tórgarð, “The Seal Woman,” Visit Faroe Islands
The rest of the tale is available at the above link.
Exceptionally enchanting is the realism of this piece made of bronze and stainless steel. While it may not have the poignancy and charm of “The Little Mermaid” by Edvard Eriksen, it is alluring, nonetheless.
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| Kópakonan (The Seal Wife) (2014) by Hans Pauli Olsen |
“Pania of the Reef” (1954) depicts a winsome maiden, fresh, youthful, and touched by shades of Neoclassicism with fairy tale allure.
The piece was commissioned by members of the Thirty Thousand Club of Napier, New Zealand.
The figure is based on a character in Maori legend, a reef-dwelling sea nymph off the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. She secretly married the son of a chief but abandoned him never to return when her life was threatened.
“Pania” was shot in the head in 1982 but then restored. Do we see a pattern here?
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| Pania of the Reef (1954) by Italian Marble Company of Carrara |
Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen’s “Mermaid” (1921) is contemporaneous with Eriksen’s “The Little Mermaid” but inspired differently. The artist depicts naturalistically a creature of myth without attempting to humanize the chimera. Head and face are fish-like, narrowing in front with somewhat large, round eyes.
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| Mermaid (1921) by Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen |
“Collective Invention” (1934) by Rene Magritte transforms through reversal what was originally voluptuous fantasy into hideous chimera.
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| Collective Invention (1934) by Rene Magritte |
The Mermaid Myth: History and Scope
The myth of the mermaid is a trope that goes far back in oral and written history. Although the scope of the myth is global, it is especially associated with island, coastal, riverine, and lakeside locations and societies.
“Images of human-fish hybrid creatures can be found from the third millennium BCE in ancient Mesopotamia, a geographical area relating roughly to modern day Iraq.
Apkallu figure: male with a fish-skin hood, Assyrian, c. 9th–8th century BCE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“As human-fish hybrids, the Apkallu were well-equipped to survive the flood and carry forward their wisdom traditions. According to Mesopotamian literature, the useful information given to humanity by the Apkallu included knowledge of medicine and building cities.
“The connection of mermaids to wisdom and medicine extends to other ancient traditions. In Southern Africa, mermaids play a complex role in ages-old healing rituals.
“The ancient Near Eastern connection between mermaids and Flood traditions can be seen in the illustrated Nuremberg Bible of 1483, where merfolk are depicted swimming around the ark with their merdog.
“Across the world and across traditions, mermaids have been accompanied by many different creatures. Their close connection to the sea extends to animals who share their home.
“As in the Nuremberg Bible, mermaids and seadogs are said to swim together in Inuit mythology from North America.
“In folklore from the Orkney Islands in Scotland merfolk are instead accompanied by seals and are described milking whales.
“In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, mermaids are accompanied by dolphins. In myths from East Asia and South America, they are friendly with turtles.
“Similarities with the Danish fairy tale can be found in a famous story from South Korean folklore, dating to the 13th century CE.
“In the story, the mermaid Princess Hwang-Ok (also known as Topaz) marries a prince and becomes more human.
“The princess is homesick for her underwater life, so her turtle companion helps her to use the moon to turn back into a mermaid and regain her wellbeing.
“Turtles and whales appear with mermaids as helpers to the Mesoamerican storm deity Tezcatlipoca. The myth is an aetiological tale about the creation of music in the world.”
—Louise Pryke, “A long and fishy tail: before Disney’s Little Mermaid, these creatures existed in mythologies from around the world,” The Conversation, May 28, 2023
This article identifies the original mermaid as Atargatis, an Assyrian deity, in the year 1,000 B.C.E.
“The earliest mermaid tale comes from Mesopotamia, 3,000 years ago. It begins with the Assyrian deity Atargatis, a powerful goddess of fertility and protector of her city and its people. Storytellers say she fell in love with a shepherd named Hadad, whom she married. One day, she accidentally caused his death. In grief and despair, Atargatis fled to a lake, attempting either to drown herself to be reunited with her lover, or to take the form of a fish.
“However, the water was not powerful enough to conceal her divine beauty. Instead, she was transformed from the waist down, her lower half extending into a scaled, fish-like tail.
“Due to lack of evidence from scholarly sources, it is unclear whether this story is truly grounded in history. Whether by syncretism or conflation, Atargatis is given the Greek form Derceto, considered a form of the goddess Aphrodite, and connected to the Phoenician Astarte and Anatolian Cybele. Many folklorists today regard Atargatis as the first mermaid from which all the other tales descend.”
—Sophie Swan, “Mermaid Mythology: Tales of Sirens, Selkies, and Other Sea Folk,” Sea Witch Botanicals, March 28, 2024
The legend of the merman dates much earlier to 3,000 B.C.E.
“The first known mention in human history of a human figure with a fish tail is from about 5000 BC, where Babylonian mythology of the god Ea described him as having the body of both a man and a fish. Ea was later known by the Greeks as Oannes, and by some Semitic tribes as Dagon.
“But clearly Ea/Oannes was not a mermaid.”
https://mermaidsofearth.com/on-the-origin-of-mermaids/
—“On the Origin of Mermaids,” Mermaids of Earth
The above website promotes a coffee table book, The Mermaids of the Earth (2017). It’s a colorful, fetching testament to human imagination.
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| Babylonian god Ea |
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