hans christian andersen den lille havfrue

Their fruit glittered like gold, and their blossoms flamed like fire on their constantly waving stalks. Outside the palace was a big garden, with flaming red and deep-blue trees. But these fish, now, would swim right up to the little princesses to eat out of their hands and let themselves be petted.

Whenever the high amber windows were thrown open the fish would swim in, just as swallows dart into our rooms when we open the windows. The whole day long they used to play in the palace, down in the great halls where live flowers grew on the walls. Her skin was as soft and tender as a rose petal, and her eyes were as blue as the deep sea, but like all the others she had no feet. They were six lovely girls, but the youngest was the most beautiful of them all. Except for this she was an altogether praiseworthy person, particularly so because she was extremely fond of her granddaughters, the little sea princesses. Therefore she flaunted twelve oysters on her tail while the other ladies of the court were only allowed to wear six. She was a clever woman, but very proud of her noble birth. The sea king down there had been a widower for years, and his old mother kept house for him. This is a wonderful sight to see, for every shell holds glistening pearls, any one of which would be the pride of a queen's crown. Its walls are made of coral and its high pointed windows of the clearest amber, but the roof is made of mussel shells that open and shut with the tide. From the deepest spot in the ocean rises the palace of the sea king. All sorts of fish, large and small, dart among the branches, just as birds flit through the trees up here. No indeed! The most marvelous trees and flowers grow down there, with such pliant stalks and leaves that the least stir in the water makes them move about as though they were alive.

Now don't suppose that there are only bare white sands at the bottom of the sea. It goes down deeper than any anchor rope will go, and many, many steeples would have to be stacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to the surface of the sea.

Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid or `Den lille Havfrue' (1837)įar out in the ocean the water is as blue as the petals of the loveliest cornflower, and as clear as the purest glass.

Hans christian andersen den lille havfrue