by Tolovaj
The Little Mermaid is a very successful movie (three parts so far), made after popular fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. While most people know few interesting facts (including some controversy) about the Disney product, the background story of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid is almost unknown, but can offer much more food for thought.
If you are trivia and fairy tales amuse you, here is your chance to check ...
1. It's written after Undine by de la Motte Fouque, one of the probably the most popular books in the world in 19th century. Undine, sometimes called Ondine or Undina, is a love story about the water spirit (name probably comes from Latin unda - wave) who wants to get an immortal soul but has to marry a mortal and have a kid with him.
Andersen was of course, familiar with the story and debated with his friends about certain points in the plot when he was writing Little Mermaid. On the picture on the left, we can see Undine, illustrated by one of the greatest masters of the fairy world, Arthur Rackham.
2. Undine was not a complete original as well. It is based on different folktales about Melusine (also Melusina) and works by Paracelsus, who associated her with Aphrodite, love, water and sexuality. Mermaids are an important part of folklore all over the world and stories about them are still in high demand.
3. The evolution of Little Mermaid didn't stop with Andersen, who tried to upgrade the love story into a spiritual and religious quest. Disney made a new turn, with returning to the basic plot, simplifying and emphasizing good versus evil fight and basically changing it in family fun.
4. There is a strong theory with many supporters claiming this fairy tales wasn't initially written for public. The only audience should be the Danish writer's unrequited love Edvard Collin. The famous storyteller who was attracted by men and women (but never managed to built an intimate relationship with either) wrote this tale in the time of Edvard's marriage with Henriette Thyberg in 1936 (fairy tale was first published in 1937).
5. Characters in Little Mermaid were designed after real people and settings described after real places.
Little Mermaid was, of course, the writer himself, who often mentioned his feminine side in private letters, the prince was Edvard and his wife Henriette.
Just like the title character in the story couldn't do any harm to the happy couple, in a reality Hans Christian stayed friend with both and they were even buried in the same grave.
Here you can find more about the real story behind the Little Mermaid.
 Little Mermaid and the Sea Witch - il... |
6. Disney company followed the same pattern as the Danish fairy tale writer, but with their signature humorous twists. Ariel was drawn after actress Alicia Milano (face and body), script writer Sherri Stoner (body movement) and astronaut Sally Ride (hair movement), the villain Ursula was designed after drag queen Divine, but for trivia lovers there are even more interesting facts: you can see many famous Disney characters in the crowd of sea people (Donald, Goofy, Kermit, Mickey, characters from Cinderella and Snow White, ...), singing scene on the rock was designed after the statue of mermaid on the rock in Copenhagen, some scenes were borrowed from other Disney movies, ...
 Little Mermaid by Hans Tegner |
Andersen wrote several autobiographies during his life and almost all of his fairy tales carry recognizable autobiographical elements. He often used names and characteristics of real people for characters in his stories, but Little Mermaid is probably his ultimate autobiography.
Through Little Mermaid's quest for love and immortal soul, we can see and understand Andersen's ambition to become famous, climbing the social ladder, inability to express his true feelings and final settling with this life which will be repaid in after-life.
 Little Mermaid by Anne Anderson |
8. Blue is (understandably) the major color in the story. It is a color of water and air, but not a color of life. It's the color of heaven. Although mermaids already are surrounded with blue, we can understand Little Mermaid's search for love can be only one step toward the higher goal - heaven, which is accessible only by getting the immortal soul (and this comes with love).
9. Red is the other important color in this fairy tale. It's of course a color of life and passion, but also a color of sin, which should be defeated before the mermaid can get into heaven. Red is much more popular color in fairy tales than blue, the reason is probably the fairy tales are created as reflections of life, not philosophical thoughts.
In the illustration by Anne Anderson above we can clearly see how colors with all the combinations can add to the message of the story.
 The Little Mermaid by Evelyn Stuart H... |
10. The Little Mermaid wasn't considered as a title at first. In the last scene she is dissolving into sea foam, but then we find out she is rising upwards in a company of so-called daughters of the air. Although this part looks a bit artificial and was actually added after first writing (where everything ends with dissolving of Little Mermaid), Andersen later claimed he wanted the final ending with her flying up, without worries of this world and on the sure path to her final goal - immortality from the very beginning and the working title of original Little Mermaid was actually Daughters of the air.
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Can you see The Little Mermaid in a different light now?
I have no idea, DerdriuMarriner. I guess nobody asked them;)
The search term Edvard Collin brings up some interesting results, such as A borrowed grave on the European Cemeteries Route site.
Previously, I mulled whether Andersen and the Collin couple remained buried together.
The aforementioned article presents Andersen and Mr. and Mrs. Collin as resting in the Collin family plot at Assistens cemetery until 1914.
The Collins couple tombstone relocated in that year to another Collin family plot in the Frederiksberg cemetery.
The three bodies remained in Assistens, where subsequently another tombstone replaced the removed tombstone. That, present tombstone says nothing about the Collin couple.
So the Collin couple tombstone in Frederiksberg tells only about the Edvard and Henriette connection and nothing about the Collin-Andersen connection. And the Andersen tombstone over the three bodies only tells about Andersen!
What would the trio think?
Arthur Rackahm loved to use his wife and daughter for models. In this case, I believe, it's daughter.
It's hard to speculate because Andersen mixed existing stories with his imagination and interpretation and all together with reality. Anyway, the main elements are definitely autobiographic and one of the main suspects for the role of the prince is Edvard Collin, especially considering troubles with singing and dancing of Little Mermaid, which were very fresh in Andersen's memory when he lived with Edvard Collin.
Thank you for the link, in the second paragraph of the 9th fact, red, to your red-colored wizzley!
The 10-point list in the red-colored article equates red with attention, caution, gods and royals, hunger, love, maturity, passion, rage and warmth.
That fact finds red a dominant color in fairy tales. Would that dominance be more toward the more positive or the more negative symbols of red?
The last in-text image, by Evelyn Stuart Hardy, right of the 10th fact, Daughters of the air, gives The little mermaid blonde-orange-red hair and a green tail.
The little mermaid has something orange and white decorating her hair.
Might the decorations be land flowers or sea animals or sea flowers?
Your second fact connects to your creations on the Jimdo site.
Your article there, Find some interesting facts about the mermaids!, details that "It's interesting to note they are humans from waist up everywhere, but have a fishtail only in southern parts of the world with Mediterranean on the top of the list."
What might non-southern parts have in the mermaid configuration from waist downward?
The Aquaman film and the mermaid theme cause me to consider mer-men possibilities.
Is there anyone famous or not-so-famous authoring The little merman?
Antonia Rainey, in All the Movie Incarnations of The Little Mermaid, Ranked Aug. 5, 2023, for MovieWeb (https://movieweb.com/the-little-merma...), totals 12 films, from 1975 through 2023, triggered by the Andersen tale.
Was it possible that were some obscure versions filmed before 1975?
The year 1975 would be a bit late, to my way of thinking about such a world-known tale!
The in-text image right of the 5th fact, about Characters, has the Sea Witch in a white robe.
Isn't white typically interpreted as a "good-gal, good-guy" color?