Week 14 Reading Notes: Andersen Fairy Tales Unit Part B

 This part of the reading is entirely the original Little Mermaid story and I am so excited! Especially since it relates back to my storybook project over hybrid creatures.

The trees and the birds of the Sea. Shifaz Abdul Hakkim on Unsplash

The Little Mermaid: Okay, the first thing I am taking from this story is how descriptive the wording is. Here is a quote I really like that is describing the fish in the ocean: "Fishes, both large and small, glide between the branches, as birds fly among the trees here upon land."

There is a grandmother in this. She is the Sea King's mother, and the Sea King is a widower. The grandmother helps take care of the 6 granddaughters, the youngest of them said to be the prettiest.

Another really good descriptive quote: "The whole sky looked like gold, while violet and rose-colored clouds, which she could not describe, floated over her, and, still more rapidly than the clouds, flew a large flock of wild swans towards the setting sun, looking like a long white veil across the sea."

An update of what is happening: All of the sisters had to wait till they were 15 to come out of the water and look at the world. The youngest listened intently to all the details her sisters came back with. This is where a lot of the really good descriptive sentences come from.

The sisters apparently have good singing voices. This reminds me of sirens. They would tell the men in the ships not to be afraid to sink, but the men thought their voices were the howling of the sea.

The Little Mermaid sees the prince in a ship. The ship tips over in the storm and she decides she has to save him. She then gets sad that he doesn't look in her direction and smile after he comes back to life. This seems unreasonable considering he was passed out. 

I expected this story to be darker by now. Part 3 was pretty boring. 

"...in the centre of a strange forest, in which all the trees and flowers were polypi, half animals and half plants; they looked like serpents with a hundred heads growing out of the ground. The branches were long slimy arms, with fingers like flexible worms, moving limb after limb from the root to the top." This stayed consistent in the movie! It is describing those nasty little servants of the Sea Witch.

Ew, the way the Sea Witch is described is absolutely disgusting. Also, can frogs even live underwater?

The witch tells her that if she is given legs, she will walk in intense pain forever. She also cut the mermaid's tongue out. This seems like a really unfair deal to me. Also, the prince gives her permission to sleep at his door? That's a little sexist. He also called her dumb. He seems like he sucks. It could be fun to rewrite this where the Little Mermaid realizes she doesn't need him. 

The sisters also make a deal with the witch. The little mermaid must kill the prince and his blood will fall on her feet, making them grow back together. She instead flings herself off the boat and essentially turns into a ghost. The end.