you must pay,” said the witch. “You have the loveliest voice of anyone down here at the bottom of the sea. With it no doubt you think you’ll be able to charm him. But you must give me that voice. I must have the best thing you possess as the price of my precious drink. I shall give you my own blood in it, and the drink will be as sharp as a sword.
“But if you take away my voice,” said the little mermaid, “what shall I have?”
“Your beautiful form,” said the witch, “and your gait, and your eyes. With them you can easily delude a human heart. Don’t be afraid. Just put out your little tongue, and I’ll cut it off. And you’ll have the potent drink.”
“So be it,” said the little mermaid, and the witch put her cauldron on the fire to boil the magic drink.
“Cleanliness is a good thing,” said she, and scoured out the cauldron with snakes which she tied in a knot. Then she scratched herself in the breast and dripped the black blood into the pot. The steam took the most dreadful shapes. When the drink was boiling, the sound was like that of a crocodile weeping. At last the drink was ready, and it looked like the clearest of water.
“There you are”, said the witch, and cut off the tongue of the little mermaid. Now she was dumb, she could neither sing nor speak.
“If the polypi want to catch you when you are going back through my wood,” said the Witch, “just throw one drop of that drink on them, and their arms and fingers will break into a thousand bits”.
But there was no need for the little mermaid to do that. The polypi shrank back in fear before her when they saw the drink which glittered in her hand. So she passed quickly through the wood, and the marsh, and the maelstrom.
She saw her father’s palace. No doubt everyone in there was asleep. But she was dumb and was going to leave them for ever. She went into the garden and took one flower from each of her sister’s flower-beds. Then rose up through the dark blue sea.
She saw the Prince’s palace, and clambered up the marble steps. The moon was shining bright. The little mermaid swallowed the drink. She felt like a sword was piercing her delicate body. She swooned with the pain and fell asleep. When the sun shone out over the sea, she awoke and felt a torturing pang. But right in front of her stood the beautiful young Prince. He looked at her. She saw that her fish’s tail was gone and that she now had the pretty small white legs.
But she was quite naked, so she wrapped herself in her long hair. The Prince asked who she was. She gazed at him sweetly and yet sadly with her dark blue eyes. She could not speak. Then he took her by the hand and led her into the palace. Her every step was as if she was treading on sharp swords and knives. But she walked freely, and the Prince and everyone else marvelled at her graceful gait.
They gave her robes of silk and muslin, and she was the fairest of all in the palace. But she was dumb and could neither speak nor sing. Beautiful slave girls came forward and sang to the Prince and his royal parents. One sang more sweetly than all the rest, and the Prince applauded her and smiled on her. Then the little mermaid was sad.
Then the slave girls danced graceful dances. Now the little mermaid raised her pretty white arms and rose on tiptoe and floated over the floor. Everyone was enraptured by it, and more than all, the Prince. She danced again and again, though every time her foot touched the ground it was as though she was treading on sharp knives.
The Prince decided to be with her all the time, and she was allowed to sleep outside his door on a cushion of silk.
He gave her a boy’s dress, and she rode with him on horseback. They rode through the woods, where the green boughs brushed her shoulders, and the little birds sang. With the Prince she clambered up the high mountains, and though her delicate feet were cut, she only laughed, and followed him.
At the Prince’s palace, when at night all the others were asleep, she went out to the broad marble stairs, and stood in the cold sea water. She thought about those who were down in the deeps below.
One night her sisters came up arm in arm. They were singing mournfully as they swam on the water. She beckoned to them, and they recognized her. But they were very sad. After that they visited her every night; and one night she saw far out in the sea, the old grandmother and the Sea King, with his crown on his head. They stretched their arms towards her.
Day by day she became dearer to the Prince: he loved her as people love dear good children. But he did not want marry her and make her his Queen.
“Do you love me?” the little mermaid’s eyes asked when he took her in his arms and kissed her fair brow.
“Yes, you are dearest of all to me,” said the Prince, “You are dearest to me, and you are like a young maiden whom I saw once and certainly will never meet again. I was on a ship that was wrecked, and the waves drove me to land near a holy temple where a number of young maidens ministered. The youngest of them found me on the bank and saved my life. I saw her only twice. She is the only one I can love in all the world, but you are like her. She belongs to that holy temple, and therefore I’ll love you”.
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