next to Godliness,” she said and scrubbed the kettle with the snakes, which she tied into a knot. Then she slashed her breast and let her black blood drip into the kettle. The steam made the most remarkable figures so that you had to be anxious and afraid. The witch kept putting ingredients into the kettle, and when it was boiling rapidly, it sounded like a crocodile crying. Finally the drink was done, and it looked like the clearest water!
“There you are,” said the witch as she cut out the tongue of the little mermaid, who now was mute and could neither sing nor speak.
“If the polyps should grab you when you go back through my forest,” the witch said, “just throw a single drop of this drink at them, and their arms and fingers will crack into a thousand pieces.” But the little mermaid didn’t have to do that because the polyps pulled back in fear when they saw the drink shining in her hand like a sparkling star. So she quickly made it through the forest, the moss, and the roaring whirlpools.
She could see her father’s castle. The lights were out in the big dance hall, and they were probably all sleeping in there, but she didn’t dare seek them out since she was mute now and was leaving them forever. She felt as if her heart would break in two from grief. She crept into the garden, and took one flower from each of her sister’s flowerbeds, blew a thousand kisses towards the castle, and then rose up through the dark blue sea.
The sun wasn’t up yet when she saw the prince’s castle and crept up the marvelous marble steps. The moon was shining beautifully clear. The little mermaid drank the sharply burning drink, and it was as if a sharp double- edged sword cut through her fine body so that she fainted from it and lay as if dead. When the sun shone over the sea, she woke up and felt a stinging pain, but there in front of her was the wonderful young prince. He fastened his coal black eyes on her, and she cast hers downward and saw that her fish tail was gone, and that she had the finest little white legs any girl could have, but she was quite naked, so she wrapped herself in her thick, long hair. The prince asked who she was and how she had gotten there, but she just looked mildly and sadly at him with her dark blue eyes. After all, she couldn’t speak. Then he took her by the hand and led her into the castle. As the witch had warned, she felt like she was stepping on sharp awls and knives with each step, but she gladly tolerated it. Holding the prince’s hand, she moved as lightly as a bubble, and he and everyone else marveled at her charming, floating gait.
She was dressed in precious clothes of silk and muslin, and she was the most beautiful one in the castle, but she was mute, could neither sing nor speak. Beautiful slave girls dressed in silk and gold came out and sang for the prince and his royal parents. One sang more sweetly than the others, and the prince clapped his hands and smiled at her. This made the little mermaid sad because she knew that she herself had sung much better! She thought, “Oh, if he only knew that I gave my voice away for all eternity to be with him!”
The slave girls danced in a lovely floating dance to the most marvelous music, and then the little mermaid raised her beautiful white arms, stood on tiptoe, and floated across the floor, and danced as no one else had danced. Her loveliness became more evident with every movement, and her eyes spoke deeper to the heart than the songs of the slave girls.
Everyone was delighted with it, especially the prince, who called her his little foundling, and she danced more and more, even though every time her feet touched the floor, it was like stepping on sharp knives. The prince said that she must always be with him, and she was allowed to sleep outside his door on a velvet pillow.
He had a man’s outfit sewed for her so she could go horseback riding with him. They rode through the fragrant forests, where the green branches hit her shoulders and the small birds sang behind the new leaves. She climbed up the high mountains with the prince, and even though her fine feet bled so all could see, she laughed at it and followed him until they saw the clouds sailing below them, as if they were a flock of birds flying to distant lands.
At home at the prince’s castle, when the others slept at night, she went down the wide marble steps, and cooled her burning feet in the cold sea water, and then she thought about those down in the depths of the sea.
One night her sisters came arm in arm and sang so sadly, as they swam across the water, and she waved at them, and they recognized her and told her how she had made all of them so sad. They visited her every night after that, and one night far out at sea she could see her old grandmother, who hadn’t been to the surface for many years, and the sea king, with his crown on his head. They stretched their arms out to her, but didn’t dare come so close to land as her sisters did.
Every day she became dearer to the prince, who loved her as one would a good, dear child, but it certainly didn’t occur to him to make her his queen, and his queen she had to become, or she wouldn’t gain an immortal soul, but would turn to sea foam the morning after his wedding.
“Don’t you love me most of all?” the little mermaid’s eyes seemed to ask, when he took her in his arms and kissed her lovely forehead.
“Yes, I love you best,” said the prince, “because you have the kindest heart of all of them. You’re the most devoted to me, and you look like a young girl I once saw, but will never find again. I was on a ship that sank. The waves drove me ashore to a holy temple, where several young girls were serving. The youngest found me on the shore and saved my life. I only saw her twice, but she’s the only one I could love in this life. You look like her and have almost replaced her memory in my heart. She belongs to the holy temple, and so good fortune has sent you to me. We’ll never part!”
“Oh, he doesn’t know that I saved his life,” thought the little mermaid. “I carried him through the sea to the temple by the forest, and I hid behind the foam and watched for someone to come. I saw the beautiful girl whom he loves more than me,” and the mermaid sighed deeply, since she couldn’t cry. “He said that the girl belongs to the holy temple, and she’ll never leave there so they won’t meet again. I’m with him and see him every day. I’ll take care of him, love him, and offer him my life.”
Then rumor had it that the prince was to be married to the beautiful daughter of the neighboring king, and because of that he was preparing a splendid ship for a voyage. He was supposedly traveling to see the neighboring king’s country, but people knew that he really was going to see the daughter. A large party was to accompany him, but the little mermaid just shook her head and laughed because she knew the prince’s thoughts much better than anyone else. “I have to go,” he had told her. “I have to go see the lovely princess, my parents insist, but they can’t force me to bring her back here for my wife. I can’t love her! She doesn’t look like the beautiful girl in the temple, like you do. If I ever do choose a bride, it would sooner be you, my silent foundling with the speaking eyes!” He kissed her red mouth, played with her long hair, and laid his head against her heart, so she dreamed of human happiness and an immortal soul.
“You aren’t afraid of the sea, my silent child?” he asked, when they climbed aboard the magnificent ship that was to take them to the neighboring kingdom. And he told her about storms and calm seas, about strange fish in the depths and what divers had seen, and she smiled at his stories since she knew better than anyone what the ocean floor was like.
