LogFAQs > #968041369

R1masher posted...

What original tale?

In the original story, the mermaid loves the prince, but she also wants to gain a soul. Mermaids live for three hundred years, but humans live forever in heaven. She makes a deal with the sea witch fairly similar to the movie: she can become human in exchange for her voice. The difference is that the potion she drinks is excruciatingly painful and every step she takes feels like walking on glass. To gain a soul, she must have the prince fall in love with her and wed her, allowing a portion of his soul to pour into her. If he falls in love with someone else, she'll dissolve into sea foam on the dawn of their first day as husband and wife.

The prince does like the mermaid, but he falls in love with a neighboring princess because he believes she's the one that saved him from drowning. The mermaid can't speak to correct him, so the prince and princess marry. On their wedding night, the mermaid's sister bring her a dagger from the sea witch. If she slays the prince and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will turn back into a mermaid.

She refuses and accepts her death, but she is instead transformed into a "daughter of the air" for trying so hard and suffering so much to gain a soul. Daughters of the air also lack a soul, but they can acquire one by doing three hundred years of good deeds.

And because it's an early 1800s fairy tale, there's also a bit about how the daughters of the air get one year deducted from their time whenever they see a good child, but they burst into tears when they see a bad child and a day is added for every tear that falls.