Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid: From Fairy-tale to National Monument

A criticism and interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.

Throughout his life, Hans Christian Andersen was enthralled by imaginative creatures, which he wrote about in many of his fairy-tales. His fascination with the supernatural also included mermaids and mermen who, according to the old legends and popular traditions, lived at the bottom of the sea and the lakes. Andersen's fairy-tale "The Little Mermaid" from 1836 has become one of his best known stories.

This book reproduces the much loved fair-tale, but also recounts how it came about, and how it has since inspired artists around the world, thus making its mark on art, music, ballet, opera, and cartoons alike. The most familiar reproductions of Andersen's principal character include Edvard Eriksen's world-famous bronze sculpture, which has stood off Langelinie in the Port of Copenhagen since 1913 and will be involved in representing Denmark abroad for the first time at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.

This book's author, ambassador Christopher Bo Bramsen, LLM, b. 1943 in Copenhagen, has enjoyed a long career in the Danish Foreign Service and central government. He will be holding the post of Denmark's commissioner general at the World Exposition, EXPO 2010, in Shanghai.