Painting of a mermaid I bought in in Denmark, where the Hans Christian Andersen is from.
My favourite fairy tale is The Little Mermaid. I was first drawn to the Disney movie as a child because Ariel had red hair like me, got to swim with all the fish - I love fish - and could sing. I knew Hans Christian Andersen had written the original story, and I knew that it differed quite a bit from the Disney version; that the prince didn't love the mermaid, that her sisters gave her a knife from the sea witch to kill the prince with, and that she instead killed herself. But it wasn't until I was a teenager that I actually read the original story, and I fell even more in love with The Little Mermaid. The tragedy of the story is what appealed to me most, how heartbreaking it is; this poor little mermaid who gave up everything for a chance at happiness, and ended up dying instead. There's something I've always found quite beautiful about a tragic story.
