The Little Mermaid is a fairy tale about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul. When she rises up to the surface one day, she watches a birthday celebration being held on a ship in honor of a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a safe distance. A violent storm hits, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here, she waits until a young woman from the temple and her ladies in waiting find him. To her dismay, the prince never sees the Little Mermaid or even realizes that it was she who had originally saved his life... This is just the beginning of a fantastic, complex and multilayered classic tale that has its devoted readers and interpreters actively discussing the work even today!