Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid)

The Little Mermaid at Langelinie waterfront is one of Copenhagen's most popular tourist attractions.

 

 

The statue was donated to the city of Copenhagen by the Brewer Carl Jacobsen, sculpted by Edvard Eriksen and erected on August 22nd 1913 after the fairytale of the same name written by Hans Christian Andersen.

 

Danish history is full of mermaid myths. Mermaids themselves can been found in 15 churches in Denmark and throughout the history of the Danish Navy there has always been at least one ship named the MERMAID.

 

It is said that Copenhagen's Little Mermaid is the most photographed girl in the world, however not everyone sees it that way. In 1964 her head was sawed off an removed and Langlinie was without it's mermaid for a whole month.

 

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" was animated into a film by Disney in 1989 although the ending was drastically changed.

 

 

 

The statue of The Little Mermaid depicts a creature yearning to be human and walk out of the sea. It is this yearning that, in the fairytale, causes her to abandon her mermaid form, driving her to great sorrow and death.

 

"If she had been thoughtful and silent before, she now became far more so. And when her sisters enquired of her what she had seen on the first day when she visited the upper world, she answered them not. Evening after evening, she visited the shore where she had left the prince."

 

-Hans Christian Andersen