Hans Christian Andersen wrote the childrens’ story “The Little Mermaid,” in 1836. The original title in Danish is “Den Lille Havfrue,” according to Wikipedia. Undoubtedly a popular tale, I am surprised that I have not hear of it until recently, and then, only coincidentally. You see, while visiting me, my son happened to notice a very small plate that I had collected whilst I was gathering some pieces of blue and white ceramic items. I did not know that the image on the plate was that of “The Little Mermaid” of Denmark!
Photo by James Cummings
My son, James, has visited Copenhagen often, as his wife is Danish-American and has family there.
He recognized the seaside scene immediately. If you’d like to learn more about the story, a wealth of information is available on Wikipedia’s online encyclopedia.
Surprisingly, vandals have inflicted a lot of damage to this statue over the years. Nevertheless, the people of Denmark love the statue because it represents part of their literary heritage. So, with each new assault on “The Little Mermaid,” she has been repaired. Why lose an important destination point for tourists? Besides that, she really should be part of the scenery, don’t you think?
This example just goes to show yet another link between written words and a tangible material object. By now, I have run across countless examples. The object lesson here is this: There is always more to anything than first meets the eye.
Patricia Cummings
