The Little Mermaid?

The Little Mermaid lives at the bottom of the sea with her father, grandmother, and five older sisters. When a merperson turns 15, they are allowed to visit the surface and watch the world above water. As each of her older sister's visit, returning with wonderful stories to tell of the suface and the humans, she anxiously awaits her turn. When her turn comes, she visits the surface only to find a ship with a most handsome prince on it. With just this distant glance, she falls head over fins in love with him. Suddenly a great storm hits and the little mermaid saves the prince from drowning. She takes him, unconcious, to shore and waits with him until a young girl comes along. The prince never sees her.


The Little Mermaid askes her grandmother if humans can live for ever if they do not drown. Her grandmother explains that humans actually have a much shorter lifespan than merpeople's 300 years, but when they die their soul lives on in heaven. When merpeople die, they turn to foam and cease to exist. Longing for a soul and the prince, visits the Sea Witch. The Sea Witch tells her that in exchange for human legs, she must give her her tongue, for the Little Mermaid has the most beautiful voice. She explains that drinking the potion which will transform her tail into legs will make her feel like a blade is being pasted through her and whenever she walks it will feel as if she is walking on knives. Also, she will only get her soul if the prince loves her and marries her, for then they will share one soul. If the prince marries someone else, at the dawn of the first day after the marriage, the Little Mermaid will die of a brokenheart and will turn to foam, without love and without a soul. Needless to say, she drinks the potion anyway.

(Spoilers Ahead)

Once on shore, she meets the well-to-do prince, who falls for her beauty and grace, even though she is a mute, though who could be graceful while walking on knives, I cannot say. Most of all, he likes to watch her dance. When the prince's father tells him the that he is to marry the neighboring kingdom's princess, the prince tells the Little Mermaid that he will not, for he does not love her. He explains how he only loves the temple girl, the one who found him on the shore after the Little Mermaid rescued him from drowning. He hints, though, that the Little Mermaid is starting to take her place in his heart.Upon meeting the princess, he discovers that she is the temple girl who he was in love with, she had been sent to the temple to be educated.


The prince marries the princess and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks, but before dawn, her sisters give her a knife that they got from the Sea Witch in exchange for their hair. If she kills the prince with the knife, she will turn back into a mermaid and live. Unable to bring herself to do it, at dawn, she jumps into the sea and dissolves into foam. Instead of dying, though, she becomes a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters explain that by doing good, she will earn her eternal soul and rise to heaven.