Most translated mermaid story

The most translated story about merpeople ever written is Danish author's Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid (Den lille havfrue), which has editions published in at least 100 written languages including everything from Abkhazian to Zulu. Originally written in Danish in 1836 and first published on 7 April 1837, the much-loved fairytale, famously recreated by Disney in its 1989 animated movie, features in Andersen’s collection of Fairytales Told for Children (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn).

Andersen began writing The Little Mermaid in 1836 with the working title Daughters of the Air (Luftens Døttre). It was not his first story about a merperson – that was Agnete and the Merman (Agnete og Havmanden), which he conceived and wrote between 1832 and 1833 – but The Little Mermaid was his most successful and beloved tale, achieving critical acclaim from the moment of its publication in 1837 as part of the third instalment of Fairytales Told for Children. It later also appeared in the first volume of Fairytales and Stories (Eventyr og Historier) published in 1862.

The story tells of a young mermaid who falls in love with a prince that she saves from shipwreck on her 15th birthday. The prince is taken to shore and discovered by a young woman, whom the prince thinks has saved him when he regains consciousness. Hoping to gain the love of the prince and a human soul, the mermaid sacrifices her tongue to a sea witch to gain human legs, but she is warned that every step on her new feet will feel as though she is walking on knives and she will die if the prince marries another. The mermaid (now mute) swims to the shore and takes the witch’s potion which painfully splits her tail into two legs. She is found by the prince and becomes his companion, but he does not fall in love with her. Instead, he meets and marries the young woman who found him on the shore. On the prince’s wedding night, the little mermaid’s sisters visit her and offer the chance to regain her mermaid tail by killing the prince with a blade fashioned by the sea witch, which they have purchased with their hair. The mermaid goes to the sleeping prince but cannot kill him. She tosses the knife into the ocean and throws herself from the ship, turning to sea foam with the first rays of dawn. Transforming into a "Daughter of the Air", the mermaid is welcomed by these spirits and given the chance to obtain an immortal soul by doing good deeds for mankind for 300 years.