Hans Christian Andersen

The Little Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales

Taryn

None but dead men ever entered the Mer-King’s palace. 

“One must not mind slight inconveniences when one wishes to look well,” - Grandmother 

Her eyes sought the young prince - he same instant the ship sank to the bottom. At first she was delighted, thinking that the prince must now come to her abode; but she soon remembered that man cannot live in water, and that therefore if the prince ever entered her palace, it would be as a corpse.

The odor from the flowers tells us they are corpses

All the newspapers in the world has she read, and forgotten them again, so clever is she. 

He was not dead; you could not call him alive; he existed. 

The dreamer knew that a new earth and heaven would come. 

In China, as you well know, the emperor is Chinese, and all around him are Chinese also. 

But the Princess touched it, and was almost ready to cry. 

“Fie, papa!” said she, “it is not made at all, it is natural!”

“Suberbe! charmant!” exclaimed the ladies; for they all used to chatter French, each one worse than her neighbor. 

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