The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Picture from this book. This is the copy I have, but I used the online version for these posts.

She saw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself; but their long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind, and had been cut off.

“We have given our hair to the witch,” said they, “to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife: here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again, and form into a fish’s tail, and you will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out your three hundred years before you die and change into the salt sea foam. Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise. Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch’s scissors. Kill the prince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaks in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die.” And then they sighed deeply and mournfully, and sank down beneath the waves.

The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent, and beheld the fair bride with her head resting on the prince’s breast. She bent down and kissed his fair brow, then looked at the sky on which the rosy dawn grew brighter and brighter; then she glanced at the sharp knife, and again fixed her eyes on the prince, who whispered the name of his bride in his dreams. She was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid: then she flung it far away from her into the waves; the water turned red where it fell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood. She cast one more lingering, half-fainting glance at the prince, and then threw herself from the ship into the sea, and thought her body was dissolving into foam.

BUT that's not all!!! Go here to find out how "The Little Mermaid" ends.

Can You Guess #3

Guess what children's classic fairy tale this passage comes from:



[She] could not help thinking of her first rising out of the sea, when she had seen similar festivities and joys; and she joined in the dance, poised herself in the air as a swallow when he pursues his prey, and all present cheered her with wonder. She had never danced so elegantly before. Her tender feet felt as if cut with sharp knives, but she cared not for it; a sharper pang had pierced through her heart.


She knew this was the last evening she should ever see the prince, for whom she had forsaken her kindred and her home; she had given up her beautiful voice, and suffered unheard-of pain daily for him, while he knew nothing of it. This was the last evening that she would breathe the same air with him, or gaze on the starry sky and the deep sea; an eternal night, without a thought or a dream, awaited her: she had no soul and now she could never win one. All was joy and gaiety on board ship till long after midnight; she laughed and danced with the rest, while the thoughts of death were in her heart.


The prince kissed his beautiful bride, while she played with his raven hair, till they went arm-in-arm to rest in the splendid tent. Then all became still on board the ship; the helmsman, alone awake, stood at the helm. [She] leaned her white arms on the edge of the vessel, and looked towards the east for the first blush of morning, for that first ray of dawn that would bring her death.

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

As I am typing, Olivia is watching Finding Nemo, and Marlin and Dory are in the belly of the whale. Lovely coincidence. Notice the 50 cent price tag? I love people who throw out wonderful masterpieces and DI takes them and sells them and they are found by me. I was on the brink of buying a cheap paperback version online for $4 when I found this beautifully, illustrated, hardback, unabridged, early translation of Carlo Collodi's fabulous book. While I was trying to find a link for this book I found price tags as much as $50!! Treasure!! This amazon link is not the exact edition I have, my book is blue and the one on amazon looks liek a condensed version, but you can see a couple more of the illustrations if you want.

The father and son were on the point of drowning when they heard a voice like a guitar out of tune saying: "Who is it that is dying?"

"It is I, and my poor father!"

"I know that voice! You are Pinocchio!"

"Precisely. And you?"

"I am the Tunny, you prison companion in the body of the Dogfish."

"And how did you manage to escape?"

"I followed your example. You showed me the road, and I escaped after you."

"Tunny, you have arrived at the right moment! I implore you to help us, or we are lost."

"Willingly and with all my heart. You must, both of you, take hold of my tail and allow me to guide you. I shall take you on shore in four minutes."

Geppetto and Pinocchio, as I need not tell you, accepted the offer at once; but instead of holding on by his tail, they thought it would be more comfortable to get on the Tunny's back.

When they reach the shore, Pinocchio sprang on land first so that he might help his father to do the same. He then turned to the Tunny, and said to him in a voice full of emotion:

"My friend, you have saved my papa's life. I can find no words with which to thank you properly. permit me at least to give you a kiss as a sign of my eternal gratitude!"

The Tunny put his head out of the water, and Pinocchio, kneeling on the ground, kissed him tenderly on the mouth. At this spontaneous proof of warm affection, the poor Tunny, who was not accustomed to it, felt extremely touched, and ashamed to let himself be seen crying like a child, he plunged under the water and disappeared.

Can You Guess?

Another beautiful classic butchered by a certain cartoon-maker I will leave unnamed. Guess away!!

"Then if you are not a fish, why did you let yourself be swallowed by the monster?"

"I didn't let myself be swallowed; it was the monster who swallowed me! And now, what are we to do here in the dark?"

"Resign ourselves and wait until the Dogfish has digested us both."

"But I do not want to be digested!" howled _________, beginning to cry again.

"Neither do I want to be digested," added the Tunny (pronounced tune-y), "but I am enough of a philosopher to console myself by thinking, that when one is born a Tunny it is more dignified to die in the water than in oil."

"That is all nonsense!" cried _________.

"It is my opinion," replied the Tunny. "and opinions, so say the political Tunnies, ought to be respected."

"To sum it all up, I want to get away from here, I want to escape."

"Escape if you are able!"

"Is this Dogfish who has swallowed us very big?" asked the ______.

"Big! Why, only imagine, his body is two miles long without counting his tail."

While they were holding this conversation in the dark, _________ thought he saw a light a long way off.

What is that little light I see in the distance?" he asked.

"It is most likely some companion in misfortune who is waiting like us to be digested."

"I shall go to find him. Do you think that it may be, by chance, some old fish who perhaps could show us how to escape?"

"I hope it may be so with all my heart, dear ______."

"Good-by, Tunny."

"Good-by, ______, and good fortune attend you."

"Where shall we meet again?"

"Who can say? . . . It is better not even to think of it!"

Peter Pan is Correct!!

See? it wasn't even a little bit hard. I could say Keshia had an unfair advantage as she listened to it with us in our car this past weekend, but as Jesse points out "captain" and "codfish" can only mean one guy! Here is the scene:

"Spirit that haunts this dark lagoon to-night," he cried, "dost hear me?"

Of course Peter should have kept quiet, but of course he did not. He immediately answered in Hook's voice:

"Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs, I hear you."

In that supreme moment Hook did not blanch, even at the gills, but Smee and Starkey clung to each other in terror.

"Who are you, stranger, speak?" Hook demanded.

"I am James Hook," replied the voice, "captain of the Jolly Roger."

"You are not; you are not," Hook cried hoarsely.

"Brimstone and gall," the voice returned, "say that again, and I'll cast anchor in you."

Hook tried a more ingratiating manner. "If you are Hook," he said almost humbly, "come tell me, who am I?"

"A codfish," replied the voice, "only a codfish."

"A codfish!" Hook echoed blankly, and it was then, but not till then, that his proud spirit broke. He saw his men draw back from him.

"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It is lowering to our pride."

They were his dogs snapping at him, but, tragic figure though he had become, he scarcely heeded them. Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own. He felt his ego slipping from him. "Don't desert me, bully," he whispered hoarsely to it. . . .


I love Peter Pan. It is such fun listening to it again.

Can you guess?

I'm going to try something new-- As I was reading today I read a line in my book that made me laugh, and I decided I would like to share it with my readers, BUT there is a catch!! I want you to guess what book this comes from!! You are probably thinking this will be hard, but I think you can guess this even if you haven't read the book-- its should seem pretty familiar. In fact, I would guess everyone has seen some version of the movie or play, even though this line isn't in any that I remember.

Here it is:


"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It is lowering to our pride."


Sooooooo, in a week or so, or if someone guesses correctly, I will come back with the answer, and probably type out a good part of the scene. I'll see if this becomes a new series of blogs for me or not, but it will be interesting to see what happens anyways.