The Origins of the Copenhagen Mermaid: A Tragic Tale of Unrequited Love Part 1

Today we celebrate the 100^th birthday of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark. The statue was inspired and commissioned by a local Danish man; he worked as a brewer and was the son of the founder of Carlsberg. But most importantly, was his love for the The Little Mermaid, after seeing a ballet performance, his name was Carl Jacobsen. On August 23^rd, 1913 he unveiled the now beloved statue.  She was created by Edvard Eriksennd, shaped from granite and bronze covered, modeled after his wife, Eline Eriksen. The original muse for the sculpture was a Ballerina named Ellen Price, who in 1909 danced the lead role in the ballet The Little Mermaid at the Royal Theatre, which began Carl Jacobsen’s obsession. Ellen Price turned down the offer to be the model for the statue because she did not want to pose nude.  

Every year thousands of tourist flock to Copenhagen for chance to see the infamous mermaid, over the years she has been the subject of much love and abuse. Tourist lining up to take photos some leave small gifts and others still wade out into the water to pose for an up close picture. With all this love and attention also comes jealousy and cruelty. The innocent statue has been marked with lewd comments, paint solid hot pink for a protest and the most heinous still….One cold lonely night in 1964 a band of political activists emerged from the evening haze and decapitated the poor mermaid, stealing off with head! The head was never found, but a new was made and the statue was returned to her former glory. One decapitation is bad but two is heinous! Again 1998, she was decapitated but this time no one knows who or why.  However, her head was returned anonymously to a nearby TV station and on February 4  ^th her head was returned to its rightful place upon her shoulders.  

The Headless Mermaid :(

The Little Mermaid has been blown into the harbor by explosives, draped in a burqa, holes drilled into her hands and feet and once a large dildo was placed in her hand. As a result the city council is taking measures to move her further out into the Harbor. The Little Mermaid statue was moved once before to Shanghai, China for Expo 2010, it was the first and only time she has left her home in Denmark.

Expo 2010 Danish Pavilion over 5.5 Million people came visit the mermaid 

As thousands more tourists flock the streets of Copenhagen this year to admire our beloved Little Mermaid and thousands more will be introduced to her by Disney’s The Little Mermaid, the most famous retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s story, I began to wonder…

Who is Hans Christian Andersen? 

We all know his stories, we grew up with the name, but who is HE?

Here is my re-telling of the history of a man who gave birth to some of the most romantic fairy tales and never found true love himself...

Birth Home. Odense, Denmark 1805

Hans Christian Andersen was born an only child to rather unremarkable family. His Father, also Hans, was fairly educated, his mother was highly educated and became a lawyer after the death of her husband. There are some rumors that the Andersen family had ties to nobility and that Hans Christian Andersen was really the illegitimate son of King Christian VII.  Most of this is hearsay, rumor, and an old grandmother’s idle chattering’s, it seems most of these theories have been disproved.  After the death of his father, Hans was sent to boarding school and his mother remarried and carried on with her life.  By the age of 14 Hans found himself, with an education, job experience, and a desire to act. He would find his dreams in the Royal Danish Theater, only he wasn't acting.

Royal Danish Theatre 

Hans was gifted with the most angelic soprano voice, but soon faded away with puberty.  With his voice now gone and the support of a colleague Hans began writing poetry and published his first story in 1822. A man by the name of Jonas Collin was taken with Hans and his work; he paid for him to attend Grammar School.  As fortunate as this may sound, Hans was later heard saying that his school years where the darkest and most bitter years of his life. It is documented that Hans suffered abuse and neglect from his Boarding School teachers, classmates and even his Schoolmaster, whose home Hans lived in. The Schoolmaster forbid Hans to write, causing him to fall into a deep depression.

With all this behind him, he poured all his desires, hopes, and dreams into his fairy tales creating the life he would never lead.  His love life would be no better… "Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!"  - Hans Christian Andersen’s personal journal.  Hans never married and all the women he fell in love with were unattainable or unrequited.  Hans may have prayed for a wife, but he was awkward and shy around women. Today, most scholars and psychologists believeHans was bisexual; however, he never acted upon his drives. In fact is it is written in his private journals that he refuses to have sexual intercourse.  Hans fancy in men would be no better…. 

One such man in Hans’s interest was Edvard Collin.

To Be Continued....