| The Little Mermaid's sisters | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Illustrated by Anne Anderson. | |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | N/A | ||
| Personal information | |||
| Species | Mermaids | ||
| Gender | Female | ||
| Relations | Sea King (father) Sea King's mother (grandmother) Little Mermaid (sister) | ||
| Occupation | Princesses | ||
| Current status | Active | ||
| Biology | |||
| Body type | Pisci-centaurian | ||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Sapient | ||
| Behind the scenes | |||
| Universe | The Little Mermaid | ||
| Created by | Hans Christian Andersen | ||
The Little Mermaid's sisters are the five older daughters of the Sea King and therefore princesses of the merfolk kingdom. The Little Mermaid is their younger sister, and they are all one year apart in age. Therefore, by the time of the Little Mermaid's 15th birthday, the oldest sister is 20 years old. In the original story, they're unnamed, just like the rest of the characters.
In the original tale, the sisters are very friendly and supportive of the title character, as they keep her love for the human prince secret, help her locate the prince's palace and later cut their own beautiful hair and offer it to the Sea Witch in an attempt to save their sister. The Little Mermaid, in turn, also loves her sisters, and picks one flower from each of them as souvenirs before she leaves to the surface world to become human, knowing that the change would be irreversible.
Biography[]
All the sisters enjoy playing in the castle's rooms, where flowers grow along the walls and fish always come in to be fed by hand (similarly to the way surface dwellers may enjoy feeding birds). They each have a particular spot on the outside gardens where they can plant sea flowers, and they also enjoy collecting objects from sunken ships to use as decoration.
After reaching 15 years of age, each of the princesses was allowed to go and observe the surface world for the first time, and they were all enchanted by its beauties and strange sights. The third sister, described as the boldest, went as far as to swim up a river and found some human children, who promptly ran away, scared by her arrival. The mermaid herself was scared by a dog barking at her, and retreated into the ocean.
After they all were old enough to visit the surface, they would sometimes make the trip together, especially during sea storms, where they would sing lovely songs to the ships passing by. Still, unlike their younger sister, none of them showed any particular interest in the surface after they became accustomed to it, and they all spent much more time in the merfolk city.
After learning that their youngest sister had fallen in love with a human prince, they managed to locate the prince's palace so that she could see him.
When the Little Mermaid decided to become human forever, she didn't tell anyone about it, not even her sisters. She willingly gave her own tongue in payment for the Sea Witch's potion, becoming mute as a result, and left the palace without bearing to see her family. She went on to live on the surface, where the prince did offer her shelter and felt enchanted by her dance moves. After some days, the sisters managed to locate her and swam to the shore to talk to her. Their father and grandmother came as well, but they stayed away from the beach and only waved their arms to the Little Mermaid from afar.
Although the prince did develop a fraternal affection for the Little Mermaid, he ultimately fell in love with another woman and became engaged to her. Since the Sea Witch had told the mermaid that failing to win the prince's heart would result in death for her, the mermaid quietly accepted her fate and stared into the sea where she would eventually dissolve into sea foam (as that's what happens to mermaids upon death). At that moment, she saw her sisters, who had their hair cut short. The sisters explained that they had given their hair away to the Sea Witch in exchange for a way to save the Little Mermaid's life, and handled her a knife that the Sea Witch had given them. According to the old witch, all the Little Mermaid had to do was kill the prince with that knife and she would return to being a mermaid and live the remainder of her life in the sea with her family. However, the Little Mermaid still loved the prince and couldn't bring herself to kill him. After she died, the divine powers took pity on her, and she was revived as a Daughter of the Air.
Adaptations[]
- In The Garden of Paradise, by Edward Sheldon, the Little Mermaid has only two sisters, named Lona and Thora. They're described as having beautiful green hair and tails.
- The 1975 anime film keeps the five sisters, as in the original, and each has a different hair color.
- In Faerie Tale Theater, there are again two sisters, here named Coral and Anemone.
- In the Disney franchise, the mermaid has six sisters, whose names are Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista and Andrina.
- In the 1991 anime series Adventures of the Little Mermaid, the titular character has only one sister, who is named Coral and is notably less sympathetic than most other portrayals.
Appearances[]
- "The Little Mermaid" (original: "Den lille havfrue"), by Hans Christian Andersen (1837)
- Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (original: アンデルセン童話 にんぎょ姫), animated film (1975)