Today, H.C. Andersen Boulevard skirts Copenhagen
City Hall Square, where children climb upon the largerthan
life bronze statue of a writer deemed a ‘national
treasure’ by the Danish government before his death
in 1875. Andersen’s legacy of innovative fairy tales that
introduced mature feelings and ideas to children while
firing their imaginations cuts across many cultures; it
may be best exemplified by a Hans Christian Andersen
theme park that opened in Shanghai in 2017.
FROM INSPIRATION TO STATUE
Yet it’s Andersen’s tale of a 15-year-old mermaid who
saves the life of a shipwrecked prince that resonates
the most in contemporary Copenhagen. Touching on
elements of family, longing, sacrifice and the choices
we face to fulfill our dreams, it magically lays out
the mermaid’s quest to win the prince’s love against
perilous odds: The loss of her voice and mermaid’s
tail, with an ultimate price of turning into foam upon
the waves. Unsurprisingly, the Disney version of the
tale concluded happily, while Andersen’s left readers
to imagine the mermaid gaining an eternal soul, a gift
greater than requited love.
Seventy-two years after it was published, beer
baron and art-lover Carl Jacobsen attended a ballet
based on The Little Mermaid at the Copenhagen Royal
Theatre. In what could be called the ultimate rave
review, he commissioned Edvard Eriksen, a Danish-
Icelandic sculptor, to sculpt a likeness of the beguiling
lead dancer as a gift to the city. After Jacobsen was
rebuffed by Ellen Price, the prima ballerina who played
the lead role, to model, Eriksen’s wife Eline stepped
in and provided the form for what would become
Denmark’s most iconic statue. The modest Price was
used for the head and face.
Produced in pure bronze, the diminutive statue with
twin mermaid tails was unveiled in August 1913 at
Langelinie as a part of an initiative to decorate parks
and public areas with classical and historic figures.
Asked afterward about how little his statue resembled
Ellen Price, Eriksen is said to have replied it was by
design: “The Lady should only inspire the work.”
A MERMAID’S FATE
While Andersen’s Little Mermaid faced a series of perils
throughout her journey from mermaid to human to
‘daughter of the air’, her bronze likeness has faced
calamities of her own. Five years of Nazi occupation
during World War II left her unscathed, but she was
upended in 1955 by heavy ice packs in the harbor.
(She was righted and reset upon her natural stone
base.) Vandals have splashed paint on her numerous
times, sometimes for political reasons, and in 1984
a segment of her right arm was sawed off. (The
perpetrators returned it two days later.) 1964 and 1998
saw her suffer a far more gruesome fate: decapitation.
Thankfully, an original of Eriksen’s sculpture is kept in a
secret location and used for reconstructions.
These attackers are outliers, of course, as the statue
is by far Denmark’s most visited landmark. Multiple
copies exist around the world, the most famous
perhaps the one atop Danish-American entertainer
Victor Borge’s grave in Greenwich, CT. The Little
Mermaid (and her rock) were even uprooted and
shipped to Shanghai in 2010, where she was the
centerpiece of Denmark’s World Expo pavilion.
No word on whether Copenhageners were consulted
about bringing her back…
Joe Wall is an American writer who’s lived and worked in
Australia, Fiji and New Zealand. His affinity for the word
‘mate’ appears permanent.
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Copenhagen