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This episode is brought to you by Deep Sea Sun Rises.

Tonight, we'll read the second half to The Little Mermaid written by Hans Christian Anderson

and adapted by snoozecast. In the first half, we learn about the little mermaid and her family. The little mermaid saves a handsome prince from drowning at sea and falls in love with him from a far. Anderson's original tale shifts in tone during its second half, moving from wonder and curiosity to longing and sacrifice. The young mermaid, desperate to be near the prince, makes a pact with a sea witch, exchanging her voice for a pair of human legs, but her transformation comes at a great cost. This portion of the story is rich with emotion and filled with themes of devotion, heartbreak, and spiritual transformation. Anderson's writing doesn't offer the tidy happy endings we often expect from fairy tales. Instead, it lingers in the gray spaces of love unreturned

and the power of selflessness.

Let's get cozy.

Close your eyes.

Relax your body into the softness of your bed.

Now take a few deep breaths. The little mermaid grew more and more to like human beings, the more she observed them. She wished more and more to be able to wander about with those whose world seemed to be so much larger than her own. They could fly over the sea and ships and mount the high hills which were far above the clouds, and the lands they possessed, their woods and their fields, stretch far away beyond the reach of her sight. There was so much that she wished to know, but her sisters were unable to answer all her questions. She then went to her old grandmother, who knew all about the upper world, which she rightly called the lands above the sea. If human beings are not drowned, as the little mermaid, can they live forever? Do they never die as we do here in the sea? Yes, replied the old lady. They must also die, and their term of life is even shorter than ours. We sometimes live for 300 years, but when we cease to exist here, we become foam on the surface of the water. Human beings on the contrary have souls which live forever. They rise up through the clear purer air beyond the glittering stars. As we rise out of the water and behold all the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never see. Why have we not immortal souls? As the little mermaid mournfully, I would gladly give all the hundreds of years that I have to live to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars. You must not think that. I said the old woman. We believe that we are much happier and much better off than human beings. Is there anything I can do to win an immortal soul? As the little mermaid? No. Set the old woman. Unless you were to fall in love with a man who loved you in return and you were to marry. Then you would obtain a share in the future happiness of mankind.

But this can never happen. Your fish's tail, which among us is considered so beautiful,

on earth is thought to be quite ugly. They do not know any better, and they think it necessary,

in order to be handsome, to have two stout props, which they call legs. Then, the little mermaid sighed and looked sorrowfully at her fish's tail. Let us be happy," said the old lady, and Darton spring about during the 300 years that we have to live, which is really quite long enough. After that we can rest ourselves all the better. This evening we are going to have a court ball. It was one of those splendid sights which we can never see on earth. The walls and the ceiling of the large ballroom were of thick but transparent crystal. Many hundreds of colossal shells, some of a deep red, others of a grass graingreen, with blue fire in them, stood in rows on each side. These lighted up the whole salon and shone through the walls so that the sea was also illuminated. Inumerable fishes, great and small, swam past the crystal walls. On some of them the scales glowed with a purple brilliance, and on others, shone with silver and gold. Through the halls, float a broad stream, and in it dance the mermaen and the mermaids to the music of their own sweet singing. No one on earth has such lovely voices as they, but the little mermade sang more sweetly than all. The whole court applauded her with hands and tails, and for a moment her heart felt quite gay, for she knew she had the sweetest voice either on earth or in the sea. But soon she thought again of the world above her. She could not forget the charming prince, nor her sorrow that she had not in immortal soul like his. She crept away silently out of her father's palace, and while everything within was gladness and song, she sat in her own little garden, sorrowful, and alone. Then she heard the bugle sounding through the water and thought, he is certainly sailing above, he in whom I wish to send her, and in whose hands I should like to place the happiness of my life. I will venture all for him into wind and immortal soul. While my sisters are dancing in my father's palace, I will go to the sea witch, of whom I have always been so much afraid, she can give me counsel and help. Then, the little mermaid went out from her garden and took the road to the foaming whirlpools behind which the sorceress lived. She had never been that way before. Neither flowers, Nor grass grew there. Nothing but bear, gray, sandy ground stretched out of the whirlpool, where the water, like foaming mill wheels, seized everything that came within its reach and cast it into the fathomless deep. Through the midst of these whirlpools, the little mermaid was obliged to pass before she could reach the dominions of the sea witch. Then, for a long distance, the road lay across a stretch of warm, bubbling mire, called by the witch, her turf moor. Beyond this was the witch's house, which stood in the center of a strange forest, where where all the trees and flowers were polypide, half animal and half plant. The little mermaid came very near turning back, but she thought of the prince and of the human soul for which she longed and her courage returned. fastened her, flowing hair round her head so that the polypye should not lay hold of it. She crossed her hands on her bosom and then darted forward as a fish shoots through the water between the supple fingers of the polypye, which were stretched out on each side of her. She now came to a space of marshy ground in the wood, where a house stood, built of the bones of shipwrecks. There sat the seawitch, allowing a toad to eat from her mouth, just as people sometimes feed a canary with pieces of sugar. She called the water snakes her little chickens and allowed them to crawl in her lap. I know what you want, said the seawitch, though it will bring you to sorrow, my pretty princess. You want to get rid of your fissious tale and to have two supports instead, like human beings on earth, so that the young prince may fall in love with you. And then the witch laughed so loud that the toad and the snakes fell to the ground and lay there wriggling. You are but just in time, set the witch for after sunrise tomorrow, I should not be able to help you till the end of another year. I will prepare a draft for you, with which you must swim to land tomorrow before sunrise. Seet yourself there and drink it. Your tail will then disappear and shrink up into what men call legs. You will still have the same floating gracefulness of movement and no dancer will ever tread so lightly. Yes, said the little princess in a trembling voice as she thought of the prince and then mortal soul. But think again, said the witch, for once your shape has become like a human, you can no more be a mermaid. You will never return through the water to your sisters or to your father's

palace again, and if you do not win the love of the prince, then you will never have an immortal soul. The first morning after he marries another, you will become foam on the the crest of the waves.

I will do it," said the little mermaid, as her face grew pale. "'But I must be paid also,' said the witch, and it is not a trifle that I ask. You have the sweetest voice of any who dwell here in the depths of the sea, and you believe that you will be able to charm the prince with it. But this voice you must give to me. The best thing you possess will I have as the price of my costly draft. If you take away my voice," said the little mermaid, "'What is left for me?' Your beautiful form, your graceful walk, and your expressive eyes. Surely, with these, you can enchain a man's heart? Well, have you lost your courage? It shall be," said the little mermaid. Then, the witch placed her cauldron on the fire to prepare the magic draft. cleanliness is a good thing," said she, scouring the vessel with snakes, which she had tied together in a large knot. Then she pricked herself on the chest and let the black blood drip into the cauldron. steam that rose, twisted itself into such shapes that no one could look at them. Every moment the witch threw a new ingredient into the vessel, and when it began to boil, the sound was like the weeping of a crocodile. And at last, the magic draft was ready, it looked like the clearest water. There it is for you," said the witch. So, the mermaid passed quickly through the wood and the marsh and between the rushing whirlpools. She saw that in her father's palace the torches in the ballroom were extinguished and that all within were asleep. She stole into the garden, took a flower from the flower bed of each of her sisters, kissed her hand towards the palace a thousand times, and then rose up through the dark blue waters. The sun had not risen when she came in sight of the Princess Palace and approached the beautiful marble steps, but the moon shone clear and bright. Then the little mermaid drank the magic draught. She fell into a swoon and lay like one dead. When the sun rose and shone over the sea, she recovered and before her stood the handsome young prince. He fixed his cold black eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast down her own and then became aware that her fish's tail was gone and that she had as pretty a pair of white legs and feet as any little maiden could have. But she had no clothes, so she wrapped herself in her long, thick hair. The prince

asked who she was and when she came. She looked at him mildly and sorrowfully with her deep, eyes, but could not speak. He took her by the hand and led her to the palace. Before her stood the handsome young prince. She moved at the prince's side as lightly as a bubble so that he and all who saw her wondered at her graceful swaying movements. She was very soon arrayed in costly robes of silk and muslin, and was the most beautiful creature in the palace. Royal servants dressed in silk and gold, stepped forward and sang before the prince and his royal parents. One sang better than all the others and the prince clapped his hands and smiled at her. was a great sorrow to the little mermaid, for she knew how much more sweetly she herself once could sing, and she thought, oh, if he could only know that I have given away my voice forever, to be with him. servants next perform some pretty fairy-like dances to the sound of beautiful music. Then the little mermaid raised her lovely white arms, stood on the tips of her toes, glided over the floor, and danced as no one yet had been able to dance. At each moment her beauty was more revealed, and her expressive eyes appealed more directly to the heart than the songs of the servants. Everyone was enchanted, especially the prince, who called her his little foundling. The prince said she should remain with him always, and she was given permission to sleep at his door on a velvet cushion. He had a pages dress made for her that she might accompany him on horseback. They rode together through the sweet scented woods, where the green bows touched their shoulders and the little birds sang among the fresh leaves. climbed with him to the tops of high mountains, and although her tender feet bled so that even her steps were marked, she only smiled and followed him till they could see the clouds beneath them, like a flock of birds flying to distant lands. at at the Princess Palace, and when all the household were asleep, she would go and sit on the broad marble steps, for it eased her newly created feet to bathe them in the cold sea-water.

It was then that she thought of all those below in the deep. Once during the night, her sisters came up, arm in arm, singing sorrowfully as they floated on the water. back into themoned to them, and they recognized her, and told her how she had grieved them. After that, they came to the same place every night. Once she saw in the distance her old grandmother, who had not been to the surface of the sea for many years, and the old sea king, her father, with his crown on his head. They stretched out their hands towards her, but did not venture so near the land as her sisters had. As the days passed, she loved the prince more dearly, and he loved her as one would love a little child. The thought never came to him to make her his wife. Yet unless he married her, she could not receive an immortal soul. And on the morning after his

marriage with another, she would dissolve into the foam of the sea. Do you not love me the best of them all? The eyes of the little mermaid seemed to say when he took her in his arms and kissed her fair forehead.

Yes, you are dear to me,' said the prince. "'For you have the best heart, and you are the most devoted to me. You are like a young maiden whom I once saw, but whom I shall never meet again. I was in a ship that was wrecked, and the waves cast me ashore near a holy temple, where several young maidens performed the service. The youngest of them found me on the shore and saved my life. I saw her but twice and she is the only one in the world whom I could love. But you are like her and you have almost driven her image from my mind. She belongs to the Holy Temple and good fortune has sent you to me in her stead. We will never part." Ah, he knows not that it was I who saved him. Thought the little mermaid. I carried him over the sea to the wood where the temple stands. I sat beneath the foam and watched till the human beings came to help him. I saw the pretty maiden that he loves better than he loves me. The mermaid sighed deeply, but she could not weep. He says the maiden belongs to the Holy Temple.

Therefore she will never return to the world. They will meet no more. I am by his side and see him every day. I will take care of him and love him and give up my life for his sake. Very soon, it was said that the prince was to marry and that the beautiful daughter of a neighboring king would be his wife for a fine ship was being fitted out. Although the prince gave out that he intended merely to pay a visit to the king, it was generally supposed that he went to court the princess. A great company were to go with him. The little mermaid smiled and shook her head. She knew the princess' thoughts better than any of the others. I must travel. He had said to her, I must see this beautiful princess. My parents desire it, but they will not oblige me to bring her home as my bride. I cannot love her because she is not like the beautiful maiden in the temple, whom you resemble. If I were forced to choose a bride, I would choose you, my foundling, with those expressive eyes. Then he kissed her rosy mouth, played with her long waving hair, and laid his head on her heart, while she of human happiness and an immortal soul. You are not afraid of the sea, my dear, are you?" he said, as they stood on the deck of the noble ship, which was to carry them to the country of the neighboring king. Then he told her of storm and of calm, of strange fishes, and the deep beneath them, and of what the divers had seen there. She smiled at his descriptions, for she knew better than anyone what wonders were at the bottom of the sea. In the moonlit night, when all on board were asleep except the man at the helm, she sat on the deck, gazing down through the clear water. She thought she could distinguish her father's castle and upon it her aged grandmother with the silver crown on her head, looking through the rushing tide at the keel of the vessel. Then her sisters came up on the waves and gazed at her mournfully, ringing their white hands. She beckoned to them and smiled and wanted to tell them how happy and well off she was. the cabin cabin boy approached, and when her sisters dived down, he thought what he saw was only the foam of the sea. The next morning, the ship sailed into the harbor of a beautiful town belonging to the king whom the prince was going to visit. The church bells were ringing, and the high towers sounded a flourish of trumpets, soldiers with flying colors and glittering bayonets lined the roads through which they passed.

Every day was a festival,

balls and entertainments following one another,

but the princess had not yet appeared.

...