24 Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales
however, be very painful ; you will feel as though a sharp knife
passed through your body. All who look on you. after you have
been thus changed will say that you are the loveliest child they
have ever seen. You will retain your graceful movements, and
no dancer will move so lightly, but every step you take will
cause you pain all but unbearable ; it will seem to you as though
you were walking on the sharp edges of swords, and your blood
will low. Can you endure all this suffering? If so, I will grant
your request.”
“Yes, I will,” answered the princess, with a faltering voice;
for she remembered her dear prince and the immortal soul which
her suffering might win.
“Only consider,” said the witch, “that you can never again
become a mermaid when once you have received a human form.
You may never return to your sisters and your father’s palace;
and unless you shall win the prince’s love to such a degree that
he shall leave father and mother for you, that you shall be mixed
up with all his thoughts and wishes, and unless the priest join
your hands so that you become man and wife, you will never
obtain the immortality you seek. The morrow of the day on
which he is united to another will see your death; your heart will
break with sorrow, and you will be changed to foam on the sea.”
“Still T will venture!” said the little mermaid, pale and
trembling as a dying person.
“Besides all this, I must be paid, and it is no slight thing that
[| require for my trouble. You have the sweetest voice of all the
dwellers in the sea, and you think by its means to charm the
prince ; this voice, however, I demand as my recompense, Lhe
best thing you possess I require in exchange for my magic
drink ; for I shall be obliged to sacrifice my own blood in order
‘0 give it the sharpness of a two-edged sword.”
“ But if you take my voice from me,” said the princess, “what
have I left with which to charm the prince?”
“Your graceful form,” replied the witch ; “your modest gait,
and speaking eyes. With such as these it will be easy to infatuate
a vain human heart. Well now! have you lost courage? Put
out your little tongue, that I may cut it off and take it in return
for my magic drink.”
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