So when she sees Margrethe she calls to her, save him.

Swimming between the sea and sky, Lenia falls in love with him, but she realizes that they are of two worlds although she can bring him to shore, she cannot save his life once he is there. She witnesses a terrible shipwreck, and while countless sailors drown around her, she decides that she can save at least one of them.

On her eighteenth birthday, which also happens to be the night of a terrible storm, Lenia swims to the surface of the ocean for the first time. Mermaids, on the other hand, live three hundred years and then turn to sea foam and are no more. Her grandmother told her that humans have souls which have eternal life when a human dies, his body may rot but his soul will live forever. But what fascinates Lenia the most is the idea of a human soul. She’s the youngest of all her sisters and has always been fascinated by the human world. The mermaid is Lenia, a princess of the sea kingdom. While she is standing on the cliff looking out over the ocean, Margrethe witnesses what she thought to be impossible a mermaid pulling a drowning man out of the water.

Margrethe is staying at a convent where her father has sent her into hiding from their southern enemies. The chapters alternate between Lenia, the mermaid, and Margrethe, a northern princess. One of the things I really appreciate about this novel is that it’s told in two voices. And this is what Turgeon really manages to capture in her novel, Mermaid. Of wanting what you know you cannot have, hoping against all hope. It’s a story about sacrificing everything and getting nothing in return, of wishing you could give up everything if only something would turn out your way. The little mermaid falls in love with a man she cannot have, gives up everything to be with him, and is rejected in favor of a human girl, and as a result dies and is turned to sea foam. So in case any of you aren’t familiar with Andersen’s story, I suggest reading it here, or you can find a different translation that you like.Īndersen’s story is about love and sacrifice. And because of that, most people probably aren’t familiar with Andersen’s story, but rather with Ariel’s. Turgeon’s novel actually retells Andersen’s story while Disney’s…sort of doesn’t. But Ariel has come to define what a mermaid is hell, even the cover of Turgeon’s book has got a red-headed mermaid on it, and the mermaid in this version, Lenia, is blonde. Let’s face it, Ariel has invaded everywhere. That is about to change with this book, Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon.īut before I do, I want to address the Disney version. So far in this blog, I haven’t reviewed anything based on The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen.

Mermaid by carolyn turgeon