Last week we kicked off October (aka the month of Mermaid for Danger and The Little Mermaid!) with a discussion about the mermaid’s magic dagger. Today’s symbol is closely related: the sea foam.

If you were here last week (or have read the original “Little Mermaid” story), then this isn’t really a spoiler. (If you haven’t, beware!) At the end of the tale, when the little mermaid doesn’t kill the prince and her time is up, her body turns into sea foam. Hans Christian Andersen explains this by saying that mermaids don’t have souls like humans do, so she has no hope of an afterlife or resurrection. Instead, her body dissipates, and for a moment her spirit lingers to forgive and bless the prince and his new bride.

So . . . it’s definitely a darker ending than we usually get from The Little Mermaid stories. And what’s with the sea foam thing?

First of all, let me back up. It’s actually pretty common in fairy tales or fantasy for the mythological beings not to have souls, and therefore not to have the same afterlife that humans might. In The Lord of the Rings and The Last Unicorn, to name two classic examples, you’ll find similar ideas. Usually, the soul is presented as the redeeming blessing of being human: like, sure, you can’t live underwater or fly or be nearly immortal, but you can savor your life and perhaps look forward to an afterlife in the end. The concept has some clear religious connections (which were only stronger for Hans Christian Andersen, writing several centuries ago).

So in that context, sea foam is essentially Andersen’s aquatic answer to “dust in the wind.” (Slight mixing of timelines there, but you get the point!) It underscores the mermaid’s tragic predicament, and it’s also a visceral way to illustrate the downside of being a cool magic creature like a mermaid. Fantasy and metaphor come and go, but humans remain! Religious aspects aside, it brings up an interesting idea–that, no matter what stories we tell, we are the constant.

In my own writing, I’ve shed a lot of these classic distinctions between magic creatures and humans. It’s safe to assume that most if not all of my characters have souls, no matter what they are. 😉 However, the idea of a body turning to sea foam does still play a role in Mermaid for Danger . . . because really, what better way to hide a corpse?

Sources . . . ?

Everything in today’s post is my own musings and associations. (And my brain is going a bit mushy as I finish up some intense editing, so consider yourself warned, haha!) However, as with last week, if you’d like to read Andersen’s original Little Mermaid text, you can find it online in lots of places–including here.