The mermaid who traded in her tail for legs out of love but had to give up her voice to the evil sea witch. Everybody knows the fairy tale of the Little Mermaid. Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen wrote the story in 1836. As a tribute, there is a sculpture of the Little Mermaid at the Langelinie Quay in Copenhagen.
There she sits on a granite stone in the old harbour district of Nyhavn. The Little Mermaid has unintentionally become one of the most popular attractions in Copenhagen – every day dozens of visitors flock here to take their picture with the statue. The sculpture owes its existence to Danish Brewer Carl Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg beer. In 1909 he attended a ballet performance of the Little Mermaid, based on the story of Andersen. Jacobsen left the theatre deeply impressed with the fairy tale and asked Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen to create a statue of the Little Mermaid.