An Old Tale, A New Story

I loved the Disney "My Little Mermaid" when I was a little girl. Not quite as much as I loved "Sleeping Beauty", but still. I could sing all the words to "Unda da Sea". But I also loved the dark, dismal original. I don't remember ever reading it (though I probably did). I remember hearing it. As a girl, my parents surrounded me with audio tapes to send me to sleep (the choice to give me the original fairy tales to lull me to sleep was possibly not the most well-thought through idea on their part). I remember the agony when the mermaid gets her wish and the horrid despair when she becomes just on the waves.

So when I read Alethea Kontis's story behind the story of "Blood and Water" on the editor of IGMS's blog it really resonated with me. I wanted to read the story -- but I didn't have a subscription to IGMS and, at the time, no way of getting one. So now that the story has become freely available on the IGMS website, of course I've read it. And I was not disappointed. Kontis answered all the questions she posed in the blog entry that had originally intrigued me and added a very unique twist to the old fairy tale.

The story starts off from the perspective of the "witch", a witch who seems at odds with herself over whether to grant the mermaid's witch but who ultimately gives in. And so begins the story of a mermaid who grows two legs but still isn't quite human. Picked up by a pirate ship, she has to come to terms with her new nature, confusing surroundings and the question of how to find her prince.