Of all the Sea King's six pretty daughters, she was the youngest and fairest. "Her skin," said Denmark's Hans Christian Andersen, "was as soft and tender as a rose petal, and her eyes were as blue as the deep sea—but like all the others, she had no feet. Her body ended in a fishtail."
She was The Little Mermaid. And of all the Sirens and Scyllas seen by all the storm-tossed mariners, she was the first and only daughter of her finny race to serve as Neptune's permanent, peaceful ambassador to the footed world. Inspired by the Andersen story,...