LITTLE MERMAID, Copenhagen: She’s not alone! How to find all 5 mermaid sites in Denmark’s capital
Cover art own & photo by Ange Loron on Unsplash
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Copenhagen is famous for its Little Mermaid statue. But did you know? There are four more mermaid-themed statues to discover while exploring the most picturesque parts of the city.
Plus - find a further two mermaids on one museum ticket!
Mermaids have been part of Danish folklore and fairy tales for centuries.
It’s hardly surprising since Denmark’s three main landmasses, Zealand, Jutland and Funen, are surrounded by water. But what I didn’t know is that Denmark is actually made up of over 400 islands, many of which are so tiny that they don’t even have a name!
With a skilled seafaring heritage going back to Viking times, and plenty of coastal living and sailing going on, it’s no wonder that mermaid sightings have been witnessed across Denmark over the past few centuries - and Copenhagen is no exception.
Various spots along the Copenhagen waterfront have historically been associated with mermaid sightings. But its most famous monument to the mermaid is, of course, the statue inspired by The Little Mermaid fairy tale by beloved Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.
However, this is not the only one. You can find four other fascinating mermaid sculptures, all while taking in Copenhagen’s picturesque, historical heart.
📍 Scroll down to the bottom to view my Mermaid Map of Copenhagen on Google Maps for the exact locations!
1. Little Mermaid
The famous, crowd-pulling mermaid
“Den Lille Havfrue” by Edvard Eriksen. Own photo.
The Little Mermaid at Langelinie is one of Copenhagen’s definite must-sees. After all, who wouldn’t want a chance to get closer to the sweetly enchanting mermaid of our childhood fairy tales?
Unfortunately, this does mean there are usually bus-loads of tourists around her trying to snap that Insta-worthy shot. It doesn’t help that she’s only 4 ft. tall, so it can get rather crowded.
This canal cruise is incredibly popular ↑
In high season, your best bet to seeing her without having to elbow your way through the crowds is actually on one of Copenhagen’s relaxing canal cruises.
Luckily, visiting in October meant that although there were a bunch of tourists trying to shoot that must-have photo (just like I was), it wasn’t so busy that anyone needed to resort to angry huffing and elbow nudging.
Sure, some of my videos feature an unexpected arm or butt, but hey, that’s what editing is for!
How the Little Mermaid was born
The most well-known mermaid story is undoubtedly The Little Mermaid written by Hans Christian Andersen. Since its publication in 1836, the story has been adapted into various forms including theatre performances, ballets, art, and both animated and live-action movies worldwide.
When ballet enthusiast Carl Jacobsen of Carlsberg Brewery watched The Little Mermaid production at the Royal Danish Theatre in 1909, inspiration struck him.
He was so excited about solo dancer Ellen Price’s performance, that he commissioned sculptor Edvard Eriksen to create the now world-famous sculpture at Langelinie as a gift to the city of Copenhagen.
Edvard studied Price’s mermaid performance and based the head sculpt on hers. For the body, his wife Eline sat for him many times over the 350 production hours it took to create his mermaid.
What’s with all the vandalism?
Over the decades since it was unveiled in 1913, The Little Mermaid statue has sadly been the target of repeated vandalism. She’s had her head cut off twice, her arm cut off once, and been graffitied with paint, stickers and political messages.
And sometimes, Swedish or Norwegian tourists cover her in their national football shirts to annoy the Danes.
Think you know The Little Mermaid story? Think again.
Everybody knows the Disney movie version of the Little Mermaid, but even if you don’t, there is a good chance you know the story from children’s fairy tale books. The mermaid wants to be human, exchanges her voice for legs, eventually marries the prince and lives happily ever after - right?
Actually, Andersen’s story was changed significantly to make it less gruesome and child-friendly. And there’s definitely no typical fairy tale wedding at the end either.
Here’s the original plot in a nut - I mean - sea-shell…
H. C. Andersen’s Little Mermaid in Summary
The tale begins in a similar way to the story we’re familiar with. A young mermaid longs to leave the dark depths of the ocean for a life with the humans on land. She saves a handsome prince from drowning and makes a deal with the sea witch to exchange her voice for human legs so that she can be with him.
This is where the story gets more gruesome. To wield her magic, the sea witch cuts out the Little Mermaid’s tongue. The price of her new legs is that every step feels like walking on knife blades. She’ll never be able to become a mermaid again.
Worst of all, if the prince doesn’t fall in love with her, she’ll die on the first sunrise after his wedding.
Why does she gamble with her life for love?
The Little Mermaid’s grandmother taught her that although mermaids can live for 300 years, when die, they dissolve into foam and become part of the sea. Whereas humans live much shorter lives, but their souls live on forever.
The Little Mermaid is actually yearning for a soul.
If she marries a human, some of his soul will be shared with her, which means that she can go to heaven.
But the prince doesn’t fall in love with her and decides to marry someone else. On the eve of the wedding - the heartbroken Little Mermaid’s last night alive - her mermaid sisters appear in the sea.
They’ve made a new deal with the sea witch. They exchanged their hair for an enchanted knife. All the Little Mermaid has to do is stab the prince’s heart and drip his blood onto her feet to be transformed back into a mermaid.
But she can’t do it. She throws the knife into the sea and dives in after it. As predicted, when the sun rises, she dissolves into sea foam. But her consciousness doesn’t die.
The spirits of air surround her and tell her that because she’s made such a huge sacrifice, she can have a second chance. She agrees to spend 300 years as a spirit of air, doing good deeds. And so, she earns the immortal soul she’s been dreaming of all along.
Image: "'I know what you want' said the sea witch". Engraving by Harry Clarke. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
This melancholy ending is pretty normal for a mermaid story. Most often, folk legends about mermaids are sad tales about loss and longing. You can see why Disney changed it for the movie version!
It’s a very Victorian and openly Christian conclusion with its blatantly moral about good deeds being rewarded in heaven, and that anything other than a Christian human is an unworthy creature. So it did receive some mixed reviews from the critics at the time for this reason.
But the upside is that it’s not a tragic story about an obsessed young female risking her voice and her life for a crush. When she doesn’t get what she wants, i.e. the prince, she doesn’t give up, nor does she resort to a terrible deed that will only land her back in the water where she started.
Instead, with patience and determination, she still gets what she set out to - an immortal soul. Perhaps 300 years to a mermaid who lives that long anyway is a price worth paying for a soul.
2. Black Diamond Mermaid
The “REAL” mermaid
“Havfrue” by Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen. Own photo.
On the waterfront outside the imposing Black Diamond building of the Royal Library sits a less well-known mermaid. Havfrue by Danish sculptor Anne Marie Carl Nielsen was unveiled here in 2009 even though the original cast was created back in 1921 - only 8 years after Edvard Eriksen’s.
Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen was a much sought-after artist and well-respected female in a predominantly male field. She was the first female sculptor in the world to be commissioned to complete two of the profession’s most prestigious projects: to create an equestrian statue of a king and bronze gates for a cathedral. However, she faded from history, like many other female artists in the past.
Why she’s the “Real Deal”
Many call this sculpture the “Real” Little Mermaid because her appearance is closer to how witnesses describe mermaids throughout history, both in Denmark and worldwide. With her wide-set, fishlike eyes and a gasping expression, the mermaid outside the Black Diamond is certainly an otherworldly creature.
She’s also far from the romanticised ideal of a meek, delicate beauty embodied by Eriksen’s depiction. Carl-Nielsen was a modern woman, committed to supporting other Women Artists. Her mermaid echoes from a time when there was a push in art to move away from depicting women as idealised objects and instead portray women as multi-faceted, complex and real.
Fun fact! Merfolk legends are ancient and global:
In ancient Mesopotamia, the god Dagon could show himself as a man with a fish-tail. And in Assyria, the goddess Atargatis threw herself into a lake after losing a lover, where her legs were transformed into the tail of a fish.
In classical Greece, the sirens encountered in Homer’s Odyssey have been depicted as mermaids since the Middle Ages, even though they were initially more like harpies with birds’ bodies for their lower halves.
In Africa too, legends have been passed down about mer-deities like Mami Wata. And in Asia, we find stories of Matsyāṅganā and Suvannamaccha, as well as Japanese Ningyo.
Image: Suvannamaccha - Golden Mermaid daughter of Ravana. She tried to spoil Hanuman’s plans to build a bridge but fell in love with him instead - from Ramakien Mural in Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok. Photo by Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Why this location is special
There are two significant reasons why Havfrue was installed at the Black Diamond.
1. Mermaid sightings
Historically, there have been many mermaid sightings in this area between Slotsholmen and Christianshavn. This area was even called the “mermaid grounds”. Some say these were seals misidentified as mermaids since the seal population was high in the waters around Copenhagen.
However, even seals are not without their enchantments. There is a belief in folklore found in Denmark, Scotland and the Faroe Islands, that some seals are magical creatures that were once human. These are known as Selkies in Scottish lore or Kópakonan in Danish/Faroese lore. They are usually female and can shapeshift from seal to human by removing their seal skin. This allows them to come ashore and live among humans. But if anyone should steal their seal skin and hide it away, the Selkie or Kópakonan cannot return to the ocean without it. Read the full Kópakonan’s story of revenge here.
So, whether seal, mermaid or just the imagination of drunken sailors - who knows what the locals spotted here?
2. Major folklore collection
The Black Diamond (Den Sorte Diamant) building of the Royal Library (Det Kgl Bibliotek), own photo
The extensive digital library even includes charming papercuts made by Hans Christian Andersen, like this charming “Wreath with Men and Swans”
The other reason is that the Black Diamond part of the Royal Library contains the country’s biggest collection of folk legends. This includes everything from mermaids, trolls, a kind of gnome called a nisse, a type of dragon known as a lindorm, fairies, elves, giants and many more.
Thanks to researchers in the late 19th century, this folklore collection is one of the largest and most comprehensive in Europe. It houses folklore archives, rare books and manuscripts, old maps and photographs, and even a computer games collection.
3. Genetically Modified Little Mermaid
The weird mermaid - perhaps even the stuff of nightmares!
Photo by mike from New York, NY, US, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Only a short distance down the pier from the famous Little Mermaid sits her twisted sister, The Genetically Modified Little Mermaid.
A tongue-in-cheek answer to mermaid mania, Danish artist Bjørn Nørgaard created this distorted version of the traditionally beautiful fantasy figure as part of his Genetically Modified Paradise on the square adjacent.
This is a collection of sculptures depicting venerated figures like Adam & Eve and Jesus Christ but transformed into barely recognisable, abstract forms. First exhibited at the world exhibition EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany, this modern art piece is designed to evoke a discussion about genetic technology. Like genetic modification, it turns figures that many hold sacred into something unnaturally warped.
She’s complicated
Perhaps this sad-looking statue also speaks to the fact that The Little Mermaid of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale had a somewhat twisted self-image. She felt like an outsider who couldn’t be happy with her natural fish-form. So she gave everything to be something else - to feel like a human and win someone’s love.
Maybe this statue reminds us that we all need a little more self-acceptance sometimes.
4. Agnete and the Merman
The secret merfolk hidden in the depths
“Agnete og Havmanden” by Suste Bonnen. Own photo.
This could be Copenhagen’s most hidden gem of public art: Agnete og Havmanden is underwater.
Despite being installed at the super-busy, central Frederiksholm Canal next to Højbro (the high bridge) and Christiansborg Palace (the parliament building), you could easily walk past this submerged sculpture without ever knowing it existed. Many people do!
Statues with an eerie story
The sculpture was created by Danish sculptor, photographer and author Suste Bonnen and sunk in place in 1992. Based on a traditional Danish Folktale, it portrays a merman and seven merchildren reaching upwards towards the water’s surface. This is because they are waiting for their human mother Agnete to return to them under the sea. It’s a bit of a sad tale of loss and longing, as is common with mermaid tales.
There are variations of the story (as many as nineteen, apparently!), but this is my favourite one:
Agnete and the Merman
One day, a young woman named Agnete sat by the sea when a handsome merman appeared out of the waves. As they spent a little time together, they began to fall in love. He asked Agnete to leave the dry land behind and share his life under the sea. She agreed and together, they descended.
In her new life underwater, she bore 7 children (or in some versions 2). But one day, she heard the church bells chiming on land and missed her parents. She promised her reluctant merman husband that she’ll return to him and their children by morning, and headed ashore.
When she arrived at the church at midnight, she found her mother there grieving. The bells were chiming for the funeral of Agnete’s father. He had been searching for her in vain all this time and had eventually died of sorrow.
Agnete was devastated. Her mother began to plead with her to return home, when behind her, Agnete saw a tombstone appear. It bore her mother’s name.
Agnete then realised that her conversation with her mother was only a ghostly vision. In fact, the entire family had died while she was away. Time passes differently under the sea.
She never returned to the ocean, leaving her merchildren and merhusband behind.
Image: “Agnethe og Havmanden” fresco in Agnethestuen in Fuglsang Manor, Lolland. Painted by Axel Viggo Wørmer, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Hans Christian Anderson was so fond of this well-known folktale that he wrote it into a play. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great success. However, composer Peter Heise wrote a lovely musical score for it. You can find the choral version here and a modern folk version here (both on YouTube) to immerse yourself in some dreamy mermaid vibes.
5. Restaurant Havfruen
The golden mermaid
The golden mermaid outside Restaurant Havfruen. Photo @nickkarvounis via Unsplash.
The popular area of Nyhavn is probably the most quintessentially “Copenhagen”. With its cute pastel portside townhouses, it’s a perfectly delightful addition to any visitor’s Instagram feed.
But Nyhavn wasn’t always the desirable place to be. After King Christian V had this new harbour (i.e. “Ny Havn”) built by Swedish prisoners of war in 1673 to connect more easily to his newly cobbled plaza, Kongens Nytorv, it became a notorious strip of bars and brothels for sailors. Nothing like the welcoming terrace cafes of today.
Restaurant Havfruen’s Golden Mermaid
Among this row of lovely little shops and eateries is the Restaurant Havfruen. Havfruen is Danish for mermaid, and this cosy seafood bistro pays homage to the sailors’ folklore with its gleaming golden mermaid sculpture above the entrance.
It serves fresh, locally caught and sustainable fish and seafood that is well worth a try!
Fun fact!
Look closely when you pass No. 17 and you’ll find Tattoo Ole - the oldest, still functioning tattoo shop in the world in the basement - I wonder how many sailors have had mermaids inked onto their arms here since 1884!
Honourable mentions: Water Mother & Triton at Glyptotek
“Vandmoderen”. Photo by Gunnar Bach Pedersen, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
“Triton”. Photo by Yair Haklai, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
An honourable mention goes to two water deity sculptures at the Glyptotek Museum of Fine Arts. There is an entry fee to visit the museum, so I’ve kept them separate. However, at the time of writing, admission to the museum is free on the last Wednesday of each month. It’s well worth a visit, as the museum has an excellent collection.
Water Mother - from water comes life.
Vandmoderen, or “Water Mother”, is a sculpture that adorns the central fountain in the beautiful Winter Gardens of the museum. Created by Kai Nielsen, she may not strictly be a mermaid in the typical sense of a youthful siren, but I think she is an embodiment of a supernatural water goddess.
She is the life-giving embodiment of water itself. There are even fish swimming around her fountain, surrounded by the lush greenery of the Winter Garden, like a deity of fertile creation.
Triton - father of scary mermaids?
Just behind her is another impressive water god sculpture - Triton. Formed with two eel-like tails ending in fins in place of legs, this deity from Greek mythology is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. He was the messenger of the sea, with an ability to enrage or calm the waves with a blow of his conch shell.
It is said that he spawned an entire sea-dwelling race, known as the Tritons. Although similar to mermaids, they were much more menacing with dark eyes, tiny scales all over, beast-like teeth and sharp nails.
Map of Mermaid Sites in Copenhagen
Check out all the mermaid spots you can visit in Copenhagen on my Google Map below.
Could Copenhagen be the most mermaid-adorned city in the world?
Possibly! All I know is I had a lot of fun walking along the pier and the beautiful streets of Copenhagen’s old town, looking for mermaids on land.
The experience is so much more special knowing that there is a real folk history of mermaid sightings here, which makes it fun to dream about the magical things that could lurk out of sight in the dark waters.
So is Copenhagen worth a visit?
If you love looking for mermaids while:
strolling along picturesque water-fronts with cute cafés
visiting fantastic museums, exceptional art collections and bold historic buildings
experiencing an effortlessly classy and stylish capital
…then yes!
