Every step you take will feel as if you were treading upon knife blades so sharp that blood must flow. I am willing to help you, but are you willing to suffer all this?" "Yes," the little mermaid said in a trembling voice, as she thought of the Prince and of gaining a human soul.

The fame of his fairy tales had grown steadily; a second series began in 1838 and a third in 1845. In the book the protagonist meets characters ranging from Saint Peter to a talking cat. It was during 1835 that Andersen publiHans Christian Andersend the first installment of his immortal Fairy Tales (Danish: Eventyr; lit.

Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories—called eventyr or "fantastic tales"—express themes that transcend age and nationality. Although a prolific writer of plays travelogues novels and poems Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales a literary genre he so mastered that he himself has become as mythical as the tales he wrote.