fairy tale "The Little Mermaid"
E338205
The fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" is a classic 1837 story by Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid who sacrifices everything for the chance to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince.
All labels observed (7)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3220099 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" Context triple: [The Little Mermaid statue, basedOn, fairy tale "The Little Mermaid"]
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A.
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid is a beloved 1989 animated musical fantasy film that revitalized Disney animation with its fairy-tale romance, memorable songs, and vibrant undersea world.
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B.
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Voyage of the Little Mermaid was a live musical stage show at Disney's Hollywood Studios that retold Disney’s animated film "The Little Mermaid" using actors, puppetry, and special effects.
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C.
Mermaids
Mermaids is a 1990 coming-of-age comedy-drama film starring Cher, Winona Ryder, and Bob Hoskins, centered on an eccentric single mother and her daughters in 1960s New England.
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D.
Cinderella (fairy tale)
Cinderella (fairy tale) is a classic European folk story about a mistreated young woman whose life is transformed through magical intervention and a royal romance, popularized by countless literary and film adaptations.
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E.
The Sleeping Beauty
The Sleeping Beauty is a landmark classical ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to Tchaikovsky’s score, renowned for its grand style, technical precision, and prominence in the Mariinsky Theatre tradition.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" Target entity description: The fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" is a classic 1837 story by Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid who sacrifices everything for the chance to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince.
-
A.
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid is a beloved 1989 animated musical fantasy film that revitalized Disney animation with its fairy-tale romance, memorable songs, and vibrant undersea world.
-
B.
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Voyage of the Little Mermaid was a live musical stage show at Disney's Hollywood Studios that retold Disney’s animated film "The Little Mermaid" using actors, puppetry, and special effects.
-
C.
Mermaids
Mermaids is a 1990 coming-of-age comedy-drama film starring Cher, Winona Ryder, and Bob Hoskins, centered on an eccentric single mother and her daughters in 1960s New England.
-
D.
Cinderella (fairy tale)
Cinderella (fairy tale) is a classic European folk story about a mistreated young woman whose life is transformed through magical intervention and a royal romance, popularized by countless literary and film adaptations.
-
E.
The Sleeping Beauty
The Sleeping Beauty is a landmark classical ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to Tchaikovsky’s score, renowned for its grand style, technical precision, and prominence in the Mariinsky Theatre tradition.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (52)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Danish literature work
ⓘ
literary fairy tale ⓘ short story ⓘ |
| author | Hans Christian Andersen ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
desire for an immortal soul
ⓘ
identity and transformation ⓘ sacrifice ⓘ unrequited love ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Denmark ⓘ |
| ending | the little mermaid dissolves into sea foam but becomes a daughter of the air ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Hefte. Tredie Samling ⓘ |
| genre |
fairy tale
ⓘ
fantasy ⓘ romantic tragedy ⓘ |
| hasAdaptation |
The Little Mermaid (1975 Japanese animated film)
ⓘ
The Little Mermaid (1976 Czech live-action film) ⓘ The Little Mermaid ⓘ
surface form:
The Little Mermaid (1989 film)
The Little Mermaid (2018 live-action film loosely based on the tale) ⓘ The Little Mermaid (Russian 1968 animated film) ⓘ The Little Mermaid (stage musical) ⓘ |
| hasCharacterType |
human prince
ⓘ
mermaid ⓘ sea witch ⓘ |
| hasIllustrationTradition | frequently illustrated in 19th- and 20th-century children’s books ⓘ |
| includedIn | canon of classic fairy tales ⓘ |
| influencedBy | Christian ideas about the soul and afterlife ⓘ |
| inspired |
numerous ballets
ⓘ
numerous operas ⓘ numerous stage plays ⓘ various literary retellings ⓘ |
| keyEvent |
the little mermaid refuses to kill the prince to save herself
ⓘ
the little mermaid rescues a drowning prince during a storm ⓘ the little mermaid trades her tongue and voice for human legs ⓘ the little mermaid visits the sea witch to obtain a potion ⓘ the prince marries another princess ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | Romantic era ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
The Little Mermaid
ⓘ
surface form:
the little mermaid
the little mermaid’s grandmother ⓘ the little mermaid’s sisters ⓘ the prince ⓘ the sea witch ⓘ |
| moralElement |
consequences of self-sacrifice for love
ⓘ
emphasis on spiritual salvation over earthly happiness ⓘ |
| notableDifferenceFromDisneyAdaptation | original ending is tragic and focused on spiritual redemption rather than a romantic happy ending ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | Danish ⓘ |
| partOf | Andersen’s fairy tale collections ⓘ |
| plotSummary | A young mermaid longs for a human soul and the love of a human prince, sacrifices her voice to a sea witch for legs, and ultimately fails to win his love but gains a chance at an immortal soul as a daughter of the air. ⓘ |
| protagonistDesire |
to gain a human soul
ⓘ
to live on land with the prince ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1837 ⓘ |
| setting |
human royal court
ⓘ
underwater kingdom ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" Description of subject: The fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" is a classic 1837 story by Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid who sacrifices everything for the chance to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
The Little Mermaid (1989 film)
this entity surface form:
The Little Mermaid (fairy tale)
this entity surface form:
The Little Mermaid (Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, loosely)
this entity surface form:
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
this entity surface form:
Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale "The Little Mermaid"
this entity surface form:
Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale "Den lille Havfrue"
this entity surface form:
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
subject surface form:
The Little Mermaid (2023 film)
this entity surface form:
The Little Mermaid (fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen)