This project is inspired by the famous fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). Not so long ago that I read and I wanted to build something that has to do with it, touched by the story and even more from the self-sacrifice of the young mermaid, preferred to sacrifice herself, than to kill him had fallen in love.

The timber is a single piece and I brought it from the Monastery of Arkadi. I put it in a tow truck and I started working immediately. The driver of the truck named George Paragioudakis has helped me many times to transport big trunks from the fields to the village. The construction work was difficult because I worked most time on my knees.

The tale says that a mermaid who lives in sea rescues a prince from certain drowning. She helps him to go ashore, but she can not go to the land because she has tail and not feet. However, she falls in love and wants to live with him. Then descends to the bottom of the sea, visits a witch in order to develop a human foot. “You can” says the witch ‘acquire it but you will lose your voice and you will be hurt”. It cares little the mermaid. So it happened, it loses her voice, but with human feet longer comes ashore. But the prince did not recognize his saviour. He thinks he saved him other girl with a beautiful voice and decides to marry that girl. The mermaid sank again to the ocean must regain her tail, and what to do should kill the prince otherwise, she will turn into sea foam, the first light of the sun!

And the story ends like this:

“… … More was hurting the wound in her heart. She knew that this was the last night seeing the one for whom she left her home and her family, renounced the charming voice and endless sufferings endured martyrdom. It was the last night she breathed the same air with the prince, the last night she saw the deep blue sea and sky with the stars.

One night the eternal wait, no thoughts, no dreams, because neither had a soul or no hope to obtain. On the boat, after midnight, the festivities and joys are not told to stop. And she laughed and danced with the thought of death in her heart. The prince had his arms the beautiful wife and caressed the black hair. In a moment, holding each hand in hand withdrew the grand stage.

All then reassured, only the steersman was standing at the helm, and the little mermaid had touch the white hands of the railing and looked to the east. She knew that the first ray of sun would kill her. She saw then her sisters to emerge from the sea. They were pale as she was too and their beautiful long hair is not longer danced in the wind. They were cut.

‘We gave our hair to the witch in order to protect you and not die tonight! She gave to us a knife, this! You see it is sharp; before dawn, the draft should be in the heart of the prince, and when the warm blood splatter your feet, they stick and restoring fish tail. Over there, once more you will become a mermaid, then you are coming down to the bottom of the sea, to live with us and live three hundred years before you transformed into lifeless, salty foam. Do not sit! One of you must die before the dawn! You see that red glint in the sky; in a few minutes, the sun will come out and you will die! ”

After they breathed heavily in a bizarre way and disappeared beneath the waves.

The Little Mermaid pulled the red curtain of the royal scene, saw the beautiful bride who slept with her head leaning on the chest of the prince, knelt before him, kissed him in his nice face, look at the sky, where the hues became more and more vivid, looked at the sharp knife, and again the prince who says straight to sleep the name of his wife, and then the knife began to shake in the hand of mermaid.

Suddenly, she threw it away in the sea and the waves where it fell were painted red as if dropped blood in the water. The Little Mermaid threw a little glance at the prince, plunged into the sea and felt her body to be dissolved and foam (Hans Christian Andersen).