• Outside the Glenbow museum, Downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada • August 27, 2004 • Taken by Joe •

i-gizmo challenge for February 26, 2005, is Two. This little mermaid looks like the one who sits on a rock in
Copenhagen harbor... the national symbol of Denmark. Actually, it seems like the exact copy. She sits just outside
the Glenbow museum here in the city, and behind her... a huge mirror.

Interesting story about the original statue of the little mermaid: A Danish brewer, Carl Jacobsen, was very
interested in ballet, and visited the Royal Theatre often. At one time Jacobsen, together with sculptor Edvard Eriksen,
got the idea to grant the Danish corps de ballet some kind of monument!

At first, it was supposed to be a fountain, but when the ballet " The Little Mermaid" was put up on the Royal Theatre,
Jacobsen became so excited when he saw the female solo dancer Ellen Price, that he asked Edvard Eriksen to make
a draft for a sculpture modeled by her.

Eriksen had created a graceful little sculpture, with the mermaid captured before the transformation and with the fish
tail intact! Eriksen meant that the little mermaid should be on land, but Jacobsen said it should be sitting on a rock at
the seashore. So The Little Mermaid was put up at Langelinie shore on August 23rd, 1913!

The story also tells that Ellen Price didn't really modeled for the sculpture. It is said, that she didn't want to pose
naked, and Eriksen had to ask his own wife to pose. But the head is surely the reflection of Ellen Price!

The little mermaid is the most vandalized national symbol out there. It went through being painted red, she lost her
head twice, she lost her right arm, and she was also knocked down from her stone into the water. Makes you
wonder why anyone wants to harm her, no?

3 Comments

Great submission for "two". Love it! ~thanks

leova | 02.26.05 - 7:11 pm |

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Really nice. I love it. Calgary has beautiful statues. What is the name for those ones drinking a cup of tea, the
women in a square?

Fran | 03.07.05 - 2:04 am |

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Thanks, guys :-)).

Fran, I'm not sure if that's the one you're talking about, but there's a bronze statue at the Olympic Plaza in Calgary,
featuring the Famous Five womenEmily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Louise
McKinneywho triumphed in the 'Persons' Case, one of the most famous cases in Canadian legal history.

The ruling in the 'Persons' Case enshrined the right of women to participate fully and equally in the political life of this
country. And its influence did not end at Canada's borders. The rights of women throughout the British
Commonwealth were expanded by this historic ruling, thanks to the efforts of the Famous Five.

Lorien | 03.07.05 - 1:25 pm |