century. Reception Despite its late origin, it grew to become one of the most popular ballads in both Denmark and Sweden. It has been described as the best-known and most widely discussed in all of Danish balladry. During the Danish Romantic Period, the motif inspired Jens Baggesen's poem "Agnes fra Holmegaard" (1808) and Adam Oehlenschläger's "Agnete" (1812). Hans Christian Andersen worked the material into the play Agnete og Havmanden (1834) which was staged, accompanied the music of Niels Gade, but the show was a flop. It also plays a significant role in Problema III of Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling (1843). The ballad was the basis for Matthew Arnold's 1849 poem "The Forsaken Merman", although Arnold's heroine being named "Margaret" has led to the claim that the actual source might be the folklore account published by Just Mathias Thiele, where the woman enticed by the merman is named "Grethe". Another derivative work is Henrik Ibsen's 1888 play Fruen fra havet. Poul Anderson wrote a sequel novel The Merman's Children, about her children. Outer appearance Although the merman in the ballad might be conceived of as half human and half fish, or such beings that can also transform into the guise of a normal human male, he was sung of in the ballad as a presumably handsome man with hair "like the purest gold (som det pureste Guld). This golden haired man in the Danish original has been changed to a man whose "beard was green" in English translation by George Borrow. A merman such that "his beard was greener than the salt sea ; his shape was pleasing" is described in Thiele's prose version, which Borrow has translated. Oehlenschläger's poem has the merman saying that he has seven hundred mermaids in waiting, who are "like a woman above, and like a fish below". Whereas in the Poul Anderson novel the merfolk are legged, and look much like humans except for their bluish or green hair. There is also the 20th century sculpture (Agnete and the Merman) on display in Copenhagen. Editions Danish . English (ver. Ak, redaction) (ver. Ak, redaction) (ver. C) Explanatory notes References Citations Bibliography Danish folklore Norwegian folklore Swedish folklore Scandinavian folklore Ballads Danish folk music Nordic folk music Year of song unknown Fictional mermen and mermaids