The magician of the fairy tale world

Faced with the puzzle, Aurora's head was hot.

The witch's blessing only gave her the speed of learning and memory, which seemed to be of no help when dealing with difficult problems that required improvisation.

"This treasure cannot be seen or touched. It should be intangible!"

"Intangible treasure. Courage? Or other qualities such as kindness?"

"No, that's not right. Mermaids also have these qualities!"

Suddenly, the mermaid princess Ariel's frown suddenly opened, raised her hand and said:

"I, I know!"

What? Ariel actually guessed it.

Aurora was very surprised: this quiet and elegant mermaid princess was obviously not a knowledgeable wise man.

Could it be that the answer to the puzzle is something that ordinary humans can hardly think of, but the mermaid princess Ariel values ​​very much because of her special experience?

"The answer, the answer is..." Ariel was about to shout out the answer.

"Stop!"

Unexpectedly, the sea witch shouted:

"Princess, this is a puzzle for two human children. You are not allowed to answer or remind them."

Ariel had to stop talking, and was extremely anxious.

I don't know since when, she has recognized these two human friends and worried about their gains and losses!

Aurora tried to give the answer:

"Love! Is the answer love? I mean, the love of humans for mermaids."

She deliberately emphasized that it was the love of humans for mermaids. Isn't that what humans have and mermaids don't have?

The moment she shouted out this answer, the blonde girl was delighted.

Yes, love cannot be seen, but it is praised by countless poems; it cannot be touched, but it can be polluted and washed. Because love does not exist in substance, it is lighter than the wind and softer than fog! At the same time, love is indeed a treasure more precious than gold, and because love can be recorded and passed down, it can last through the years and never die.

Besides, didn't Ariel fall in love with a human prince recently?

"Humans' love for mermaids" is indeed "something I couldn't think of at first, but the mermaid princess Ariel has been craving recently."

Right!

The sea witch was stunned.

After a few seconds, she announced emotionlessly:

"Wrong answer."

In an instant, Aurora suddenly realized and remembered the last sentence of the puzzle:

"This treasure is more important to the dead than to the living!"

Love does not meet the conditions.

How to answer this? Aurora frowned.

At this moment, a clear and high-pitched voice of a young man sounded:

"Immortal soul."

The silver-haired boy Rhine, who had not answered, suddenly raised his chin and repeated the answer word by word:

"Eternal and immortal soul."

Ariel opened her mouth wide, first staring at Rhine with wide eyes, then smiled and breathed a sigh of relief for her two new friends.

She knew that this human friend had answered correctly.

"Ah? What does this mean?" Aurora didn't understand at once.

Does this answer meet the question?

Rhine explained slowly:

"The eternal and immortal soul is the answer to this puzzle.

"No one can see the soul, but there are countless poems and articles to praise it;

"No one can touch the soul, but the soul can be polluted and cleansed - we often say that despicable teachings will pollute the soul, and holy scenes will cleanse the soul.

"The soul has no weight, so it is lighter than the wind; the value of the soul is immeasurable, so it is more precious than gold.

"The soul is softer than the fog, but because of its eternal immortality, it will never die even after years.

"Most importantly, the immortal soul is of course more important to the dead than to the living! It is because the body will perish that the immortality of the soul is meaningful. "

After listening to Rhine's explanation, Aurora felt that something was wrong.

Did the teacher deliberately ignore [one of the sentences] in the riddle?

"But, the riddle doesn't say..." Aurora opened her mouth to ask the teacher, but Rhine seemed to know what she wanted to ask.

Rhine said calmly:

"Yes, Aurora. As the riddle says, humans have immortal souls, but mermaids and other non-human intelligent creatures do not. "

The mermaid princess Ariel on the side lowered her head and said nothing.

"Your answer is correct." The sea witch laughed and laughed:

"Human, I didn't expect you to know. Even in this kingdom in the sea, only a few wise elders know this secret. "

The old sea witch said again:

"Human life is much shorter than that of mermaids and other intelligent creatures in the sea.

"But what you humans have that we don't have is the shining immortal soul.

"Some people say that when the body dies, the immortal soul will fly to the clear sky, fly to the shining stars, and ascend to the kingdom of heaven; or, in particularly bad cases, it will fall infinitely, falling to the deepest part of the earth, lower than the seabed.

"In short, it is to go to another world, a world we will never see.

"Some people also say that the immortal soul will return to the world and come back to the world as a newborn.

"When an old person passes away and his relatives cry for the first time, in a corner of the world, another baby will cry just as loudly. Death and rebirth are a pair of conjoined twin sisters, they always hug each other tightly and never separate.

"Since the beginning of history, no one has ever really died."

At this point, the sea witch laughed a little crazily:

"All the above statements are just beautiful poems that you humans have exclusively.

"And we, the intelligent non-human creatures, will only turn into a ball of foam, a pool of mucus, and disappear without a trace once we die.

"Because we are different from you, we don't have an immortal soul."

It's really like this... Rhine sighed in his heart.

No mistake, one post, one content, one 6, one 9, one book, one bar!

Even if you already know the answer, it's a completely different feeling to be in this situation.

In some simplified versions of the story of "The Daughter of the Sea", or the story called "The Little Mermaid" after the adaptation, the story between the mermaid princess and the prince is just a love story that is easy for children to understand.

The little mermaid wanted to become a human because she loved the prince.

She finally turned into foam and sacrificed herself in the morning sun, which was regarded as a sacrifice for love.

And this story officially ended with the sad scene of the little mermaid's body melting into foam.

Born for love, died for love.

But in Andersen's writing, this story seems to have a deeper theological connotation and religious implication.

One of the most important reasons why the little mermaid wants to marry the prince is that she is pursuing an immortal soul. She wants to get an immortal soul by falling in love and marrying a human.

This religious connotation also extends to the end of the work: after turning into foam, the little mermaid seems to hear the voice of an angel and turns into a daughter of the sky.

The glory of God is hidden in the text of the story.

God... Rhine's thoughts are mixed.

He also noticed that the sea witch's description of the immortal soul in front of him is very different from the original work!

In the original story, the "immortal soul" is only described as ascending to heaven.

In the sea witch's narration, although the wise men in the sea know the existence of the "immortal soul", its whereabouts are still a mystery.

It may rise, it may fall, or even reincarnate:

"When an old man passes away, when his relatives cry for the first time, in a corner of the world, another baby will cry just as loudly. Death and rebirth are a pair of conjoined twin sisters, they always hug each other tightly and never separate."

Rhine is sure that this statement is not a single word the same as the original work.

Its core connotation is also completely different from the thought of Christian scholastic philosophy. It does not imply the existence of a unique god. Instead, it is a bit similar to the reincarnation of Buddhism, which dilutes the original theological flavor.

Does this mean that in this fantasy world, "the eternal immortality of human soul" is just an objective natural law, no more special than "water flows from high to low" and "the sun rises from the east and sets in the west"?

The immortal soul of human beings is not a gift from the gods.

In this fantasy magic world, there may not be an omniscient and omnipotent God!

Thinking of this, Rhine quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

The sea witch snorted coldly:

"But don't forget, it's meaningless to just solve the first puzzle, you still have to answer the next two questions."

"It's worthy of the price the sea witch asked!" The mermaid princess sighed in her heart, and was a little uneasy:

After Rhine and Aurora, she also wanted to pray to the sea witch to grow human legs, go to the land, and be with the prince.

So, what will the price be?

"Next is the second question, listen carefully, humans."

The sea witch said loudly:

"Humans, you already know the answer to the first question: eternal and immortal soul.

"Then, please tell me, how long is eternity?

"Is eternity a hundred years? A thousand years? Or ten thousand years?

"Smart humans, please tell me the length of eternity. "