The parallels between Gwyn and The Little Mermaid:
"Her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea"
"Gwyn gestured to her large eyes—blue so clear it could have been the shallow sea"
"None of them longed so much for her turn to come as the youngest—she who had the longest time to wait and who was so quiet and thoughtful"
"She was young—almost coltish, with her slender, elegant limbs"
"If I become human, I'll never be with my father or sisters again."
"Honestly, while I consider many of the females here to be my sisters, there are a few who are not what I would consider nice.”
"They were beautiful children, but the youngest was the prettiest of them all."
"The priestess had been pretty in the library, but with that joy, that confidence as she aimed for the three priestesses, she had emerged into a beauty to rival Merrill or Mor"
"Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could sound it [...] There dwell the Sea King and his subjects"
"In the deepest spot of all stands the castle of the Sea King"
“You’re moving into the House of Wind.” She nodded eastward, toward the palace carved into the mountains at the far end of the city.
"But she knew this level of the House of Wind well [...] and the kitchens a level below that. The library far, far beneath it"
"She bore it willingly, however, and moved at the prince's side as lightly as a bubble, so that he and all who saw her wondered at her graceful, swaying movements"
"Perhaps that was why Gwyn was so good at the balancing and movement."
"As graceful as Gwyn had been, Emerie proved to be equally awkward and unbalanced"
"The little mermaid lifted her glorified eyes toward the sun"
"Emotion stirred in those remarkable eyes. (Nesta talking about Gwyn)"
"The Sea King had been a widower for many years, and his aged mother kept house for him. She was a very sensible woman, but exceedingly proud of her high birth [...] she was, however, deserving of very great praise, especially for her care of the little sea princesses, her six granddaughters"
"My grandmother was a river nymph who seduced a high fae male from the Autumn court. "
"MERSISTERS: And then there is the youngest in her musical debut
A seventh little sister, we're presenting her to you
To sing a song Sebastian wrote, her voice is like a bell
" Silence fell as a group of seven females stepped onto the dais beside Merrill and Clotho. Some were hooded, some were bareheaded. And one of the bareheaded priestess —
"It was like a braid, the song — a plait of seven voices, weaving in and out"
"Yet often, in the evening hours, the five sisters would twine their arms about each other and rise to the surface together. Their voices were more charming than that of any human being"
"As the seventh bell finished pealing music erupted. Not from any instruments, but from all around. As if they were one voice, the priestess began to sing, a wave of sparkling sound.
Nesta could only gape at the lovely melody"
"And then I began working with Merrill, upon Clotho’s request, and the work focused me. Motivated me to get out of bed each morning. I started singing during the evening service. And then you came along, Nesta.”
"When they feared that a ship might be lost, they swam before the vessel, singing enchanting songs of the delights to be found in the depths of the sea [...] But the sailors could not understand the song and thought it was the sighing of the storm"
“Some of the songs you’ll hear are so ancient they predate the written word. Some of them are so old we didn’t even have them in Sangravah. Clotho found them in books shelved below Level Seven. Hana—she’ll be the one who plays the lute—figured out how to read the music."
"The music took form behind Nesta’s eyes as the priestesses sang lyrics in languages so old, no one voiced them anymore. She saw what the song spoke of: mossy earth and golden sun, clear rivers and the deep shadows of an ancient forest"
"Grandmother: This evening we are going to have a court ball.
It was one of those splendid sights which we can never see on earth. The walls and the ceiling of the large ballroom were of thick but transparent crystal. Many hundreds of colossal shells,—some of a deep red, others of a grass green,—with blue fire in them, stood in rows on each side. These lighted up the whole salon, and shone through the walls."
"You mentioned a while ago that you have evening services—with music, right?
— Oh, yes. You want to join us? I promise, it’s not all religious stuff. I mean, it is, but it’s beautiful. And the cave we have the service in is beautiful, too. It was carved by the underground river that flows beneath the mountain, so the walls are smooth as glass."
"The wooden pews that filled the massive, red-stoned cavern were packed with pale-hooded figures, their blue gems glimmering in the torchlight as they waited for the sunset service to begin."
"Through the halls flowed a broad stream, and in it danced the mermen and the mermaids to the music of their own sweet singing. No one on earth has such lovely voices as they, but the little mermaid sang more sweetly than all."
"She never heard such music, like a spell, a dream given form. The entire room sang, each voice resonating through the stone. But Gwyn's voice rose above them all, clear and powerful yet husky notes. A mezzo-soprano."
"The whole court applauded her with hands and tails, and for a moment her heart felt quite happy, for she knew she had the sweetest voice either on earth or in the sea"
"Nesta half-heard it, waiting for the sound, the perfect, beautiful sound, to begin again. Gwyn seemed to be shimmering with pride and contentedness"
"Andrina: Ariel, dear, time to come out. You've been in there all morning.
Ariel emerges, singing to herself."
"You know, moaning about, daydreaming, singing to herself. . . . You haven't noticed?"
"Gwyn turned from the desk where Nesta had found the priestess singing softly to herself, situated just outside Merrill’s shut office door. "
"Occasionally, Nesta heard a lovely, soaring snippet of song from some distant corner of the library—the sole indicator that Gwyn was near."
"Nothing gave her so much pleasure as to hear about the world above the sea [...] To her it seemed most wonderful and beautiful to hear that the flowers of the land had fragrance, while those below the sea had none."
"When something like a black cloud passed between her and them, she knew that it was either a whale swimming over her head, or a ship full of human beings who never imagined that a pretty little mermaid was standing beneath them, holding out her white hands towards the keel of their ship"
"Down HERE is your home! Ariel - listen to me. The human world - it's a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they got up there. "
“The wind whispers to me even here, under so much stone, Merrill said."
" Would she remain there, locked beneath the earth, for the rest of her immortal life? It seemed like a shame"
"Living down here, there was a good chance the priestesses didn’t know who she was."
How many wonders can one cavern hold? "
"Across the hushed, cavernous space, it was easy to hear Gwyn’s soft singing as she flitted from table to table, looking at the piles of discarded books."
"Gwyn didn’t seem to need more than that, thankfully, and clutched the book to her chest like a treasure."
"Gwyn’s hands were shaking as she took another step into the ring and peered into the open bowl of the sky.
The first time she’d been outside—truly outside—in years."
"All day long they played in the great halls of the castle or among the living flowers that grew out of the walls.The large amber windows were open, and the fish swam in"
"Oh, how eagerly did the youngest sister listen to all these descriptions! And afterwards, when she stood at the open window looking up through the dark-blue water, she thought of the great city, with all its bustle and noise"
“ — And never see daylight again? Never feel fresh air?
— We have windows, in our dormitories. — At Nesta’s confused expression, she clarified. — They’re glamoured from sight on the mountainside."
"The Sea King had been a widower for many years"
"Somewhere in the chaos, Queen Athena (Ariel's mother)... Was lost to us"
"Catrin was always the strong one. The smart and charming one. After our mother died, she took care of me. "
"I was in a ship that was wrecked, and the waves cast me ashore near a holy temple where several young maidens performed the service. The youngest of them found me on the shore and saved my life."
"My sister and I were raised in the temple aswell, I never left it's grounds, until I came here"
"— I enjoy the dusk services — Gwyn continued.— The music was always my favorite part of it, you know. I mean, not here. I was a priestess, an acolyte still, before I came here [...] In Sangravah.”
"Ah, he knows not that it was I who saved his life, thought the little mermaid. I carried him over the sea to the wood where the temple stands; I sat beneath the foam and watched till the human beings came to help him."
"The mermaid saw that the prince came to life again and smiled upon those who stood about him [...] and when he was led away into the great building, she dived down into the water and returned to her father's castle."
“And that night, she ordered me to go protect Sangravah’s children while she ran right for the temple walls [...] The first had just unbuckled his belt when Azriel arrived [...] Azriel slaughtered all of them within moments. He didn’t hesitate. Morrigan arrived a few minutes later, and then Rhysand appeared, and it became clear some of the soldiers had gotten away with the piece of the Cauldron, so Azriel headed after them. Mor healed me as best she could, then brought me to the library."
"But the princess had not yet appeared. People said that she had been brought up and educated in a religious house, where she was learning every royal virtue"
"My mother was unwanted by either of their people [...] So she was given in her childhood to the temple at Sagravah were she was raised [...] We were raised in the temple as well. I never left its grounds until … until I came here.”
"But as each was a year younger than the other, the youngest would have to wait five years before her turn came to rise up from the bottom of the ocean to see the earth as we do"
"The mermaid sighed deeply, but she could not weep. He says the maiden belongs to the holy temple, therefore she will never return to the world—they will meet no more"
“ — Have you left this mountain since you arrived?
— No. Once we come in, we do not leave unless it is time for us to depart—back to the world at large. Though some of us remain forever.”
"She had always been silent and thoughtful, and now she was more so than ever. Her sisters asked her what she had seen during her first visit to the surface of the water, but she could tell them nothing"
"The first five months I was at the library, I barely spoke. I didn’t sing. I went to the priestess who counsels all of us, and sometimes I just sat there and cried, or screamed, or said nothing"
"I admit that in the past I've been a nasty
They weren't kidding when they called me, well, a witch"
"To hell with this witch. To hell with restraint and hiding"
"Ursula: Paluga, sarruga, come winds of the Caspian Sea"
From whence wayward westerlies blow
Where Triton is king and his merpeople sing"
“I am descended from Rabath, Lord of the Western Wind, Merrill seethed."
(And all that in one book that wasn't even hers. These are only the direct textual parallels that I've found, so there are a lot more.)
