Liden Gunver

Deep in the King's Garden, on the grounds that ring Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen, a bronze girl stands among the greenery. Theobald Stein completed Liden Gunver in 1899, and she took her place in the park in 1909. The garden around her dates to the early seventeenth century, when King Christian IV laid it out as a private plot for his castle.

Her story comes from a song written more than a century before the bronze. Johannes Ewald and Johann Hartmann wrote it for The Fishermen, first staged in 1780. Their fishermen sing of Little Gunver, whom a merman lured into the depths of the sea. The tale sits inside a wider Scandinavian stock of merfolk legends, where the sea keeps dangerous company. Stein caught the tragedy in bronze: her pose is sombre, and the detailing rewards a slow walk around the figure.

Some people call her Copenhagen's other mermaid, since the Little Mermaid, based on Andersen's fairy tale, is far better known. Gunver's tale runs instead on love, deception and the dangers of the water. The garden holds other statues and monuments, and several carry legends of their own. She faces Rosenborg Castle squarely, so you can take in palace, park and story in one glance.