"There was a real Little Mermaid?"

I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume that you don't actually want an answer to this question.

"IMHO, a new and different version of a fantasy/myth-based fictional story, an admittedly fictionalized version of historical events, and a purportedly accurate (to the extent it can possibly be known) story of historical events are very different critters."

I think there are differences, but that they're all different instantiations of the same general issue.

B