Mermaids Read online

  HOW TO ATTRACT A MERMAID

  Want to attract a mermaid? Give her something shiny. Mermaids especially like red, orange, and yellow baubles that remind them of the sun.

  MAIDEN OR MERMAID?

  Marina, the heroine of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid (renamed Ariel in Disney’s movie version of the Danish fairy tale) falls in love with a human prince and longs to leave her underwater home for life on land. However, Marina/Ariel can only become human if she sacrifices her beautiful singing voice. Edvard Eriksen’s statue The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, Andersen’s birthplace, depicts her partly with legs and also the remnants of a tail, perhaps to remind tourists of her hybrid origins.

  CAN YOU TALK TO MERMAIDS?

  Want to converse with a mermaid? First you’ll have to learn her language—and that might not be so easy (it’s not on Rosetta Stone). According to Bard Judith in “The Merfolk,” mermaids speak a language called Mermish that is “simplistic, heavily aspirated, and used only above water . . . a combination of two languages, mostly coastal human dialects mixed with Mersong. Below the water they communicate in a series of whistles, fluting sounds, sub- and super-sonic pulses which humans cannot hear”—though fish, whales, and dolphins may understand merfolk.

  Twin-Tailed Mermaids

  Back in 1971, when Starbucks started selling coffee beans in Seattle, Washington, the company’s logo featured a mermaid that deviated from the image most of us hold. Rather than the familiar single fishtail comprising the lower half of her body, this aquatic beauty sported twin tails, which she held up in her hands on either side of her woman’s bare-breasted torso.

  Over time, Starbucks modified the mermaid to make her less naughty. In 1987, logo designers covered up her breasts with her long, wavy hair. When Starbucks became a publicly traded company in 1992, the logo underwent yet another change, this time obscuring the mermaid’s lower body so that only a hint of her split-tail remained in the stylized, sanitized version. To commemorate its fortieth anniversary, Starbucks refined the logo once again in 2011, eliminating the familiar lifesaver-like circle around the mermaid along with the company’s name.

  The twin-tailed or split-tailed mermaid isn’t something the Starbucks marketing team dreamt up to entice customers, although she conveys obvious sexual connotations. She dates back to ancient times, turning up in the art and mythology of various countries, and recalls the old matriarchal belief systems that predated the dominant patriarchal religions of today. This sexy siren is a cross between the early Celtic fertility goddess Sheila-na-gig, who squats and suggestively shows off her feminine secrets, and the more typical mermaid. She blatantly separates her tail into two parts in order to reveal her genitalia—and presumably make sex with human men possible.

  “[They] prominently display their genitalia to signify the power of female sexuality and fertility. These images are also quite prominent in the decoration of sacred sites in general and are thought to be a legacy of the older Goddess religions whose holy sites were usually taken over by later religions. The shape of the genitalia in these squatting figures is also symbolic of the vesica piscis, the ‘vessel of the fish’ . . .”

  —Heinz Insu Fenkl, “The Mermaid”

  Spiritual Sirens

  The image of the split-tailed mermaid appears as a decorative motif, rendered in stone, wood, and mosaic, on many early churches and cathedrals in Europe. She graces the French churches Notre Dame de Cunault, the Basilique St. Julien de Brioude, St. Pierre de la Bouisse, and St. Pierre Bessuéjouls. She also turns up in Italian churches, including San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, Pavia, Santa Croce in Parma, and Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunciata in Puglia. England, too, has its twin-tailed mermaids, unabashedly displaying their charms in the Church of St. George in Hertfordshire and Lancashire’s Cartmel Priory Church, where she also holds the typical mermaid’s mirror and comb.

  Mermaids of the usual variety also appear in plenty of churches in Europe and the British Isles. In times when most of the populace was illiterate, pictures conveyed themes and morals to the pious. Christianity connects fish with Jesus, the “fisher of men,” and Christians in general. Mermaids symbolized the sins of vanity and lust. When churchgoers saw mermaids swimming with schools of fish on the walls of their chapels, they recognized it as a message to avoid temptation that would lead them to fall into the mermaid’s clutches.

  Of course, the church fathers played up stories of the mermaid’s penchant for drowning men who succumbed to her wiles. Nevertheless, these sexy sirens serve as artful adornments that may have distracted or delighted many a bored parishioner over the centuries.

  Siren Sightings

  The American Museum of Natural History’s library houses a book by Swiss naturalist Konrad Gesner, circa 1575, that includes some peculiar illustrations of a “sea monk” and “sea bishop,” which supposedly were caught in Danish and German waters during the sixteenth century. These odd creatures not only feature human heads and fishy scales on their bodies, but in the drawings their body parts are shaped like a monk’s robes and a bishop’s conical hat.

  Reptilian Water Deities

  Legends of deities with snake, lizard, or crocodile body parts emerge from many cultures. These scaly hybrids are said to rule the waters of the world—and like mermaids and other water spirits, they possess mystical and magical powers. Although Christian mythology links serpents with evil, that’s not the case in other belief systems. In fact, snake gods and goddesses—as well as half-snake half-human spirits—have long been connected with creativity, wisdom, and healing.

  Africans see snake gods and goddesses as creators.

  Mami Wata, powerful mermaid-like water deities in many African pantheons, sometimes appear with snaky hindquarters. The African Rainbow Serpent—also spoken of in Australian mythology as a creator spirit named Ngalyod—supposedly created the world’s rivers and lakes. People in parts of West Africa worship half-human, half-snake water gods with red eyes and green bodies called Nommo.

  Asian myths speak of snake deities with human heads.

  The ancient Chinese deities Pangu, Nuwa, Fuxi, and Gonggong had human heads and the bodies of snakes—the female goddess Nuwa supposedly created human beings. Hindu and Buddhist myths speak of divinities called nagas and naginis, human-headed snakes who lived in underwater kingdoms. They could appear as humans, serpents, or a combination of both. The great Hindu god Shiva is often depicted with two cobras coiled on his head and shoulders to protect him from harm.

  Snake deities figured prominently in Aztec myths.

  The powerful god Quetzalcoatl was also known as the “Feathered Serpent.” The goddess Coatlicue, whom the Aztecs associated with both creativity and destruction, is often pictured as a woman wearing a skirt made of snakes.

  In many of the world’s myths, snakes symbolize wisdom and creative power. Mermaids with reptilian appendages instead of the usual fishtails are more than beautiful seductresses—they’re goddesses.

  HUMAN-SERPENT HYBRIDS

  Human-serpent spirits might have influenced our conceptions of mermaids. Like merfolk, these reptilian deities can magically transform themselves from water creatures into human beings. They also display both benevolent and malevolent sides to their natures. However, these spirits generally lack one of the mermaid’s most distinctive features: her mesmerizing singing voice.

  Mermen

  “When the Oldenborg sailed from Denmark to the West Indies in 1672, the crew reported seeing a Havman off the Cape of Good Hope. The ship’s doctor, J. P. Cortemund, drew a picture of the being, now in the Royal Danish Library.”

  —Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

  Mermaids fascinate people everywhere, but we don’t think much about their male counterparts: mermen. Granted, the males of the species are not as common as the females, either in mythology or in reports of sightings. Nor are they as captivating. Many accounts even describe mermen as ugly and totally un
appealing.

  In addition to the usual fishtails, Greek legends give mermen green hair and beards—one well-known merman named Glaucus supposedly had a blue-green body as well. Irish mythology pictures mermen with long, pointed green teeth, green hair, and red pig-like snouts.

  The Tritons—Aphrodite’s entourage and personal bodyguards—were fishtailed male sea spirits whom mythology tells us evolved from Triton (the son of the Greek sea god Poseidon). Their ranks also contained females, called Tritonesses. According to the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, the males “have green hair on their head, very fine and hard scales, breathing organs below their ears, a human nose, a broad mouth, with the teeth of animals, sea-green eyes, hands rough like the surface of a shell, and instead of feet, a tail like that of dolphins.”

  Exceptions to these unpleasant mermen exist, of course. The Havman of Scandinavian legend, for instance, is usually described as quite handsome. The Germanic nix—perhaps related to the charismatic character Fosse-Grim—seems to exude attractive qualities, too, for legends say human women regularly fell in love with him.

  Siren Sightings

  In 1814, two fishermen who were fishing in Spey Bay, Scotland, reported to the schoolmaster of Rathven, Banffshire, that they’d seen a peculiar man who seemed to be seated on the water. According to their description, reported in the Aberdeen Chronicle, “His countenance was swarthy, his hair short and curled, of a colour between a green and a grey: he had small eyes, a flat nose, his mouth was large, and his arms of an extraordinary length. Above the waist, he was shaped like a man, but as the water was clear my informants could perceive that from the waist downwards, his body tapered considerably or, as they expressed it, like a large fish without scales but could not see the extremity.”

  A Mermaid’s Countenance

  Our conceptions of merfolk have changed over time, gradually evolving into the lovely creatures we know today. Some mermaid historians explain that once sailors began traveling the seven seas—and swapping mermaid stories—a generally accepted picture of these enigmatic creatures developed.

  According to The Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, typical mermaids exhibit the following traits:

  • Bodies tend to be graceful, slim, and about the size of small humans: males are approximately 5 feet 6 inches in length and weigh about 110 to 130 pounds; females are a few inches shorter, weighing 95 to 115 pounds.

  • Skin color can be pale or brilliantly colored: black, green, blue, white, yellow, turquoise, or red, and may be mottled like that of fish.

  • Hair is usually long, often streaked with lighter shades than the principal color, and is sometimes braided or beaded (other sources say hair color can be anything from blonde to black, even green, blue, or purple).

  • Hands are webbed, and fingers may lack fingernails; other sources describe the nails as looking like shells.

  • Eyes, though similar in appearance to humans’, are large and have both eyelids and an additional, protective inner shield; the eyes are usually black, blue, or green.

  • Two “separate but complementary pulmonary and cardio circuits . . . allow them to breathe in water or on land.” They have gills below their ears, which close when they are on land.

  • They rarely wear clothing, but may don bracelets, necklaces, earrings, torques, armbands, belts, and anklets.

  DISSECTING MERMAIDS

  Some researchers, such as the mysterious mermaid enthusiast known only as the Water Mage Ge Wonderwed of Carmalad, claim to have examined the anatomy of mermaids in great depth and detail. In the essay “Mermaids: A Myth Being Dissected,” the Water Mage reports that these enigmatic creatures have the following characteristics:

  • Their bodily fluids are turquoise.

  • Oil-secreting glands along the hairline offer protection during immersion in water—perhaps the reason mermaids are often seen combing their hair.

  • They have lips, tongues, and rows of small, pointed teeth.

  • A strong, bony “girdle” at the waist, connected to the backbone, supports the muscular tail.

  • They have a single lung and small hearts, but lack the other internal organs of humans.

  • Reproductive organs and capabilities are uncertain.

  “Every little girl’s dream is to be a mermaid or to see a mermaid . . . People from different cultures and centuries have the same idea of what mermaids are . . . that’s maybe a cool thing to think about.”

  —Emma Roberts

  Wonders of the Deep

  “I must be a mermaid . . . I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”

  —Writer Anaïs Nin

  So what, exactly, are mermaids? We may never be able to answer that question—and maybe we don’t really want to. Mermaids’ mystique—like that of Bigfoot, ETs, and the Loch Ness monster—is part of their appeal. Whether merfolk live among us on Earth, shapeshift so they can visit us from other realms, serve as symbols of our collective unconscious, or are purely products of our imagination remains a mystery.

  One thing seems certain: mermaids are not Homo sapiens, nor fish, nor are they a blend of the two. Mermaids are a species unto themselves, totally unique and miraculous. They’re a type of sea mammal, certainly, for like all mammals, they have hair and are able to nurse their young. But perhaps mermaids represent a wondrous part of ourselves, a part we can only discover if we plunge deep down inside. . . .

  Siren Sightings

  After a stormy night in 1870, a mermaid was spotted playing in the water near a beach in Benbecula, Outer Hebrides. When the townspeople realized what she was, they tried to capture her in a net, but their efforts were in vain; the mermaid quickly swam out of harm’s way. She had almost escaped when the town bully hit her in the head with a rock. Her body washed up on the beach the next day. According to Tom Williams of the Naples Daily News, “Upon close inspection, everyone agreed this was a true mermaid. She had the body of a child with well-developed breasts but below the waist she had scales and a tail like a fish.” She appeared so human that the town’s officials ordered her body to be buried in the town cemetery.

  “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

  I do not think that they will sing to me.”

  —T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

  CHAPTER 3

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  Mermaids’ Attributes, Behavior, AND Environs

  IN ADDITION TO THEIR FISHY TAILS and human torsos, the traits and behaviors of mermaids are similar in the various mythologies of the world. These attributes became more homogenized during the middle of the second millennium C.E., as trade routes expanded and seamen journeyed far and wide, sharing their “fish stories” with peoples of various lands. Later, immigrants and slaves brought their mermaid legends with them when they relocated, and those tales merged with the folklore that already existed in their new homes.

  However, certain common mermaid characteristics figured prominently in the mythology of diverse cultures, long before the periods of travel and exploration in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Chief among these are mermaids’ enchanting voices, their sensuality, and their destructive potential—all of which lie at the core of the mermaid mystique.

  The Mermaid’s Song

  “[T]he secret of the power in their song: it is the sound of the subversive, luring us from the orderly conscious world down to the depth of the world of dreams, and the harder we try to ignore that singing, the more we desperately want to hear it.”

  —Meri Lao, Seduction and the Secret Power of Women: The Lure of Sirens and Mermaids

  According to nearly all legends and stories, a mermaid’s voice isn’t merely melodious enough to rival the greatest of operatic divas. It’s so mesmerizing that men who hear it go wild with delight and jump from their boats or rush into the sea—and subsequently drown. Some sailors, captivated and disoriented by the mermaids’ hauntingly beautiful singing, run their ships a
ground on rocky shores and, in a state of delicious delirium, they go to their watery graves.

  Interestingly, among the numerous reports given throughout the ages by people who claim to have seen mermaids, few mention hearing the infamous singing. Perhaps if they had heard the mermaids’ songs, they might not have lived to tell the tales!

  “In stories, poems and myths, hearing a mermaid’s song was considered a haunting and hazardous experience. Typically, it lured the listener to toss aside safety and sometimes his or her whole, known world, and plunge into the waves. Such a leap could bring doom or it could bring salvation. Sometimes it brought both. The mermaid’s song inevitably calls us to the unknown, to the impassioned world of change and possibility. Ultimately mermaids persist in the imagination because they represent a primal human need: to dive deep into the mystery of our un-lived life.”

  —Sue Monk Kidd, bestselling author of The Mermaid Chair and The Secret Life of Bees

  MAPPING MERMAIDS

  As early sailors ventured farther out to sea, mapmakers began picturing mermaids and other marine oddities on maps. Mermaids may have been intended as symbols of the sea itself, or as alerts to seafarers of the mysteries they might encounter on their voyages. Mermaids frequently appear on medieval mappa mundi, such as the thirteenth-century rendering signed by Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford and now housed in Britain’s Hereford Cathedral.