This thread is to be about Mermaids and other similar creatures of the deep blue.
The following is the tale of the fabled Mermaid of the village Zennor of Cornwall.

(Given also that this is only one version of the legend)

The Mermaid of Zennor

In times past, the sea was both the beginning and the end for the folk of Zennor. It gave them fish for food and fish for sale, and made a wavy road to row from town to town. Hours were reckoned not by clocks but by the ebb and flow of the tide, and months and years ticked off by the herring runs. The sea took from them, too, and often wild, sudden storms would rise. Then fish and fisherman alike would be lost to an angry sea.

At the end of a good day, when the sea was calm and each boat had returned with its share of fish safely stowed in the hold, the people of Zennor would go up the path to the old church and give thanks. They would pray for a fine catch on the morrow, too. The choir would sing, and after the closing hymn the families would go.

Now, in the choir that sang at Evensong there was a most handsome lad named Mathew Trewella. Not only was Mathew handsome to the eyes, his singing was sweet to the ears as well. His voice pealed out louder than the church bells, and each note rang clear and true. It was always Mathew who sang the closing hymn.

Early one evening, when all the fishing boats bobbed at anchor, and all the fisher families were in church and all the birds at nest, and even the waves rested themselves and came quietly to shore, something moved softly in the twilight. The waves parted without a sound, and, from deep beneath them, some creature rose and climbed out onto a rock, there in the cove of Zennor. It was both a sea creature and a she-creature. For, though it seemed to be a girl, where the girl's legs should have been was the long and silver-shiny tail of a fish. It was a mermaid, one of the daughters of Llyr, king of the ocean, and her name was Morveren.

Morveren sat upon the rock and looked at herself in the quiet water, and then combed all the little crabs and seashells from her long, long hair. As she combed, she listened to the murmur of the waves and wind. And borne on the wind was Mathew's singing.

"What breeze is there that blows such a song?" wondered Morveren. But then the wind died, and Mathew's song with it. The sun disappeared, and Morveren slipped back beneath the water to her home.

The next evening she came again. But not to the rock. This time she swam closer to shore, the better to hear. And once more Mathew's voice carried out to sea, and Morveren listened.

"What bird sings so sweet?" she asked, and she looked all about. But darkness had come, and her eyes saw only shadows.

The next day Morveren came even earlier, and boldly. She floated right up by the fishermen's boats. And when she heard Mathew's voice, she called, "What reed is there that pipes such music?"

There was no answer save the swishing of the water round the skiffs.

Morveren would and must know more about the singing. So she pulled herself up on the shore itself. From there she could see the church and hear the music pouring from its open doors. Nothing would do then but she must peek in and learn for herself who sang so sweetly.

Still, she did not go at once. For, looking behind her, she saw that the tide had begun to ebb and the water pull back from the shore. And she knew that she must go back, too, or be left stranded on the sand like a fish out of water.

So she dived down beneath the waves, down to the dark sea cave where she lived with her father the king. And there she told Llyr what she had heard.

Llyr was so old he appeared to be carved of driftwood, and his hair floated out tangled and green, like seaweed. At Morveren's words, he shook that massive head from side to side.

"To hear is enough, my child. To see is too much."

"I must go, Father," she pleaded, "for the music is magic."

"Nay," he answered. "The music is man-made, and it comes from a man's mouth. We people of the sea do not walk on the land of men."

A tear, larger than an ocean pearl, fell from Morveren's eye. "Then surely I may die from the wanting down here."

Llyr sighed, and his sigh was like the rumbling of giant waves upon the rocks; for a mermaid to cry was a thing unheard of and it troubled the old sea king greatly.

"Go, then," he said at last, "but go with care. Cover your tail with a dress, such as their women wear. Go quietly, and make sure that none shall see you. And return by high tide, or you may not return at all."

"I shall take care, Father!" cried Morveren, excited. "No one shall snare me like a herring!"

Llyr gave her a beautiful dress crusted with pearls and sea jade and coral and other ocean jewels. It covered her tail, and she covered her shining hair with a net, and so disguised she set out for the church and the land of men.

Slippery scales and fish's tail are not made for walking, and it was difficult for Morveren to get up the path to the church. Nor was she used to the dress of an earth woman dragging behind. But get there she did, pulling herself forward by grasping on the trees, until she was at the very door of the church. She was just in time for the closing hymn. Some folks were looking down at their hymnbooks and some up at the choir, so, since none had eyes in the backs of their heads, they did not see Morveren. But she saw them, and Mathew as well. He was as handsome as an angel, and when he sang it was like a harp from heaven -- although Morveren, of course, being a mermaid, knew nothing of either.

So each night thereafter, Morveren would dress and come up to the church, to look and to listen, staying but a few minutes and always leaving before the last note faded and in time to catch the swell of high tide. And night by night, month by month, Mathew grew taller and his voice grew deeper and stronger (though Morveren neither grew nor changed, for that is the way of mermaids). And so it went for most of a year, until the evening when Morveren lingered longer than usual. She had heard Mathew sing one verse, and then another, and begin a third. Each refrain was lovelier than the one before, and Morveren caught her breath in a sigh.

It was just a little sigh, softer than the whisper of a wave. But it was enough for Mathew to hear, and he looked to the back of the church and saw the mermaid. Morveren's eyes were shining, and the net had slipped from her head and her hair was wet and gleaming, too. Mathew stopped his singing. He was struck silent by the look of her -- and by his love for her. For these things will happen.

Morveren was frightened. Mathew had seen her, and her father had warned that none must look at her. Besides, the church was warm and dry, and merpeople must be cool and wet. Morveren felt herself shrivelling, and turned in haste from the door.

"Stop!" cried Mathew boldly. "Wait!" And he ran down the aisle of the church and out the door after her.

Then all the people turned, startled, and their hymn-books fell from their laps.

Morveren tripped, tangled in her dress, and would have fallen had not Mathew reached her side and caught her.

"Stay!" he begged. "Whoever ye be, do not leave!"

Tears, real tears, as salty as the sea itself, rolled down Morveren's cheeks.

"I cannot stay. I am a sea creature, and must go back where I belong."

Mathew stared at her and saw the tip of her fish tail poking out from beneath the dress. But that mattered not at all to him.

"Then I will go with ye. For with ye is where I belong."

He picked Morveren up, and she threw her arms about his neck. He hurried down the path with her, toward the ocean's edge.

And all the people from the church saw this.

"Mathew, stop!" they shouted. "Hold back!"

"No! No, Mathew!" cried that boy's mother.

But Mathew was bewitched with love for the mermaid, and ran the faster with her toward the sea.

Then the fishermen of Zennor gave chase, and all others, too, even Mathew's mother. But Mathew was quick and strong and outdistanced them. And Morveren was quick and clever. She tore the pearls and coral from her dress and flung them on the path. The fishermen were greedy, even as men are now, and stopped in their chase to pick up the gems. Only Mathew's mother still ran after them.

The tide was going out. Great rocks thrust up from the dark water. Already it was too shallow for Morveren to swim. But Mathew plunged ahead into the water, stumbling in to his knees. Quickly his mother caught hold of his fisherman's jersey. Still Mathew pushed on, until the sea rose to his waist, and then his shoulders. Then the waters closed over Morveren and Mathew, and his mother was left with only a bit of yarn in her hand, like a fishing line with nothing on it.

Never again were Mathew and Morveren seen by the people of Zennor. They had gone to live in the land of Llyr, in golden sand castles built far below the waters in a blue-green world.

But the people of Zennor heard Mathew. For he sang to Morveren both day and night, love songs and lullabies. Nor did he sing for her ears only. Mathew learned songs that told of the sea as well. His voice rose up soft and high if the day was to be fair, deep and low if Llyr was going to make the waters boil. From his songs, the fishermen of Zennor knew when it was safe to put to sea, and when it was wise to anchor snug at home.

There are some still who find meanings in the voices of the waves and understand the whispers of the winds. These are the ones who say Mathew sings yet, to them that will listen.



(small addition to aforementioned legend)

The people of Zennor had long wondered at the beauty of a richly-dressed lady who attended divine service at the church. None knew whence she came, but when she fell in love with Matthew Trewella and lured him away, tongues began to wag. Neither was seen again for many years, until one Sunday morning the sailors on a ship anchored near Pendower Cove were surprised to see a mermaid rising from the water, and recognised her as none other than the mysterious visitor to Zennor Church. She asked the captain to raise his anchor, as it was barring the entrance to her house. Her likeness can be seen to this day carved on a pew-end in Zennor Church.

Ya-har these sea-wenches have taken many a good mate down to the cold blue deep!
ARG!

I always thought the legend was an adaptation of a Greek myth.
Both the siren...and something else I cant remember...

The theory I heard behind mermaids is that they were actually walruses , sealions, seals etc that sailors saw after their daily ration of 'grog' (possibly the most potent drink ever created by mankind) who thought they were beautiful women.

Personally I would not be inclined to trust the testimony of a blind-drunk sailor who had been at sea for months on end without seeing a woman. I'm sure under those circumstances any man would have one or two visions of loveliness flicker across his vision.

I think that was manatees and dugongs because they had human like breast that vaguely resemblehuman breats, and for the north lands I heard about water mirage effect, at sea level much like the old long boats light can cause the apperance of somethings in the distance to look streched and elongated, this was used on a program for both mermaids and sea serpents.
also the siren was never pictured as having any fishyness until the middle ages when some monk making a beastiary crossed the Siren legend with the Lorelei legend in that both sand men to there deaths and had some involvement with water and boats. However the actual Siren had the lower body of a bird not a fish. and the loralei looked human, but many mermaid legends involved them lureing men to their deaths or to become mermen.

However to further complicate matters the seal origen has a problem,
the Selkie, this creature wore a seal form in the water and human on land. some believe the belief in these came from the mirage effect when sea men would see what they thaught was a person on a rock jump off into the water and swim past them only to actually be a seal.

and then we have the Kelpie which could take the form of a horse or beautiful women and draged men into the water to drown them.

There are also a number of other underwater monsters from that part of thw world.

The Orc: despite what movies and books may make you think this wasn't originally some big goblin but rather a water goblin that dragged people to the bottom to eat them.

also along with the number of half man half fish gods like Dagon and Cecrops with the many half human fish people stories its hard to tell if there is one origen or if similar stories developed independently of each other, "the scariest thing in many cultures is a creature with features of a human and an animal"

mermaid type creatures appear in every culture that lives by the sea or any large bodys of water. in Australia they had a myth of three human eating mermaid like creatures that lived in an underwater cave. The cave turns out is real but no sign of these Naga like mermaids was ever found.

Dont forget Cthulhu and the deep ones!

Actually they were sea cows (manatees).
I would know. I'm a part of the save the manatee thingy. I know EVERYTHING about them. hehehe. okay...I'm a dork.

Sorry..passed your post. Not dugongs. These were manatees in the Atlantic if I remember correctly. Dugongs are only around the Australian border and are pretty much extinct.

I saw a program a while back about pacific islander mermaid legends and how the researchers believed it was the Dugong much like how the manatee was mistaken for a Mermaid off the Americas, but Manatees as I recall are not native to the environments that the oldest mermaid legends come from so they are only part of the story and not the beginning of it.

thaught I might as well post my mermaid demon information here and what ever other mermaid legends I come across.

adaro
The Adaro is a creature which is half human, half fish, having the upper body of a human and the lower part of its body is like a fish. They live in the sun, and travel to earth on rainbows. While on earth, they travel on waterspouts. This creature is from Melanesia. It is just one of such creatures which are recounted in legends from nearly all parts of the world which can be related to the tales of the Mermaid. Unlike mermaids, they are dangerous to humans, as they shoot them with flying fish, causing unconsciousness and sometimes death.

an ungly mermaid type creature this is.

bishop fish
In many ways, bishop fish are like mermaids. These creatures have the shaven head of a Catholic monk and the body of a fish. In some particular detail, they have been described as having a mitered head, a scaly body with two claw-like fins instead of arms, and a fin-like cloak.

ceasg
A Scottish mermaid, the ceasg are half-human, and half salmon. They are know to marry humans and the offspring of this combination are great sailors. If captured, a ceasg will grant three wishes. The ceasg is also known to use her beauty to lure sailors to her, and they never return

what a lovely story :popcorn:

I agree with Inconnu this guys were out at sea for so long that you kinda go mad and tend to see things that arnt really there and the grog doesnt help none either.

the name is at the top left of the avatar picture.

oh sorry about that man my mistake

mermaids and vampires have been my fav. since the beginning

... do you have a question, or are you just stating a fact?

I've always loved vampires and wolves, I can't stand the sea, it's always scared the crap out of me.

"merged with older topic with the same name"

what do you think?

I think i believe them... in the book that i;'m writing... there will be merpeople

There was a post made this week i think it was about mermaids maybe you should take a look at that too.

As for my opinion im not really too sure... i mean i find the history and many stories of mer folk interesting but i don't know about beliveing they exist. I just thought that it was sea animals such as seacows or something that sailors thought were mer-people.

Good luck in the book writing

i belive in merfolk but i also believe in lots of things people don't
god luck wrighting your book

"merged"
mer-folk and mermaids go to this thread.

I would like to think they are real .....*sigh*

I once read this story about man who had a theory about how humans evolved from a sepcies of dolfin that moved to the land. Of course there had to be hundreds of years of in-between stages where there were fish-like humans, who could stay underwater for long times ..... and how they learned about it today was through some of the "late bloomers" of that in-between stage


But it could very well just be some horny, drunk, sailors thinking some sea were beautiful women.

Either way I love the land/water creatures.......

i just love merfolk.....!

people sometimes confuse mermaids with manatees so i dont know if they are real but something tells me they are just this feeling i cant explain it lol mwahahahha :P

Necropost, much?