Mermaids

by Skye Alexander

  In Disney’s version of the story, a curious young mermaid named Ariel wants to leave her family’s underwater paradise and visit the world of humans. Against the wishes of her father, King Triton, she surfaces one night and rescues Prince Eric after his boat sinks in a storm. She drags him to shore and sings to him. In time, the pair fall in love, and after a number of complications and confrontations with a scheming contender for Triton’s throne, the little mermaid’s father transforms her into a human so she can marry the prince.

  The original 1836 story is much darker, however, and the movie, in order to make it more appealing to little girls, takes many liberties with the fairy tale’s interpretation. In Andersen’s story, a fifteen-year-old mermaid named Marina wants to gain an immortal soul, which many myths say can only happen if the mermaid marries a human man. A sea witch gives Marina a magic potion to drink that turns her into a two-legged being—but in the bargain she must suffer great pain each time she takes a step, have her tongue cut out, and sacrifice her beautiful voice. Marina falls in love with the prince and goes to live on land as his dear friend. But he ends up marrying another woman, depriving the broken-hearted former mermaid of an immortal soul, life as a human, and the possibility of returning to the sea as a mermaid.

  A NYMPH AND A NOVELLA

  The novella Undine, written by French author Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué in 1811, tells the story of a water nymph named Undine who wants to marry a human prince. Undine achieved international success and was made into both an opera and a ballet. It may also have inspired Andersen’s fairy tale a quarter-century later.

  Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid

  Each year, more than a million people visit Copenhagen’s biggest tourist attraction: the statue of the Little Mermaid, Den Lille Havfrue. One of the world’s most popular beauties, the bronze statue was given to the city of Copenhagen—Hans Christian Andersen’s birthplace—by Carl Jacobsen of Carlsberg Breweries. She took up residence in her current spot in the harbor near Langelinie Pier on August 23, 1913, a time when the city chose to adorn its public areas with figures from history and mythology.

  Inspired by dancer Ellen Price’s performance in the ballet “The Little Mermaid” at the Royal Theatre in 1909, Jacobsen hired a little-known sculptor, Edvard Erichsen, to create the statue. Price modeled for the mermaid’s head, but Erichsen’s wife took over when it came time for the sculptor to fashion the figure’s nude body. The seated statue is a little over 4 feet high and weighs about 386 pounds. The sculptor depicted Den Lille Havfrue with legs as well as a fishtail and positioned her looking out over the water, apparently remembering her former life as a mermaid.

  Every year on August 23, Copenhagen commemorates the Little Mermaid’s birthday with a promenade down Langelinie. Celebrants dress up in mermaid costumes and formation swimmers entertain crowds by performing in the water near the statue. In 2010, for the first time since being installed in the city’s harbor, the Little Mermaid statue left Copenhagen and traveled to Shanghai, where 70 million people viewed her.

  MUTILATING THE MERMAID

  Not everyone loves the Little Mermaid, however. In April 1964, vandals decapitated her—but she survived the beheading and was restored to her original state in time for summer vacationers to enjoy her. In 1984 two men cut off her arm and in 1998 she lost her head again—fortunately, her missing parts were returned and reattached. She’s also been doused with paint, clothed in a burqa, and blasted off her perch.

  Friendly Scandinavian Merfolk

  Unlike many merfolk, the Havman usually behaves in a kindly manner toward humans and sometimes willingly helps them. And unlike mermen in other parts of the world, this friendly fellow is generally described as being quite handsome as well—if you like blue skin, a green beard and hair, and the tail of a fish.

  Havfrue, the Havman’s feminine counterpart, is said to be beautiful with long, blonde hair that seafarers say she grooms with a golden comb. It’s said that the Havfrue sometimes assumes human form and comes on land where she entices human males. Although both the Havman and Havfrue are generally considered benevolent, fishermen’s legends warn that the female’s appearance often presages storms or poor catches. They also claim that mariners who go out to sea and never return have been captured by mermaids—and maybe it’s true.

  Among their many mystical abilities, these merfolk reportedly possess the ability to see into the future. Scandinavian lore holds that a clairvoyant Havfrue predicted the birth of King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway in 1577.

  Another male Scandinavian water spirit known as Fosse-Grim or Fossegrim is not only handsome but talented, too. Folklore says he plays a mean violin and his enchanting songs lure women and children into lakes or waterfalls, where they drown. But he may not intend to harm the people he attracts. Some stories describe romantic relationships between these mermen and human women, but in most instances Fosse-Grim eventually returns to his aquatic home.

  Siren Sightings

  While sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in 1672, the crew of the Danish ship the Oldenborg claimed to have seen a Havman. Supposedly J. P. Cortemünd, the ship’s doctor, drew a picture of the Havman, and that drawing is now in the Royal Danish Library’s collection.

  WHY ARE SWEDISH WATER LILIES RED?

  A rare, wild red water lily named Nymphaea alba var. rubra grows only in parts of Sweden, including Lake Fagertärn. Folklore says the lily owes its origins to a girl who refused to marry a merman. When the merman tried to take her to his watery home, the girl stabbed herself instead and toppled into the lake. Her blood turned the water lilies red.

  MINIATURE MERMEN

  Usually we think of mermaids and mermen as being about the same size as human beings. But according to Kerry Colburn’s Mermaids, “Norwegian fishermen hope to catch a marmel, a thumb-sized merman that brings good luck.”

  The Nixes

  In the rivers, lakes, and waterfalls of Germany and Poland live shapeshifting spirits known as nixes. They look completely human when seen on land, but nixes have a special quality humans don’t—they can breathe and exist underwater. Both males and females can adopt human forms and come on land when it pleases them. Like other water spirits, nixes sometimes marry human beings and produce hybrid children. And like merfolk in other cultures, these mythical beings use their melodious voices to entice people. Some sources say the male nix can appear in many different shapes—including animals and even inanimate objects—while in the water, whereas the female always displays the typical mermaid’s fishtail.

  Nixes aren’t usually as nice as the Scandinavian spirits; these water-men and their female partners entice human beings into their aquatic domains and drown them. You’ll know that a person has been drowned by a nix if you see blue spots speckling the victim’s recovered body.

  How do you know if you’re in the company of a nix? Legend says you can recognize a male nix by his red cap and a female by her red stockings. If you look closely, you’ll also notice telltale dampness along the edges of his jacket and the hem of her skirt.

  MERFOLK’S COMMON ORIGINS

  Why do merfolk from different countries seem so much alike? Researchers, anthropologists, and linguists suggest that the reason so many similarities exist in legends about mermaids is that they’re all rooted in early, pre-Christian conceptions of fertility goddesses. In virtually every part of the world, ancient people believed that deities ruled the rivers, lakes, and oceans. Such is the case with Scandinavian, German, and Polish merfolk. For example, the handsome freshwater spirit Fosse-Grim is also called näck, näkki, nøkk, and nøkken in Scandinavia and displays some of the same characteristics as the German nix (a.k.a. nixie, nixe, or nyx). The Oxford English Dictionary says “nix” derives from the Old High German word Nichus. Old Norse tales also refer to a mythical river- or brook-horse as a nykr, which may have been a predecessor of the merfolk.

  THE TRICKY NIXIE

  In the mid-nineteenth century, the Brothers Grimm wrote a fairy tale
titled “The Nixie in the Pond” in which a female nixie promises a miller good fortune in exchange for his newborn son. When the boy grows up and becomes a man, the nixie captures him and drags him into her pond. But the man’s wife tricks the nixie by leaving her gifts and eventually manages to free her husband from the pond.

  Lorelei, the Rhine River Spirit

  As German folklore tells us, once upon a time, a beautiful young woman named Lorelei was abandoned by her lover. But the other men in the town where she lived couldn’t resist her and her charms caused a scandal. To solve the problem, the bishop sentenced her to be locked away in a convent for life. But on the way to her imprisonment, Lorelei asked the guards accompanying her to let her see her beloved Rhine River one last time. The distraught woman climbed to a high cliff overlooking the river and threw herself into the water—where she transformed into a nixie.

  Supposedly Lorelei now inhabits a rock named for her, in the narrows of the Rhine near Sankt Goarshausen, Germany. An echo produced by the rock is said to be the sound of her singing. Today, tour boats ferry visitors safely to see the spot where the Rhine mermaid’s enticing voice and great beauty once lured boatmen to their deaths.

  River maids also play starring roles in Germanic music, art, and literature. Richard Wagner’s famous nineteenth-century opera Der Ring des Nibelungen features three Rhine maidens, Wellgunde, Woglinde, and Flosshilde, who guard an underwater treasure known as the Rheingold. The opera is loosely based on the medieval epic poem, “Nibelungenlied” or “Song of the Nibelungs.”

  LORELEI COMES TO HOLLYWOOD

  The Rhine River mermaid made an appearance in Hollywood in 1953, in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, based on Anita Loos’s 1925 novel. The film starred Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee, a beautiful blonde gold-digger with more than a touch of the seductive siren in her. And remember Superman’s mysterious girlfriend, before Lois Lane came on the scene? This wheelchair-bound beauty named Lori Lemaris covered up her mermaid’s tail with a blanket to hide her secret from the clueless Clark Kent.

  The Warsaw Maiden

  Unlike the dangerous and destructive mermaids said to inhabit waters elsewhere in the world, the mermaid of Warsaw, Poland, serves as the city’s protector and benefactor. Warsaw’s residents love their mermaid so much they made her the city’s symbol in the seventeenth century. Her bronze statue graces the Old Town Market Square and she decorates Warsaw’s coat of arms, holding a sword and a shield. The mermaid also shows up in art and architecture—including the door of St. John’s Cathedral—and in the logos of numerous businesses in Poland’s capital city.

  The Warsaw Mermaid or “Warszawska Syrenka,” sculpted by Konstanty Hegel, began watching over the city in the mid-nineteenth century. But she mysteriously disappeared during World War II—perhaps seeking a more peaceful place to live, as mermaids are known to do. In 2000, she resurfaced—supposedly discovered in a scrap yard—and once again took her place atop a stone pedestal in the town square. The pool beneath her shows her watery origins.

  Various legends surround the mermaid and her connection to the city of Warsaw. One says the mermaid led a man named Wars to the spot on the river where he founded the city. In another tale a mermaid named Sawa from the Baltic Sea swam from Gdansk into the Vistula River and stopped to rest in Warsaw. She liked it so much she decided to stay. A merchant trapped her and held her prisoner, until a young fisherman named Wars heard her crying and helped her escape. In gratitude, she promised to aid fishermen and protect the town forevermore. The city’s name comes from the merger of Wars and Sawa.

  The French Sirene Melusina

  During the Middle Ages, a water spirit called Melusina became the darling of the French aristocracy. Her story, however, is hardly a happy one. It begins when Raymond, the son of a bankrupt count, is adopted by a nobleman named Emmerick who becomes his friend. In a hunting incident, Raymond accidentally kills Emmerick and wanders about in grief until he comes upon a fountain deep in the forest. There he meets three mysterious women, including one named Melusina with whom he falls in love. He asks her to marry him and she agrees, with one condition: He must never see her on Saturday.

  After the couple wed Melusina gives birth to several deformed children. One Saturday night, the curious Raymond spies on his wife in her bath—and sees that she has the tail of a snake. He blames her for defiling his family line and she leaves him because he broke his vow. According to legend, Melusina now flies about France heralding death and crying out when a tragedy is about to occur.

  MELUSINA’S BIOGRAPHY

  French historian Jean d’Arras compiled a work titled Chronique de Melusine in the fifteenth century, which chronicles the history of the Melusina myth. It remains the oldest book in existence on the subject.

  MER MEANS SEA

  Mer, the term we use for the merfolk species, comes from the French word for sea. Interestingly, the French word for mermaid is sirene and the word for merman is triton.

  Italy’s Sirena

  “Supremely beautiful, forever combing her hair, just beyond reach of men, mermaids have beckoned the adventurous to the unknown and the promise of forbidden fruits.”

  —Beatrice Phillpotts, Mermaids

  During his return voyage from the New World in January 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus claimed to have spotted three mermaids swimming in the waters near Haiti. Most likely Columbus saw manatees—he just thought he’d sighted mermaids because he, like other mariners of his time, believed all sorts of fantastic creatures inhabited the oceans of the world. That’s because many early adventurers, including Columbus and Marco Polo, had read and drawn ideas from a popular fifteenth-century book titled Imago Mundi. Written by Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly, the book described a host of peculiar creatures including merfolk who supposedly lived in then-unknown parts of the globe.

  Medieval manuscripts and Latin encyclopedias, such as De Proprietatibus Rerum by Bartholomeus Anglicus, described mermaids in detail. Christian authors warned seafarers that the lovely hybrid creatures were dangerous whores who seduced men, then killed and ate them. Merfolk provided appealing subjects for artists as well. The seductive sirena (the Italian word for mermaid) adorned the pages of many illuminated manuscripts and illustrated books from the medieval and Renaissance periods.

  One of the most intriguing examples of mermaid sculpture dominates the Piazza Nettuno in Bologna, Italy. This erotic fountain features double-tailed mermaids suggestively spreading their tails while enticingly squeezing water from their shapely breasts. Commissioned to celebrate Pope Pius IV’s election in 1559 and sculpted by artist Giambologna, the bronze Fontana di Nettuno—which also depicts Neptune in all his naked glory—raised a good deal of controversy when it was unveiled. But the Pope gave the fountain his blessing, saying, “For Bologna it is alright.”

  “I am a siren, and for my adoration of mankind, have been caught in fishing nets one time too many. And in those fishing nets I have learned too many unfavorable things about human intentions and the lack of trust and goodwill; I’m not going to allow myself to be caught, anymore. Sirens do well at singing the sirens’ song and dragging vile people to their deaths, and for good reason!”

  —C. JoyBell C.

  CHAPTER 7

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  Russian Rusalky AND OTHER Slavic Merfolk

  IN THE LORE and legends of Russia, the Ukraine, the Baltic regions, and parts of Eastern Europe one of the most prevalent water spirits is the rusalka (plural rusalky or rusalki). Usually, the rusalka appears as a dangerous or demonic creature—even as a succubus. Unlike mermaids in other parts of the world, the rusalka boasts a unique characteristic: She loves to dance.

  The Russian Rusalky

  Russian rusalky are always female—males of the species don’t seem to exist. Accounts of what a rusalka looks like, however, vary from region to region. It depends on whom you ask and where the storyteller lives. Some tales describe rusalky as fish-woman hybrids, akin to the mermaids who populate folklore
in other parts of the world. But in Siberia, rusalky reportedly look more like yetis than lovely mermaids. Parallels also exist between these Russian spirits and the German nixes—both river creatures are malevolent tricksters who come on land and nab unwitting humans. A Russian proverb warns, “Not everything is a mermaid that dives into the water.”

  Typically freshwater beings, they usually live at the bottoms of rivers. At night they leave their watery abodes and shapeshift into two-legged humanoids who make their way along the riverbanks and fields. There they sing and dance enticingly in order to enchant men whom they find attractive—then they lure their captives back to the river and drown them.

  Like other mermaids, rusalky can be spotted sitting near the lakes or rivers where they live, combing their long hair. At night they sometimes shed their fishtails and climb trees or swing from the branches, singing more sweetly than songbirds.

  The great Czech composer Antonin Dvorak wrote an opera titled Rusalka, which premiered in Prague in 1901 and has endured as his most successful opera. With lyrics by poet and librettist Jaroslav Kvapil, Rusalka tells a Slavic version of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué’s Undine and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”

  MODERN MERMAIDS

  Two Russian “mermaids,” Semenova Veronika and Stikhilyas Valeriya, perform graceful, underwater acrobatics for audiences around the world. These young women are synchronized swimmers who trained for five years to learn their craft, which requires them to hold their breath for up to several minutes at a time. If you can’t see the real thing, you can watch their aquatic skills on www.mid-day.com as they cavort in the aquarium at Mumbai’s Ocean restaurant.