Merrow, not meow - Mermaid Myths Continued

Hi! Thank you for dropping in to Myth Perceptions where I'm sharing with you various myths and legends I've discovered while researching for my fantasy writing!

Sorry I'm late posting this month, friends. Continuing my research into mermaid myths around the world, I actually encountered a new "to me" myth - the Irish Merrow, thanks to one of my fav paranormal authors, Seanan McGuire.

In "One Salt Sea", half-fae heroine, October Daye, helps solve a kidnapping case involving the two sons of a Merrow and land Fae. If you haven't read any of the October Daye series, you should give it a serious look. You'll learn a LOT about the fae and October is an amazing character! 

So, what's a Merrow? A Merrow is an Irish mermaid or merman. Like most of the merpeople around the world, merrow are human looking from the waist up, fish from the waist down. The Merrow have a comb parting their green hair along crest of their heads and pale webbing between their fingers. They always wear magical red caps made, interestingly enough, of feathers. The cap is called a cohuleen druith which enables them to dive beneath the waves to return to their homes. The merrow often leave the sea to travel about on land, sometimes as small hornless cows or as lovely women wrapped in red capes. Without their cohuleen druith, they are stuck on land, making the caps their weakness. (I could find no explanation for the reason a mermaid would need help to go beneath the waves, and why a feathered cap.)

It is also said that they appear before storms and can capsize boats with careless disregard for the humans on board. Such actions can range from playfulness to fits of rage, but their fae nature makes them naturally careless of weak mortals.

The mermaids are beautiful creatures and enjoy dallying with human males. In the water, they can be wild and careless, but on land, they are gentle and affectionate, making them excellent targets for fishermen seeking amenable wives. If the cohuleen druith is hidden away, the merrow must stay on land, but if she ever finds the cap, she is inexorably drawn to return to the water, abandoning husband and family, never to return. Even with this threat of possible enslavement, female merrows actively seek human lovers and will lure men under the waves to live in enchanted pleasure.

The mermen are far less attractive with red eyes, rosy piglike noses, and gross bodies. They are said to be overly partial to whisky, hence the red noses and eyes. (This might also explain why female merrows are trolling in human "waters" for lovers, eh?) They will also capture humans, but to serve as slaves.

In conclusion, the merrow seem to combine several mythic forms--mermaid, siren, selkie--into one intriguing package topped with a jaunty red feathered cap.

Next month, I'll conclude the mermaid series with some general observations and conclusions. Hope you'll drop by.

Denise Golinowski is a reader and writer of fantasy and romance. Her newest enovella, Collector's Item, is available from  The Wild Rose Press.

Her first enovella, The Festival of the Flowers: The Courtesan and the Scholar is also available  through the Wild Rose Press. You can visit her blog at Golinowski's Gambol.

Finders Keepers - Losers Weepers

Greetings, Gentle Reader!

This month W3 is all about Summer Vacation. Ah, summer, sun, and surf. There's nothing better than sitting on a blanket with a book, staring out at the waves, and hoping to see a dolphin or two. Grab a patch of sand and join me, won't you?

Wait! Look over there. Something's  bobbing on the waves, just beyond the farthest breaker. Do you see it? Is it just another swell? Or my imagination?

There! A little to the right. A dark shape that doesn't look like water, or a bird, or a dolphin even. Drats! Gone again! Was that a seal?

Selkies

Do not cry into the sea, lassie

Let not your tears meet the waves.

For should the water of your eyes

Meet the waters of the sea

A selkie man will be called to thee.

Selkies are seal shapeshifters, most commonly said to live off the coast of the Orkney Islands and Shetland in Scotland and Co. Donegal in Ireland. The word, "selkie," is old Scots meaning seal, the Irish name is "roan." Similar creatures appear in other coastal mythologies, but let's stay with this, shall we?

When Selkies shed their skins, they transform into beautiful men and women. Beautiful and seductive. And because they always return to the sea, any human who falls under their spell is left bereft. However, should someone find the Selkie's skin and hide it, the Selkie must remain on land with that person until the skin is returned, or they find it.

Stories tell of Selkie women whose skins are taken and hidden by fishermen. The captured Selkie women take the role of wives who live with their fishermen husbands quite docilely, bearing children and minding their homes. However, their hearts truly belong to their sea home and they will never be happy trapped on land. Inevitably in these stories, when the skin is returned or found (which it always is), the Selkie leaves never to be seen again.

The Selkie males were said to be quite handsome and seductive. They are also said to raise storms and overturn boats in retaliation for murdered seals. For some reason, there are fewer stories of captured males. Mostly, the males are blamed for unfaithful wives. The males often came from the sea in search of unsatisfied women and any human woman wishing to call one to her can do so by performing a simple ritual.

At high tide, she should make her way to the shore, where she had to shed seven tears into the sea. – Orkneyjar, The Heritage of the Orkney Islands

The sad and curious thought that someone would be so obsessed with their Selkie lover that they would resort to trapping them to keep them was the inspiration for "By Tears Bound," a short story I wrote and was published by Membra Disjecta in 2008. The short piece of verse above was the first stanza of a "song" I created for the story and I incorporated the "seven tears ritual" as a key part in the plot.

There is also a twist on the legends where some Selkies will lure humans into the sea, never to return.

So, my best advice, never accept a seal-skin coat without asking where it came from. Then again, if the selkie is as attractive as they claim, then you might want to keep it, for a little while. I just advise you not to become too attached to either of them. The Selkies always seem to regain their skin somehow.

Do not cry into the sea, lassie

Let not your tears meet the waves.

For should the water of your eyes

Meet the waters of the sea

A selkie man will steal your heart from thee.

Finders keepers, loser weepers. Until next month, Denise Golinowski

My sweet fantasy romance, The Festival of the Flowers: The Courtesan and The Scholar is available as an ebook from the Wild Rose Press. You can check it out here.