Mermania: The Little Book of Mermaids. Rachel Federman

Names Around the Seven Seas

LATVIA	NARA
IRELAND	MERROW
JAPAN	マーメイド
CARIBBEAN	AYCAYIA
BRAZIL	IARA
RUSSIA AND UKRAINE	RUSALKA
IRAN	پری دریایی
POLAND	SYRENA
DENMARK	HAVFRUE
INUIT MYTHOLOGY	ᓴᓐᓇ
FRANCE	SIRÈNE
CHINA	美人鱼
HAITI	LASIREN
ESTONIA	MERINEITSI

      Throughout history,

      mermaids

      have been known by many names:

      AQUATIC HUMANOID

      KELPIE

      LIMNIAD

      NAIAD

      NERIAD

      NIX

      OCEAN NYMPH

      OCEANID

      SIREN

      SPIRIT

      SPRITE

      SYLPHE

      UNDINE

      WATER NYMPH

      Mermaids have been known to live for up to

      three hundred

       years

      in their aquatic form.

      TRADING FINS FOR LIFE ON LAND TENDS TO SHORTEN THEIR LIFESPAN DRAMATICALLY, PLUS IT OFTEN MEANS

      giving up their voices along with their tails.

      IN RETURN, THEY’RE GRANTED A TERRESTRIAL ROMANCE, OR

      perhaps even a soul.

      SADLY, IT’S SAID THAT

       mermaids

      don’t have souls;

      ONCE THEY DIE THEY SIMPLY

      turn into

      sea foam.

      IN BIBLICAL TERMS (TO MISQUOTE GENESIS),

      ‘For sea foam

      thou art, and unto sea foam

       SHALT THOU RETURN.’

      In the waters off

      THE PORT OF HISTORIC NYHAVN, IN

      Copenhagen,

      LIES A WELL-LOVED BRONZE STATUE OF

      The Little Mermaid,

      MADE BY EDVARD ERIKSEN, WHOSE WIFE POSED FOR THE SCULPTURE.

      IN 1909 A BREWER NAMED CARL JACOBSEN (THE FOUNDER OF CARLSBERG BEER) COMMISSIONED THE WORK AFTER FALLING UNDER THE SPELL OF A BALLET VERSION OF THE FAMOUS FAIRYTALE. ALTHOUGH MOST GAZE ON

      the statue with love

      FOR THE QUIET SUNBATHER NEAR THE LANGELINIE PROMENADE, SHE HAS SUFFERED VARIOUS ATTACKS. IN 1964 THE BELOVED STATUE LOST ITS ORIGINAL HEAD. AN AMPUTATION, ATTEMPTED BEHEADING, AND EXPLOSION FOLLOWED. SHE HAS BEEN RESTORED EACH TIME, THOUGH, AND

      continues her watch.

      Mermaids

      CAN SYMBOLIZE ETERNITY, FERTILITY,

      beauty, desire, freedom,

       mystery, and doom.

      Tales about mermaids

      began to appear

       three thousand years ago,

      IN THE MESOPOTAMIAN KINGDOM OF ASSYRIA.

      MERMAIDS HAVE BEEN ENCHANTING HUMANS FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

      Stories of merfolk

      STRETCH BACK THROUGHOUT HISTORY AND ACROSS CULTURES. IN THE

      Babylonian period

      (1800–600 BCE), EA, THE GOD OF THE SEA (IN GREEK, OANNES), HAD THE

      lower body of a fish and the upper body of a human.

      THE CREATOR OF THE

      live mermaid show

      AT WEEKI WACHEE SPRINGS, FLORIDA, WAS

      ‘Fish Man’ Newton Perry,

      A US NAVY VETERAN WHO HAD ONCE TRAINED NAVY SEALS TO SWIM UNDERWATER IN WORLD WAR 2. ALTHOUGH THE

      city of Weeki Wachee

      WAS NOT INCORPORATED UNTIL 1966, PERRY OPENED THE THEATRE IN OCTOBER 1947. AS OF 2008, THE LEGENDARY FLORIDA ATTRACTION IS NOW

      a state park.

      The name

      Weeki Wachee

      COMES FROM THE SEMINOLE TRIBE OF NATIVE AMERICANS WHO CALLED THE SPRING WEEKIWACHEE

      (winding river).

      Explorer Christopher Columbus reported seeing

      three mermaids

      IN THE OCEAN OFF THE COAST OF WHAT IS NOW THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, IN JANUARY 1493. HE SAID THEY ‘CAME QUITE HIGH OUT OF THE WATER’ BUT WERE ‘NOT AS