Under construction.
This page is devoted to mermaids and water spirits from beliefs around the world. There is a great deal of overlap with fairies in general.
Europe
Africa
The Americas
Oceania
Asia
Literary Water Spirits
This page is devoted to mermaids and water spirits from beliefs around the world. There is a great deal of overlap with fairies in general.
Europe
Africa
The Americas
Oceania
Asia
Literary Water Spirits
Europe
Great Britain
Finfolk: Orkney Islands. These sorcerers wore fins that looked like flowing garments, and who often captured humans to take them as spouses to their underwater realm, Finfolkaheem. Possibly a corruption of Norwegian superstitions about the Finns.
Finfolk: Orkney Islands. These sorcerers wore fins that looked like flowing garments, and who often captured humans to take them as spouses to their underwater realm, Finfolkaheem. Possibly a corruption of Norwegian superstitions about the Finns.
- Hallen, A. W. Cornelius. The Scottish Antiquary, Or, Northern Notes & Queries, Volume 5. 1891. p. 168ff.
- Towrie, Sigurd. "The Sorcerous Finfolk." Orkneyjar: The Heritage of the Orkney Islands.
- Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica, hymns and incantations, Volume 2. 1900. p. 287.
- Harland, John. Lancashire Folk-Lore. 1867. p. 53.
- Campbell, J. F. Popular Tales of the West Highlands, vol. 1. p. lxxxvii.
- Henderson, George. Survivals in Belief Among the Celts. 1911. pp. 164-165.
- Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica, hymns and incantations, Volume 2. 1900. p. 304.
- Fish or Fowl: How did Sirens Become Mermaids? (blog post)
- "Mermaid" on Entymonline
- Charlton, Edward, et al. "A Visit to Shetland in 1832", Old-lore Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland, vol. 8. 1920. p. 124
- Hallen, A. W. Cornelius. The Scottish Antiquary, Or, Northern Notes & Queries, Volume 5. 1891. p. 168.
Holland
Alven: Elves who went boating in eggshells. They also lived in the bubbles or scum on surface of fishless ponds. Some elves were evil and made plants poisonous. People did not sleep in the pastures after sunset, and farmers kept their animals from grazing there at night, for fear of elves.
They could also turn into swans. In Brabant, they were said to live inside hills called Alvinnenberge.
Alven: Elves who went boating in eggshells. They also lived in the bubbles or scum on surface of fishless ponds. Some elves were evil and made plants poisonous. People did not sleep in the pastures after sunset, and farmers kept their animals from grazing there at night, for fear of elves.
They could also turn into swans. In Brabant, they were said to live inside hills called Alvinnenberge.
- Thorpe, Benjamin. Northern Mythology vol. 3. 1852. p. 265.
- Bergh, Laurence Philippe van den. Proeve van een kritisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche mythogie, 1846. p.6.
- Wolf, Johann Wilhelm. Niederlandische Sagen. 1843. 572.
Norway
Uldra: A Norwegian water sprite, possibly related to the elves known as huldrefolk.
It has been referred to as a water sprite (Martineau, Harriet. Feats on the Fiord (1856), p176) or a "spirit of the vapour" (Grant, James. Bothwell (1851), vol. 1, p53). There is a painting called "Uldra, The Scandinavian Spirit of the Rainbow in the Waterfall" by George Frederick Watts from 1884.
Derwent Conway, in A Personal Narrative of a Journey Through Norway (1829), described them as river spirits. He recounted a story of a peasant going, as was customary, to leave a cake for one of these spirits. When he got there, he found the river frozen over. He was only able to hammer a small hole in the ice, but to his surprise, a tiny snow-white hand came through the hole and took the cake, which became small enough to pass through (pp.230-231).
Uldra: A Norwegian water sprite, possibly related to the elves known as huldrefolk.
It has been referred to as a water sprite (Martineau, Harriet. Feats on the Fiord (1856), p176) or a "spirit of the vapour" (Grant, James. Bothwell (1851), vol. 1, p53). There is a painting called "Uldra, The Scandinavian Spirit of the Rainbow in the Waterfall" by George Frederick Watts from 1884.
Derwent Conway, in A Personal Narrative of a Journey Through Norway (1829), described them as river spirits. He recounted a story of a peasant going, as was customary, to leave a cake for one of these spirits. When he got there, he found the river frozen over. He was only able to hammer a small hole in the ice, but to his surprise, a tiny snow-white hand came through the hole and took the cake, which became small enough to pass through (pp.230-231).
Literary Water Fairies
Asrai: from the poetry of Robert Williams Buchanan. They are a race predating humanity, who live in a city beneath Lake Bala in Wales. They lack immortal souls and avoid sunlight. Buchanan’s poem "The Changeling" centers around an asrai changeling.
In the 1970s, Ruth Tongue claimed to have encountered folk legends about asrai in Cheshire and Shropshire. They emerged from their lakes when the moon was shining, and would melt into water if exposed to the sun. I suspect that Tongue was actually inspired by Buchanan and used his poetry as "proof" that there really was a tradition.
Undine: water elementals described by Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. Probably from the Latin "unda" or "wave." Paracelsus also referred to them as nymphs or melosyns (melusines) and stated that sirens were related to them. In Paracelsian mythos, elementals were soulless, and undines were the most likely to marry humans in order to gain a soul. Paracelsus's writings inspired the famous 19th century novella Undine, which told the story of one such soul-seeker, and by extension Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid."
In the 1970s, Ruth Tongue claimed to have encountered folk legends about asrai in Cheshire and Shropshire. They emerged from their lakes when the moon was shining, and would melt into water if exposed to the sun. I suspect that Tongue was actually inspired by Buchanan and used his poetry as "proof" that there really was a tradition.
Undine: water elementals described by Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. Probably from the Latin "unda" or "wave." Paracelsus also referred to them as nymphs or melosyns (melusines) and stated that sirens were related to them. In Paracelsian mythos, elementals were soulless, and undines were the most likely to marry humans in order to gain a soul. Paracelsus's writings inspired the famous 19th century novella Undine, which told the story of one such soul-seeker, and by extension Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid."
