Topic Research: Mermaids

This week, I've chosen to narrow in my research on the topic of mermaids for my project.

I've done some research on a variation of mermaids, Selkies, which are seen more as shapeshifters that can transform from seals to people by shedding their skin, taking on human form. There are many tales of men stealing selkies' skin and finding them in human form, compelling them to be their wives. The Selkie feels as if she is being held captive and will long for her true home, the sea. Sometimes, they will even bear children for the man only to go back to the sea if they find their selkie skin, abandoning their children that they love.

This basic outline is shown in the story "The Goodman O' Wasteness." This story follows the basic structure of selkie tales, where the man steals the skin of a selkie and makes her his wife, she bears him children, unhappy with her current situation, longing for the sea. One day while the man is out with some of their children, she finds her skin and runs towards the sea, happy to rejoin her people. She finds the man on his boat and tells him that while he was good to her during their life, she loves her selkie husband more. He never sees his wife again.

Another story I read on Selkies was titled "One Spared to the Sea." Which is about a man who stumbled upon two selkies, a mother and child, in their seal form. The man first picks the pup seal up, intending to take it home. However, seeing the mother is in clear distress, he gives the pup back. Nine years later, when the man has children of his own, he comes back and they encounter the same two selkies, but in human form. The mother essentially tells the kids that she will spare them because he spared her pup 9 years before. I like that this story doesn't have any abduction and that the man is rewarded for acting with morality. 

Both of these stories were found from Orkneyjar - a website dedicated to preserving, exploring, and documenting the ancient history, folklore, and traditions of Orkney - a group of islands lying off the northern tip of Scotland.

Another variation of mermaids that I read up on was Melusine, which is much more like the normal depiction of a mermaid. They are female freshwater spirits who are depicted as women with tails from the waist down. 

A story I read on Melusine was "Legend of Melusina." This story included a marriage between Melusina and a human man, which ended in unhappiness and her abandoning him, much like the Selkie story. I think it would be interesting to focus my project on women of the sea and how human men aren't good enough for them, including a couple different mermaid variations. I could include many different tales of marriage to these sea women and how the result is always unhappiness, that they feel tied down by these men. It would even be interesting to combine all the stories by making it the same man in each of these tales. That's just one idea to experiment with for this project. 

I got this story from Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, the subsection focusing on Water Spirit Legends.

("Three two-tailed melusines with the mirrors blue" by Cea)