Read real stories about mermaids. Mermaids exist: historical references and eyewitness accounts
18.01.2017 15:52
Mermaids are characters from Slavic folklore. Now we are somewhat skeptical about them, but our ancestors believed in them and took them very seriously.
According to legends, mermaids live in rivers, forests and fields, and therefore for our great-grandmothers, who lived in villages close to nature, encounters with them were not such a rare occurrence, and stories about mermaids were on everyone’s lips. Now we live in the modern world, and many of us live in city apartments that are far from dense forests and mysterious lakes. But who knows what really lurks in these places? Maybe our great-grandmothers weren’t such storytellers after all?
In this article from the women's online magazine “100 Worlds” we will get acquainted with some stories about mermaids that have survived to this day from folklore.
Mermaid on the field
There was a crossroads on the outskirts of a village that had a bad reputation. One of the roads led directly into the city, and people walked along it to the monastery to pray. And it was this place that evil spirits chose - they say that all sorts of things happened here. And first of all, evil spirits pestered those who went to pray - they tried to lead people astray from the true path.
Once a man was walking alone into the city, he wanted to get there before dark, but it didn’t work out. It was already getting dark, and the month had seemed when he reached the crossroads. He sees a young girl sitting by the road, all alone. She combs her hair and cries.
He approached her and asked what happened. She answered him that she was walking to the monastery and got lost. The man did not leave the beauty in trouble and promised to take her, anyway, after all, they were on the same path.
They moved on together. He knew the road to the monastery perfectly well, but some kind of miracles - an hour had already passed, and the road still did not end. The man started to get nervous, but the girl became cheerful - she walks around and laughs, sings songs. She began to flirt with him, but you couldn’t touch her with your hand - she walked so quickly and deftly that it was impossible to catch up with her.
They approached a field on which heaps of collected rye were laid out, and she suddenly snuck behind the heap and again began to seem to cry. The man began to look for her, and her voice was heard first behind one, then behind another shock - and she was nowhere to be found.
So he searched for her until dawn, forgetting where he was going. The mermaid took him outside the city, thirty miles away - only in the morning did he come to his senses.
A story about a mermaid in a bathhouse
One day a man went to the bathhouse to wash himself. It was winter, and the time was already late, night - twelve o'clock. He left - and he’s gone.
His wife became worried - why had her husband been gone for so long? I went to the bathhouse to look for him, but he wasn’t inside.
He looks - and there are footprints leading from the bathhouse, straight to the river. She followed the tracks and saw her husband sitting on a rock in the middle of the water, completely naked. And it’s winter outside, there’s snow all around!
She asked him how he ended up there and why. And he said that a mermaid came to the bathhouse and called him to follow her, and for some reason he followed. The mermaid scurried off somewhere, and he still sat naked in the cold. The wife began to say: “Amen,” and “Amen,” he woke up and stood up. However, how can he get out? There is cold water around and the depth is deep. How he got there he doesn’t know, but he can’t get back without outside help.
The wife had to call her friends for help and pull her husband out. The people threw him a rope and managed to pull the poor fellow back to shore.
But it’s not for nothing that they say that the place is bad, unclean, scary...
The Rough Fisherman's Misfortune
Once a fisherman put a net on a lake, but he had no luck. A day passed, two - and there were no fish. On the third day he got angry - he removed the nets, spat in the water and cursed.
He came home and suddenly began to suffer from an unknown illness. His strength began to leave him, and it was unclear what ails him. His wife went to the healer, who gave her the charmed water and told her to wash herself. But it's all to no avail. The wife came home in the evening and fell asleep from fatigue. And she dreamed that the door to their hut opened and mermaids entered. And they told her not to give water to this husband and not to help him - they were offended by him because he spat on their wedding table!
The wife woke up and saw that their lambs, which were standing in a stall at the house, were lying dead - their legs had been pulled out. And then the husband died, and there was no way to help him.
This is such a scary story about mermaids! They say that mermaids are angry and touchy people. And you can’t spit in the water, and you can’t swear either - this way you can invite trouble...
The story of captivity among mermaids
In Rus', since ancient times, there has been a belief that you cannot curse anyone, otherwise mermaids may come after the cursed person and drag him into their lair.
One day a tailor quarreled with his wife and in his anger sent her to the jesters. At night, around midnight, the woman went out into the yard to relieve herself and did not return.
They looked for the missing tailor's wife for two weeks, but no one saw her. Then people began to pray for her and give alms to the poor. And so, a few weeks later, at midnight a cart rolled up to their house - it threw something off the cart and drove away.
The tailor looks - and this is his wife, thin and exhausted. And the woman said that after her husband sent her to the jesters, she went out into the courtyard - and there she was surrounded by some otherworldly force and dragged away. They dragged her to the river and pulled her into the water, right into the nest of joker mermaids.
So she lived with them for several weeks. She told me that mermaids live like people - they sew, eat, start families. Yes, only at night they crawl out of their nest and walk around the villages - looking out where people sit down without prayer, laugh at their meals and throw food on the floor. They look to see whose doors and windows have not been “aminated” and whose house they can break into. They go around and steal children, as well as those who have been cursed by their loved ones.
At first, the mermaids did not offend the woman. But then, when her relatives began to pray for her, they began to starve her and mock her. But the relatives prayed for their soul mate - then they returned the woman home.
These are the creepy stories about mermaids! However, they have their own morality, don't they?
Do you believe in stories about mermaids?
The article was written using materials from a book about Russian folklore “Guardian Angel, Tempter Spirit and Brownie.”
Anastasia Cherkasova, women's site "100 Worlds"
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Who hasn’t heard about mermaids and nymphs - half-women, half-fish, who most often live in the depths of the sea? It would not be an exaggeration to say that their images permeate the entire world folklore. Legends and stories about mermaids also exist among those peoples whose history is not connected with the sea. In this case, the habitat of strange creatures is called rivers and lakes. And in all centuries, naturalists and historians have wondered whether mermaids are truly purely mythical creatures, or whether in ancient times there actually existed on our planet a small but intelligent species of people - amphibians.
The origins of the first legends about the charming inhabitants of the underwater kingdom go back to ancient Babylon. The most interesting thing about them is that, along with female fish, male representatives of amphibians - newts - often appear here. We must not forget that the powerful Babylonian deities, whom the ancients worshiped, were also half fish in appearance, including the sun god Oanness.
Astonishing as it may seem, one of the sensations of our century is also associated with the name and appearance of Oannes. In the 30s, French scientists in West Africa discovered one of the oldest tribes on earth - the Dogon, who managed to exist for several thousand years in complete isolation from the civilized world. At the same time, the Dogon shocked researchers with their fantastically accurate astronomical knowledge, which surpassed even modern science. The priests of the tribe explained that the knowledge was transmitted to their ancestors by space aliens who flew from the star Sirius and had the appearance of amphibians. The main one who arrived, Oannes, became the supreme deity worshiped by the Dogon...
But let's return to earthly mermaids. There is a small island off the coast of Scotland, completely covered with small gray-green pebbles, which are called here “mermaid tears”. This name is associated with a touching legend about a mermaid who fell in love with a young monk and visited him in the monastery of the holy brotherhood of Jonah. According to legend, the monk taught the mermaid prayers, and together they begged God for a soul for her... But she was never able to leave the sea and in the end sailed from the island forever, bitterly mourning her fate. The legend dates back to the 6th century and is in a certain sense unique against the general background of “mermaid folklore”. After all, it talks about love, and the vast majority of tales about the inhabitants of the sea and river depths clearly tell exactly the opposite.
In all maritime parables and legends, mermaids and sirens are not only seductive, but also insidious creatures, luring sailors into their nets with singing and wonderful music, “bewitching” them, putting them to sleep with the sole purpose of destroying them. Even a fleeting meeting with a mermaid, just glimpsed on the horizon, is considered by sailors to be a bad omen: whoever sees this sea seductress will certainly drown very soon!
But not only sailors find themselves witnessing and participating in meetings with mysterious inhabitants of the depths.
...On a warm summer day in 1890, teacher William Moira was walking along the beach in the Scottish county of Caithne-ess. Suddenly, on a rock protruding from the sea, he noticed a creature that looked like a woman. If Moira had not known that swimming behind a stone is very dangerous, he would not have paid much attention to her, but then he began to take a closer look... In front of him was a creature in whose existence he had never believed - a mermaid! A few seconds later she slipped into the water and did not appear again...
The teacher hesitated for twelve years before he finally decided to write to the London Times about this meeting, giving a clear and dry description of the mermaid and expressing the hope that his letter could help confirm “the existence of a phenomenon hitherto almost unknown to naturalists, or reduce skepticism of those who are always ready to challenge everything they cannot comprehend.”
Rumors about mermaids have been like this throughout the centuries. stable and widespread, which, of course, did not escape Russia. Emperor Peter 1 was also interested in them. So much so that he turned to the man who wrote a lot about them - the Danish colonial priest Francois Valentin. This is what he answered to the Russian emperor after a long list of testimonies obtained in the process of careful research from those who encountered unusual creatures: “If at all there are any stories in the world that deserve trust, then these in particular. That some people don't believe in them means nothing; There will always be people who deny the existence of Constantinople, Rome, Cairo just because they didn’t get to see them...” As for our century, evidence of encounters with mermaids has certainly become much smaller. The reason for this (if mermaids really exist) may be the environmental pollution of rivers and seas, which contributes to the extinction of amazing creatures of Nature, and the significantly increasing speed of water vehicles: in the era of sailing ships, sailors had much more time to look at the sea, and this means there are more opportunities to see its inhabitants...
And yet, let us give one more story related to the beginning of the second half of our century. On January 3, 1957, traveler Eric de Bishop sailed on his own reconstructed model of an ancient Polynesian raft from Tahiti to Chile. Suddenly, the watchman on the raft behaved very strangely: he shouted that he had seen an incomprehensible creature jumping out of the water onto the raft. Balancing on its tail, this creature with hair like the finest seaweed stood right in front of him. Having touched the uninvited guest, the sailor will receive such a blow that he will lie flat on the deck, and the creature will disappear into the waves. Since sparkling fish scales remained on the sailor’s hands, de Bishop did not doubt the veracity of what happened. The majority of modern residents of the banks of large rivers, including Russian ones, have no doubt at all about the existence of mermaids. At the end of the 60s, I had the opportunity to participate in a folklore expedition, part of the route of which ran through Transnistria and the coast of the wild Carpathian Prut River, which, despite the prevailing shallow waters, is famous for unexpected whirlpools. Fishermen - not only professionals, but also amateurs - are reluctant to talk about mermaids: after all, even in those parts, meeting them is considered a bad omen. Still, we managed to talk to some fishermen in some detail. The most amazing story was told to us by a certain Mykola - a gloomy, gloomy old man who lived alone in a dilapidated hut, clinging to a cliff on a whimsical bend of the Prut. It was not by chance that we “came to Mykola”: in the nearest village they told us a strange and unlikely story of his loneliness.
Many years ago (he was already a fisherman, he had just buried his mother, but he was not distinguished by an unsociable disposition then) one day in the middle of summer, at dawn, Mykola went fishing in a hidden, remote place that few knew. Wandering along the shallows to a previously chosen boulder from which he was going to fish, Mykola was forced to suddenly stop: to his amazement, he saw that someone was lying on the sand between him and the stone. Coming closer, the fisherman froze: it was a mermaid!
This is how he described her to us when we met him: short, about one and a half meters tall, fragile, the upper half of the body - with very white skin, hair almost to the waist, greenish-gray, similar to thin algae, an elegant, regular face with excessively large, dark, pupilless eyes... In these eyes, Mykola saw something reminiscent, as it seemed to him, of a plea for help. “She seemed to have fallen asleep, that is, she fainted,” explained the old fisherman.
Without thinking twice, Mykola decided to provide “first aid” to the mermaid. Having overcome fear, he took off his robe, put the “sleepy” one on it, trying not to inhale the strong and strange aroma coming from her body and causing nausea, and then carried the river guest... to his hut. There was only one bed in his home, and he laid the fantastic find on it. The mermaid did not resist: apparently, she simply could not. “Apparently, she was already dying,” Mykola explained seriously.
According to him, he sat next to her for almost two days, but did not notice how she died, since the mermaid, after the fisherman laid her on a human bed, never showed any signs of life. But in ka. At some point, Mykola saw that her huge eyes were covered with a dull film, and realized that it was all over... The aroma emanating from the mermaid began to disappear, and along with this came a strange state into which he fell, losing track of time.
What kind of condition it was, he was unable or unwilling to explain, only briefly muttering: “Yes, so, I saw different things...” The old man did not look like a dreamer. In addition, there were people in the village who claimed that they themselves had seen Mykola’s amazing find from afar: many people looked into his hut in those two days, but no one dared to go inside. “He himself was kind of gloomy, but after that he remained that way - an inhuman.”
Obviously, the old fisherman noticed our disbelief in his story. Because, after hesitating, he led us into the mountains, behind his mud hut. A beech forest began there, and, having gone about fifty meters into it, we saw under one of the trees a small well-groomed grave mound... On it, instead of an Orthodox cross, stood a small figurine of a mermaid, roughly carved from wood... This figurine and the mound were forever imprinted in my memory together with the mysterious and gloomy history of Mykola.
It is interesting that in all “mermaid” legends, regardless of the place and time of their origin, the inhabitants of the underwater world are credited with the same qualities. Apart from the mentioned treachery and unfriendly attitude towards people, what are they?
First of all, these are those properties that today we would call extrasensory: starting with the clearly hypnotic singing of the Indian river sulfs Apsaras and the abilities of telepathy and magic of the ancient Babylonian god-amphibians and ending with the convictions of sailors and fishermen that a mermaid is capable of bewitching and completely subjugating a person with her gaze . The magic of mermaids cannot be called good or “white”; sailors testify - with rare exceptions - to their unfriendly attitude towards people. If we take into account that the home world of amphibians is underwater, and remember the environmental damage that humans have caused and are causing to this world at all times, then there is no need to be surprised...
It is not known what hares eat, but, according to several records dating back to the 17th and 19th centuries and supported by the testimony of quite serious people, they do not eat not only fish, but also smaller sea creatures. This means that they are not carnivores and do not destroy their fellow creatures in their habitat - another good reason not to feel sympathy for people, knowing our habits... In the documents of the mentioned centuries, several cases appear when people managed to either catch or find on the shore a fish that had not managed to disappear along with low tide mermaid. In particular, they placed one of them in a barrel of sea water and tried to feed it with something, even the smallest shrimp, but to no avail. After living in captivity for about three days, the mermaid - she was blond - died.
Judging by the descriptions, inhabitants of the underwater world can be on the surface, but their period of stay in the air is strictly limited. In accordance with the available records in ship logs of past centuries, all captive mermaids invariably died much faster than amphibians available for scientific research.
Finally, the resemblance to humans is not limited to the shape of the upper half of the body. These creatures are undoubtedly intelligent, because the deceit of which they have been accused for centuries is also a property of intelligence! And if these creatures are indeed not the product of a rich folk fantasy, but representatives of a “neighboring” civilization that once really existed and is disappearing these days, it’s a little offensive that they categorically do not want to be friends with us. After all, humanity has always dreamed of finding fellow humans!
True, at the same time, we much more often try to look into the stellar depths of space than into the mysterious underwater world of the Earth, forgetting that we live, in essence, on a planet little explored by us... So not only we, but also potential representatives of Homo amphibius - inhabitants of the enchanting underwater kingdom...
Mermaids are considered mythical creatures that never existed and were invented by ancient peoples based on pagan ideas about animate nature. This is the official point of view. Scientists do not even think about revising this concept, which in our time is considered dogma. Another part of people who tend to believe in mermaids believe that they are some kind of spirits, creatures that came to the world of people from some other realities and are more like ghosts and ghosts than physical organisms. So who is right? Those who consider mermaids to be a figment of the imagination of ancient people with a primitive understanding of natural phenomena, or those who consider mermaids to be spirits? It is possible that neither one nor the other is right. The purpose of this article is not at all to present one point of view or another. Here we will simply get acquainted with some evidence that has come to us thanks to the records of eyewitnesses of the appearance of mermaids in the past.
So. The first eyewitness accounts of mermaids that we will consider are references to missionaries who carried out their activities in African countries, in particular in Angola. The missionaries, who were clearly opposed to the pagan ideas of the African aborigines, quite seriously claimed that they themselves had more than once met mermaids who lived in local rivers and lakes. According to their own testimony, the aborigines treated these creatures as a completely common phenomenon and even more. Mermaids were caught and eaten. Many of those who are trying to debunk this myth talk about certain aquatic inhabitants who only look like humans from afar, but in fact are ordinary animals, such as Sea Cows. Thus, they were mistaken for mermaids by impressionable missionaries. And yet, if you imagine this situation, then how short-sighted a person must be to confuse an ordinary animal with a mermaid and then claim that it really was a creature resembling a mythical creature?!
Chronicles of Iceland from the 12th century mention a half-woman, half-fish who was often observed off the coast of Greenland (Grimsey Islands). Judging by the descriptions, the creature had a rather terrifying appearance: a large mouth, a double chin, wide eyebrows and a very piercing gaze. The Icelandic chronicle Speculum Regale of the 12th century says that people called this monster Margigr. Margigr looked like the fairy-tale mermaid we all know. From the waist down she looked like a woman who looked very human, and below the waist she had a fish tail with scales and fins. Another Icelandic chronicle says that in 1161, near Orford, a man was caught who was thickly covered with hair, but with a bald head. After they unsuccessfully tried to get him to talk, the captured mermaid man was thrown back into the sea.
Several accounts date back to the 15th century. In 1492-93, the famous navigator and traveler Christopher Columbus wrote that he saw three mermaids at once off the coast of Guiana. A certain Sigault de la Fond wrote that in 1403, as a result of a storm that destroyed a dam and caused a lot of trouble, a mermaid was thrown ashore. The woman was found in the meadow. She couldn't speak and was completely naked. She was brought to Haarlem, where she was taught how to dress and even knit stockings. It was written that the mermaid lived among people for several years, but never learned to speak. Several times she tried to escape back into the sea, but she was always caught and returned. As a result, she died and was buried according to Christian custom.
In the 17th century, G. Hudson wrote in his ship's log that one of his crew members, looking overboard, saw a mermaid. He began to call other sailors, and in response to his cries another one came. The two of them witnessed how a strange woman with very white skin and black hair swam right up to the ship itself. She, in turn, also looked at people with interest. When the wave overturned the water creature, they saw that she was only half a woman. Instead of legs and the entire lower part of her body, she had a fish tail, which looked like the tail of a brown dolphin and which was all spotted, like a mackerel. This event took place on June 15, 1608, and Thomas Hills and Robert Raynar witnessed the appearance of the mermaid.
In the same 17th century, English navy captain Richard Whitbourne wrote in his memoirs that he met a strange creature that resembled a mythical mermaid in 1610. This happened in St. John's Harbor in Newfoundland. Judging by Whitbourne's stories, the creature quickly swam up to him and looked at him not in fear, but rather joyfully. The mermaid woman's face was proportional and very beautiful. There were strange blue stripes on the head. In addition to him, another member of the team witnessed the appearance of the creature. The mermaid approached and they moved away to a safe distance, but still remained close enough to examine the mermaid in great detail. Seeing that the people were afraid of her, the mermaid dived and swam away, often looking back at the captain. A little later, the mermaid frightened a certain Horij, who at that time was the captain’s servant, and later became the captain himself. He, along with other people, was in a boat when the creature swam up to it and, grabbing the edges, tried to climb into the boat. The people who were in the boat were scared to death, but one of them mastered his fear and hit the creature on the head with all his strength. After this, the mermaid disappeared. After some time, the mermaid appeared again and approached two other boats, seriously frightening several people.
In 1679, fishermen caught a water man, who was observed for several days. The creature was red-haired and had pale skin. It had scales on its back and belly, and brown membranes clearly appeared between its toes. He was held by 12 people while the strange young man roared terribly, growled and resisted his captivity with all his might. He was taken to a Franciscan monastery, where an exorcism was performed on him without success. Three years later, in 1862, he finally disappeared into the water and disappeared forever. In the same 1862, a strange creature was caught in Italy, in the city of Sestri. People from all over the area came to see him. However, he did not live long; he cried for three days, made pitiful cries, did not take food or drink, and soon died.
In 1717, a siren-like creature was caught on the coast of Borneo. The publication that describes him says that the mermaid was one and a half meters tall, and the body was very similar to an eel. The creature was put in a barrel of water, where it lived for 4 days and 7 hours, periodically emitting a squeak, very similar to a mouse.
In 1737, Gentleman's magazine wrote that fishermen near the English town of Exter caught a mermaid. When they pulled the net out of the water, they discovered that a monster was entangled in it, which resembled both a man and a fish. It was 4 feet tall, had human eyes, nose and mouth, and had a fish tail instead of legs. The fishermen, frightened, beat him to death with sticks. Witnesses said that the mermaid, dying, moaned, just like a person. Later, the captured body was exhibited in the city of Exter and was seen by a large number of people.
Scot's magazine wrote in 1739 that several mermaids were caught by members of the crew of the ship Halifax. The mermaids were caught near the island of Mauritius, after which they were killed, fried and eaten. Apparently the sailors were very hungry, since they dared to try the meat of unprecedented creatures. However, the sailors themselves claimed that the meat of the water inhabitants was very similar to veal.
In 1797, schoolteacher William Munro witnessed the mermaid. On one of the rocks, which is located not far from the beach in the town of Surso (Scotland), he saw a mermaid exactly in the form in which we are accustomed to imagine them. Swimming near this rock was considered a mortally dangerous activity, but the creature felt great and, being half-immersed in the water, combed its hair. She had light brown hair, a round forehead, a plump face, rosy cheeks, a normal mouth and lips, and a body type just like a standard person. She sat like that for 3-4 minutes, then, apparently combing her hair, dived into the water and disappeared. The school teacher claimed that he had previously heard about the phenomena of mermaids and other people, but was not inclined to trust it. However, after such direct evidence, I believed that the existence of mermaids is an irrefutable fact.
In the 19th century there was a whole series of evidence of the appearance of mermaids. This does not mean that there are more of them, it’s just that apparently the news press began to record such cases more willingly, since the 19th century was just the beginning of the active development of printed materials. So in 1819 in Ireland, people saw a mermaid. The mermaid was near the shore. One of the onlookers happened to have a pistol with him, and he shot at the creature. The mermaid, screaming shrilly, disappeared under the water. Evidence of mermaids was so widespread and came from such respected people, whose honesty and competence could not be doubted, that a royal commission was created in Denmark in 1823 to study this phenomenon.
A certain Alexander Carmichael, who wrote the treatise Carmina Gadelica, mentioned in his stories that in 1830 in Great Britain, on the island of Benbecula in the Herbids, people were collecting seaweed and saw a strange creature. Eyewitnesses themselves described him as a miniature man. They tried to catch the mermaid, but she deftly evaded her pursuers. As a result, one of those present launched and hit her with a stone. Apparently his hit was fatal, since just a few days later this mermaid was found dead three kilometers from the scene. The creature was described as resembling a well-fed child, only with a large chest and a tail instead of a lower body, similar to the tail of a salmon, but without scales. The hair is long and dark, the skin is white and soft. Local sheriff Duncan Shaw, having examined the strange creature, ordered a funeral shroud to be sewn for the mermaid and a coffin to be put together. After that she was buried. Another dead creature resembling a mermaid was found on October 31, 1881. The body of the creature was washed ashore by the waves. One of the Boston newspaper reporters went to the scene and described the corpse. According to his testimony, it was a creature with a female torso and head, and a fish tail resembling the tail of a mullet. The face was completely indistinguishable from a human one, but the hands ended not with fingers, but with real claws, like those of an eagle.
No less evidence of the existence of sea inhabitants, about whom a huge number of legends have been formed, dates back to the 20th century. Alexander Gunn was one of the first to see the creature in the north of Scotland in the last century. This happened in 1900. The creature leaned on the reef and behaved calmly for some time, which allowed the witness to examine it in detail. The mermaid was located about 6-7 feet away from Alexander, looked very much like a woman, had golden-red hair, green eyes and arched eyebrows. No less interesting is the testimony of our compatriot Maya Bykova, who in 1900 wrote the book Legend for adults. Here is what Maya wrote about her meeting with the mermaid: “In 1952, I, M. Sergeeva, worked at the Balabanovsk logging site in Western Siberia... There are many lakes here. One of them, Porasye, is about twelve kilometers from the site. It was on July 4 that we set off: me, the old watchman with my nephew Alexei and Tanya Shumilova... We reached the place already at eleven o’clock in the evening... When we woke up in the morning... I noticed that not far behind the trees there seemed to be another lake... Tanya and I and Alexey decided to visit that lake, since it’s only about two hundred meters away... My companions decided to swim, and I took off my scarf, put it on a snag and sat down on the shore. Alexey was already in the water and calling for Tanya, when she suddenly screamed, grabbed her clothes and. rushed into the forest. Alexei stood motionless and looked in front of him with widened eyes. And then I saw someone’s hand reaching out to Alexei under the water. She emerged silently, raised her head with long black hair, which was immediately visible. removed it from her face. Her big blue eyes looked at me, the girl stretched out her hands to Alexei with a smile. I screamed, jumped up, and pulled his hair out of the water. I noticed how the water girl’s gaze flashed angrily at this. She grabbed my handkerchief and, laughing, went under the water."
Surprisingly, evidence of mermaids is found in almost every corner of the world. In 1977, such a message came from Africa. A correspondent for the local newspaper Pretoria news wrote that in the suburbs of Lusaka, Zambia, a mermaid who looked like a white woman, but had all the signs of a water-dweller from myths and legends, fell into a water collector. This happened after a heavy flood of the river, which apparently the mermaid could not cope with. The mermaid was also seen in America. So in 1992, in Florida, in Key Beach, a kilometer from the coastline, mermaids were seen, which were described as half-human, half-seal. They had large heads that were very similar to humans, large eyes, long arms and webbed fingers. The fishermen who observed the strange creatures saw that their net was cut in several places.
However, recent reports about mermaids are often questioned. In the 20th-21st centuries, manipulation and distortion of facts and reality have become a very common phenomenon in the media. In an attempt to drum up reader interest, mermaid accounts can range from just outright lies to gross exaggerations. However, old evidence suggests that people indeed witnessed something very strange. Here are just a few reports from eyewitnesses, of which there are actually many more.
Based on this evidence, Karl Banze wrote an abstract, which he published in the journal Science and Life in 1991. The abstract was called “Fundamentals of mermaid biology.” Here he tried not only to describe mermaids from the point of view of numerous witnesses, legends and myths of the past, but also to classify them by type: Common Mermaid, Indian Mermaid and Eritrean Mermaid. Of course, no one has ever proven that mermaids exist, nor that they are just fiction. However, the large number of people who claim to have seen these creatures with their own eyes gives us hope that we live side by side with the most beautiful creatures we have yet to meet.
Denis Blintsov
Crimean mermaids
The “Masters of the Waters” are in no hurry to renew contacts that they maintained with our ancestors in the distant past. Therefore, today the only irrefutable evidence of the existence of sea people is a bronze mermaid off the coast of Miskhor in Crimea. Having lowered her flexible dolphin tail into the water, she holds a baby in her arms - another evidence of human contacts with sea humanoids, although these contacts are a legend.
However, they say that “dates” between people and mermaids on the Crimean peninsula still occur. More than a dozen evidence of this was collected in his latest book by Anatoly Tavrichesky, an experienced diver and the author of a unique map of the underwater treasures of Crimea. Eyewitnesses report that Crimean mermaids have large eyes, matted hair and an unfriendly attitude towards humans. The first feeling that people have when meeting them is panic. Perhaps such creatures are able, like dolphins, to make sounds at frequencies inaccessible to human perception. These sounds can affect the human psyche, causing him inexplicable fear.
People have been writing about mermaids for thousands of years, and they are still incredibly popular in modern films and TV shows. Almost every culture had its own version of legends about mermaids. Sometimes they are sirens who try to lure people to their deaths at sea. At other times, they try their best to be friendly, and they even want to become human.
Today, almost everyone has agreed that mermaids in ancient times were most likely a figment of the imagination of sailors or were mistakenly named as manatees, seals, and dolphins. However, this does not make these legends any less fascinating, because who knows which legend about mermaids exists and which is fictional.
1. Mermaid tears
There is a small island in Scotland, the shore of which is strewn with small gray-green pebbles, the locals call them “mermaid tears.” This name is associated with a legend about the love of a water maiden and a young monk; the mermaid visited her beloved in the monastery every day. The monk taught the girl prayers, and together they asked God to give her an earthly soul and prayed for the strength to leave the sea. But the requests were not heard, the mermaid was never able to leave the sea, unable to withstand the test, she sailed from the island forever, bitterly mourning her fate. The tears rolling down her face turned into pebbles, which now litter the Scottish coast.
2. Mermaid Jealousy
The legend tells a story that once happened in the county of Caithness (Scotland). The mermaid and the young count fell in love with each other; as a sign of this, the sea maiden gave the young man diamonds, gold and silver, which she found on a sunken ship. The count accepted the gifts, but after a while he gave some of the jewelry to another girl with whom he had an affair. And he forgot about the mermaid.
This act aroused jealousy and anger in the mermaid’s soul. One day, when the young man went out to sea on his boat, she swam up to him and told him about the countless treasures hidden in the bay. The young man, at the mention of wealth, forgot about the past and could not think about anything else. At that moment, the mermaid miraculously put him to sleep and directed the boat to the nearest cave.
When he woke up, the young man discovered that he was chained to a rock with golden chains, and the wok
3. Curse of Ondina
This is an old German legend that says that the mermaid Ondine fell in love with a knight named Lawrence, and the love was mutual. Knowing that once Ondina renounced the essence of the mermaid, she would lose immortality, she still married her beloved. At the altar, the knight pronounced an oath in which he swore fidelity to her: “My every breath upon awakening in the morning will be the pledge of love and fidelity.”
A year later their first child was born, but over time the husband began to lose interest in his once beloved. One day Odina found out that Lawrence was now swearing his love to another woman and cursed him: “You swore with your morning breath! Now know that you will be able to breathe while you are awake, as soon as you fall asleep, the breath will leave your body!”
And even now “The Curse of Ondina” is called sleep apnea syndrome. People with this disease are able to breathe only during waking hours, and survive thanks to breathing apparatus.
4. Keask
Keask is a mermaid from Scotland who is half woman and half salmon. Legend has it that if a sailor can capture a keask, they will receive three wishes. They were known for luring people to their deaths, as are most siren legends. If you haven't become friends with a mermaid, the only way to kill them would be to destroy their shell.
like seal maidens, they can marry mortals by shedding their fishy outer shell. Like swan maidens, they can flee from their husband, having restored the removed shell, but nevertheless, just like silks, they always show interest in their human offspring, protecting them during storms or guiding them to the best catch. So, for example, it is believed that all famous pilots came from such marriages.
The dark side of Keask nature is revealed in a fairy tale published by George Henderson in the book “The Celtic Dragon Myth”, where the sea maiden swallows the main character, but his beloved lures the mermaid ashore by playing the harp, and the hero flees. Then the keask swallows the harpist herself, in order to save her, the hero has to go through a classic fairy-tale sequence: in order to finally defeat Kiesg, you need to destroy her outer shell, also called “Separable Soul” - “separate soul”. And it is stored in an egg, which is hidden in a fish, which is in a duck, which is hidden in a ram, buried under a house, standing in the thicket of a forest on an island in the center of the lake. Mackenzie, in Scottish Folklore and Folk Life, suggests that the wave maiden may once have been a sea spirit to whom human sacrifices were made.
If the sailor managed to find true love with the mermaid, she will turn into a human woman and walk the earth. In addition to three wishes, she gives good luck for future life. Some Scottish families even claimed that their family was descended from a mermaid and a human.
5. Chilean royalty at sea
In Chile, the mythological king of the sea was called Millalobo, who was half man, half sea lion. Unlike most mermaid legends, where these creatures were simply magically born, he was, unfortunately, the child of a human mother and a sea lion father.
Millalobo married a human woman, and they had a son named Pincoy, and two daughters, named Siren and Pincoya. Sailors describe seeing the merman Pincoy when they were lost at sea, and he helped bring them back to shore. His sister, Pincoya, had long blond hair and blue eyes. Fairy tales describe her as the most beautiful woman in the world. She sits on a stone, or dances. If it faces the sea, it means that fishermen will find a lot of fish this year. If it comes ashore, it means they will struggle to find food.
It's just that, like many ancient royal families, there were no options for how their children turned out when it came to continuing the mermaid gene pool. Not Game of Thrones, but Pincoy and Pincoya aren't just brother and sister... they're husband and wife too. According to one legend, Pincoya was seen emerging from the sea holding a child.
6. Triton
You probably recognize the name as Triton Ariel's father Little Mermaids. Disney borrowed this character from Greek mythology, the Lake God Tritonis. Triton was the son of Poseidon, and in his hands he held a shell, which he could use as a Horn, as well as his magic trident.
According to legend, sailors got lost on a lake and Triton helped them by creating a piece of land that is now called the island of Fira. The sailors had the opportunity to rest while Triton explained to them how to return to the open sea.
Of course, not all of Triton's affairs were positive. When livestock went missing or sailors died at sea during a storm, many assumed that Triton was responsible. The people knew that they would not stand a chance if they tried to go head to head with God, so the best they could do to calm his anger was to drink a cup of wine for him on the shore as a peace offering.
7. MAMI Vata
MAMI Vata is an African mermaid goddess who is seen as a compassionate healer and mother to all aquatic creatures. Stories about her spread throughout the continent, and were eventually brought to the Caribbean islands. There they observed MAMI vata in lakes, rivers and on the ocean shore. She was often seen holding a water snake around her shoulders. They say she can turn into a woman, a fish or a mermaid, depending on her mood.
Today, people are still fascinated by the legend of MAMI Vata. Figurines and souvenirs with her image are sold in souvenir shops. There are even religious groups under her name to glorify the goddess, then the individual follower is called “child of MAMI vata.” They claim that “MAMI vata” is the name of a group of ten water deities. Followers claim that they see the Little Mermaid MAMI Vata in their dreams, and she calls upon them to undergo spiritual cleansing.
8. Mermaid Finfolk
In Scotland and Ireland, they believed in “finfolk,” who were mermaids who lived in an underwater kingdom called Finfolkenheim. On the island of Hildaland, they appear for a moment before disappearing, making it impossible for people to find them. Finfolk were werewolves, so they can transform from fish to full human, or swim like a mermaid. Stories that Finfolk men and women were very beautiful attracted people. If they managed to find a person to be their lover, they could suck the youth out of them and live forever. So, if someone was kidnapped or if sailors were lost at sea, they were blamed on Finfolk, who they believed were captured as sex slaves.
However, if Finfolk married within their own species, then the “finwife” was doomed to take on the guise of an older woman in order to find work on the land, to earn silver, to keep them alive. They described the characteristics of a “finwife” as an old, unmarried woman who bred cats and practiced witchcraft. Apparently this is just one of the many ways people have tried to accuse lonely old women of being witches throughout human history.
9. Two tails of a siren
Have you ever wondered why Starbucks has two tailed mermaids as its logo? The original image comes from 7th century Italy. This was one of many illustrations in the Cathedral of Otranto in Italy, which is located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The mermaid was included alongside images of biblical stories like the Tree of Life, as well as images of the Egyptian Sphinx and Alexander the Great. It was meant to represent the exchange of religions, philosophies and ideas that were exchanged during the Middle Ages. Some believe it is based on the legend of Melusine, a French water spirit who is said to have transformed into a human woman or a siren with two fish tails.
Over the years, many artists have copied the image of the two-tailed siren. Starbucks says they were inspired by a 16th-century Scandinavian woodcut of this mermaid. Apparently, the reason why they chose this image as their coffee logo is because they wanted their coffee to be as seductive as a mermaid.
10. Iara
According to Brazilian legend, Iara was a brave, intelligent girl living in the Amazon. She was a warrior who could fight better than her own brothers. She was so well liked and respected in the community that her brothers' accomplishments paled in comparison. Their jealousy was so strong that they killed her and threw her body into the Amazon River. The Moon Goddess felt sorry for her and brought her back to life as a mermaid.
Having become a mermaid, Iara spent the rest of her days to take revenge on man. Every time a person drowned in a river, people blamed it on Iar. Later, a man named Jaraguari came across Iara and they fell in love. He told his mother about a beautiful mermaid he met while fishing in the Amazon River and he decided to join her in the underwater life. Some believe that since then, her evil spirit has finally found peace.
11. Jamestown Mermaid
You may remember John Smith from the story of Pocahontas, and his involvement in the colonization of Jamestown, Virginia. During his journey on the sea, he claimed to have seen a beautiful woman with green hair floating next to a boat. As she dived underwater, he noticed that she was actually a mermaid.
The truth, on this point, has been the topic of heated historical debate, with many people believing that John Smith never stated this in public, and writers telling stories about their journeys of creative freedom. Even so, it wasn't just time travelers who colonized the New World who claimed to have seen mermaids. Today, these sightings are considered a misrepresentation of manatees.
12. Dutch Mermaid
In 1403, a dam in the city of Kampen in the Netherlands gave way, opening it to the sea. The water began to flood the river. After making repairs, citizens from Kampen claimed that they saw a mermaid swimming in the city's river. At first people were scared, but the woman continued to swim without touching her. The people eventually decide to capture this woman and bring her back to earth, where she transforms into a man with two legs. She couldn't speak, but they took her away, and forced her to go to church and become a Christian. She tried to break free and jump into the water several times, but someone always stopped her.
Some historians believe that this was a woman who was never a mermaid at all. She was deaf and dumb and loved to swim.
13. Jiaoren
In Chinese folklore, Jiaoren are not just beautiful mermaids. They were very skilled craftsmen who could weave a beautiful white fabric called “dragon yarn” that could not get wet. They say that if a mermaid cried, her tears turned into pearls. During the Jin Dynasty, one story tells the story of a mermaid who came out of the water and decided to sell dragon yarn for a man.
If someone was kind to her and gave her a place to stay, she would thank them and cry into a jar, filling it with precious pearls. Throughout history, there have been several accounts of high society people claiming to own dragon yarn fabrics made by a mermaid.
Fairy tale for preschool and primary school children
Egorova Galina Vasilievna.Position and place of work: teacher of home education, KGBOU "Motyginskaya comprehensive boarding school", Motygino village, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Description of material: This fairy tale is written for children of different ages. Therefore, it will be of interest to primary school teachers and educators. This fairy tale tells how an evil witch became good. This fairy tale can be used in extracurricular reading lessons at school and for reading with the family. My daughter also took part in the composition.
Target: Formation of the significance and importance of friendship through the content of a fairy tale.
Tasks:
-educational: talk about the importance of having friends;
-developing: develop memory, attention, imagination, ingenuity, logical thinking, the ability to analyze and draw conclusions;
-educational: cultivate a desire to have friends, a sense of empathy, and an interest in reading fairy tales.
Content
Once upon a time there lived a little mermaid named Zhemchuzhina in the underwater kingdom of Oceania. And although she was a mermaid, she still loved bright jewelry, shiny tops and shell hair clips. Very often she could be found at the mirror with new beads.
The entire family of the little mermaid was endowed with a magical gift. It was pearl magic. With its help, one could protect oneself from enemies, decorate one’s home, or turn into a person.
Very often balls were held in the underwater kingdom. And seahorses, angelfish, giant squid, monkfish, hammerhead fish, crayfish, crabs, octopuses, green turtles, shrimp and starfish were invited to attend.
And now Zhemchuzhina’s birthday was approaching. Everyone was preparing for the big holiday. And no one even suspected the treachery that the evil sorceress Thorn was planning.
Zhemchuzhinka's parents invited musicians from the neighboring underwater kingdom to the ball. And her sisters assembled a beautiful necklace from elite mother-of-pearl pearls. Well, the chefs did a great job! We prepared a tall, fluffy cake soaked in cream and decorated with pearls. Cakes dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with strawberries. Cupcakes with sweet vanilla aroma. The smell of all these sweets spread throughout the underwater kingdom.
Suddenly, in the midst of the fun, a witch appeared. She grabbed the little mermaid and rushed off with her on a trio of sea horses. There was silence, silence and bewilderment in the hall.
The evil witch hid the princess in a dungeon. Thorn wanted to ransom her. And she sent a letter to the king, which said: “If you want to get your daughter alive and unharmed, then I must receive seedlings of young pearls.”
The inhabitants of the underwater kingdom read the message and became thoughtful. They began to think about how they could return both the princess and deceive the sorceress. And this is what they came up with. They collected a basket of small clown fish eggs, sprinkled them with pearls, sent them to the evil witch and began to wait.
Stupid Thorn was delighted to receive the long-awaited ransom. She grabbed the heavy basket and sent the princess home. And what a surprise she was when, after a while, funny and funny fish - clowns - began to appear instead of pearls. The witch realized that she had been deceived. But I just didn’t get angry. The fish turned out to be very cute and beautiful. And really, why does she need these pearls when they gave her so many friends with whom she won’t be lonely.
Since then, Thorn has not bothered the inhabitants of the underwater kingdom with her pranks. She just became kind because she made friends. And now she was not bored with the mischievous clown fish. They were always trying to climb somewhere, or asking Thorn to play hide and seek with them, or just all reading a funny illustrated magazine together.
In a word, there was a truce in the underwater Odyssey.
