Читать книгу Mermania: The Little Book of Mermaids - Rachel Federman - Страница 24

Many who grew up enchanted by Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid are surprised to find how dark and even gruesome the Hans Christian Andersen version of the story is. Those who dive deeper into the history and mythology of mermaids will find many elements they recognize in the Danish author’s fairytale. Many mermaid stories are tales of suffering and woe, betrayal, and revenge, often ending unhappily ever after, with many an abandoned family. Still, there are cultures that celebrate mermaids as symbolizing good luck, and the themes of rebirth and second chances run across cultures.

A multiplicity of meanings and traditions has grown out of different cultures coming into contact with each other and interweaving their beliefs. More surprising than the variety is the universal quality of the polymorphic figure – the fact that so many half-woman half-fish stories seem to have emerged independently.

The modern version imagines mermaids who want a chance at life, but in myths the mermaid incarnation is often a drowned woman given a second chance.

The waters around Ireland were once home to Liban, a half-salmon woman who had survived the flood that killed her family by transforming into a mermaid. Captured after a long underwater life, she was given the name Muirgen (‘sea-born’) and ascended to heaven.

Fish women

IN EARLY MESOPOTAMIAN ART WERE CALLED KULITU.

IN SCOTLAND, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN KNOWN AS

Selkies

turn into seals when they enter water.

ON LAND, THEY SHED THEIR SEAL SKIN, BUT THEY’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THE SEA WITHOUT IT. SOME LEGENDS SAY THE

‘Seal Fairies’ emerge on Midsummer Eve.

THE AFRICAN WATER SPIRIT,

Mami Wata

(MUMMY WATER), IS OFTEN DEPICTED WITH A SNAKE OR CROCODILE ADDED TO HER FISH–WOMAN BODY. SHE IS A HEALER BUT CONTAINS AN ELEMENT OF DANGER, LIKE OTHERS IN THE WATER SPIRIT TRADITION.

She’s said to like shiny baubles.

ENSLAVEMENT AND TRANSPORT OF AFRICANS AT THE HANDS OF EUROPEAN COLONIZERS LED TO A SHARED TRADITION ACROSS THE SEA WHERE, IN THE CARIBBEAN, FOR EXAMPLE, LA SIRÈNE CLOSELY RESEMBLES MAMI WATA.

BEFORE THE FAMILIAR HALF-HUMAN HALF-FISH IMAGERY CAME INTO POPULARITY,

water gods

WERE SHOWN DRESSED IN THE

skins of fish.

In the Gocta waterfall

in Peru,

A MERMAID, A FISHERMAN, AND HIS WIFE FOUND THEMSELVES IN AN UNFORTUNATE LOVE TRIANGLE WHEN THE MERMAID NOT ONLY BOOSTED

the fisherman’s catch but added a little

bit of gold, too.

ON THE RIVERBANKS OF RUSSIA, STRANGE CREATURES CALLED