The Penguin Book of Mermaids

Genres: Fantasy Anthologies & Collections; Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology

Synopsis

Dive into centuries of mermaid lore with these captivating tales from around the world.

A Penguin Classic

Among the oldest and most popular mythical beings, mermaids and other merfolk have captured the imagination since long before Ariel sold her voice to a sea witch in the beloved Disney film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." As far back as the eighth century B.C., sailors in Homer's Odyssey stuffed wax in their ears to resist the Sirens, who lured men to their watery deaths with song. More than two thousand years later, the gullible New York public lined up to witness a mummified "mermaid" specimen that the enterprising showman P. T. Barnum swore was real.

The Penguin Book of Mermaids is a treasury of such tales about merfolk and water spirits from different cultures, ranging from Scottish selkies to Hindu water-serpents to Chilean sea fairies. A third of the selections are published here in English for the first time, and all are accompanied by commentary that explores their undercurrents, showing us how public perceptions of this popular mythical hybrid--at once a human and a fish--illuminate issues of gender, spirituality, ecology, and sexuality.

Release date: October 8, 2019

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Print pages: 368

Sample

Contents
 
Water Deities and Sirens from Olden Times
 
• Oannes
• Kāliya, the Snake
• Odysseus and the Sirens
• The Tuna (Eel) of Lake Vaihiria
 
Mermaids and Other Merbeings in Europe
 
Merfolk in the Waters of Greenland and Iceland
• The Marvels of the Waters about Greenland
• The Merman
 
Two Mermaids and a Selkie from the Scottish Highlands
• The Mermaid of Kessock
• The Grey Selchie of Sule Skerrie
• The Mermaid’s Grave
 
A Seal Woman or Maiden of the Sea from Ireland
• Tom Moore and the Seal Woman
 
Dangerous Mermaids in Two Child Ballads
• Clark Colven, Child 42A
• The Mermaid, Child 289B
 
A Bavarian Freshwater Merman 
• In the Jaws of the Merman.
 
A Freshwater Mermaid in Grimms’ Fairy Tales
• The Nixie in the Pond
 
Estonian Water Spirits
• Three Texts (untitled)
 
Two Greek Mermaids
• New Tunes
• The Mermaid
 
Merfolk from the South of Italy
• A Mermaid’s Story
• Cola Pesce
• The Sailor and the Mermaid of the Sea
 
Literary Tales
 
• Legend of Melusina
• Fortunio and the Siren
• The Day after the Wedding, from Undine
• The Little Mermaid
• The Fisherman and His Soul
• The Golden Mermaid
• A Mermaid’s Tears
• Abyssus Abyssum Invocat
 
Merfolk and Water Spirits Across the Globe
 
African Water Beings 
• Yemọja
 
Merfolk in The Thousand and One Nights
• Julnar the Mermaid and Her Son Badar Basim of Persia
 
A Persian Sea Fairy
• The Sea Fairy
 
Three Khasi Narratives About Water Spirits
• About K—, the River Goddess Who Exists in Jaintia Hills
• How Water Tied a Covenant with Man and the Divine Nature of Water
• About a Puri Enchantment
 
A Mer-Wife in the Indian Ocean
• Shoān, a Nicobar Tale
 
A Hairy Chinese Mermaid
• Mermaids
 
Mermaids from Japan 
• The Mermaid
• Yao Bikuni
 
Water Spirits of the Philippines
• The Mermaid Queen
• The Litao and Serena
• The American and the Sirena of Amburayan
• A Mermaid in Mabini
• Mermaid
 
A Mer-Wife in Northern Australia
• Karukayn (Mermaids)
 
A Chamorro Girl Becomes a Mermaid
• Sirena
 
The Feejee Mermaid Hoax
• The Mermaid
 
Mermaids and Mo’o of Hawai’i
• The Mermaid of Honokawailani Pond                                          
• Kalamainuʻu, the Moʻo who Seduced Punaʻaikoaʻe
 
Water Beings of South America
• The Fisherman’s Water-jug and Potato
• Oiára, The Water-Maidens
• The Pincoya
• The Mermaids
 
African Water Spirits in the Caribbean
• Ti Jeanne
• Maman Dlo’s Gift
 
Water Beings of Indigenous North America
• The Horned Serpent Runs Away with a Girl who is Rescued by the Thunderer
• Of the Woman Who Loved a Serpent That Lived in a Lake
• How Two Girls Were Changed into Water-Serpents
• Ne Hwas, the Mermaid
• Legend of the Fish Women (Mermaids)
• The Woman Who Married a Merman