The Mermaid in historic context.

[William Brand]

The mermaid craze at pirate events continues to grow to such a degree that I feel it's time that we discuss the mythology in historic context. Too often I hear pirate event organizers tout the idea of adding mermaids to one event or another using the reasoning that 'pirates and mermaids go together', so let's discuss that.

First, this isn't an attempt to prove that mermaids exist with historic conjecture. No. This is to discuss the historic believe and also fears of mermaids from the point of view of sailors in the Golden Age of Pyracy.

Second, if you love dressing up as a mermaid, don't take this personally. This is just a candid discussion about mermaid folklore as viewed from that specific time period. Period.

So to begin, while it is true that people romanticize the mermaid to a fault in todays' popular culture, a trend which gained early momentum as far back as 1837, when Hans Christian Andersen published 'The Little Mermaid', they do so with the naive belief that it was ever so. When people ask me about mermaids as an 'obvious addition' to events and ask me what I think, the conversation usually gets a little gruesome when I explain the deep seeded fears pirates had about being dragged down to murderous depths and being eaten alive. The most generous excuse a sailor of the Golden Age might apply to a mermaid is some naive belief that sailors could breath under water like themselves, which again is only speculative, because mermaids are pure MYTH. To be fair, there are stories about people having conversations with mermaids without ill effects, but many of these conversations are about omens and warnings.

But I digress. Let's look at some historic citations.

First there is a mid-18th century balled simply called 'The Mermaid', where a ship cites a mermaid as a portent that the ship will be wrecked and has various stanzas where different, specific crew members talk longingly of home and ports they'd rather be in than the 'bottom of the sea'. The ship does indeed sink as it attempts a return to port.

Next, this little poem that warns about being lured by mermaids from 'The Beginning, progress and end of man' of 1688.

Eyes not look on the mermaids face,

and Ears forbear her song;

Her Face hath an alluring Grace,

more charming is her Tongue.

A citation from Thomas Blount and his dictionary called the 'Glossographia' of 1656.

"Mermaid, Seamaid, or Siren, whereof the Poets had three, Parthenope, Leucosia and Ligea; the first used her voyce, the second a Citern, the third a Pipe; and so are said to entice Marrinersmusick, and then to destroy them. The upper part of their bodies, was like a beautiful Virgin, the neather was fishy. By these Syrens, pleasures are emblematically understood, from which unless a man abstain, or at least use moderately, he shall be devoured in their waves."

Some other random citations…

In 1673, John Jocelyn reported that his friend, Mr. Miller, had sighted a merman in Maine's Casco Bay. The merman put a hand over one side of his canoe, threatening to capsize it. Miller chopped off the hand with a hatchet, and the merman disappeared into the water, "dyeing the water purple with its blood."

May 1, 1714, Francois Valentyn, captain of a ship, came upon what he believed to be a shipwrecked person, but saw a man with a "monstrous long tail" that dove into the ocean.

The best that can be said of mermaids in most folklore is that they can be bribed with gifts in exchange for prophecy, but the prophecy given is often an ill portent of doom, especially if one breaks a deal with a mermaid. Please feel free to post your mermaid citations as you find them.

[Mission]

I devoted a whole page to mermaids and their mythical relatives in the monsters section of one of my Halloween articles. The most interesting thing I found about them was how they were depicted at the time - they're not quite the glamorous creatures we think of today. You can see that page here.

[William Brand]

Thank you, Mission. Obviously I should have known you'd have done a mermaid page by now. The trick is finding one you haven't.

[Mission]

Stuff like this is usually buried in other topics, so it's not as easy to find as other things on my page. The last page of my most recent article (on burial at sea) talked about earrings, for example. I got into that because of the silly myth about how the earring was worn to pay for the funeral if the pirate washed up on shore somewhere.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

I devoted a whole page to mermaids and their mythical relatives in the monsters section of one of my Halloween articles. The most interesting thing I found about them was how they were depicted at the time - they're not quite the glamorous creatures we think of today. You can see that page here.

Always great that you write these things

I think they may look less glamorous because the picture makers weren't very good at their work. The carvings made for printer were hard to make and in general people are not depicted very well there. Not to mention beauty standards of the era which were different (but not that different).

Actually the quote relating Columbus gives impression that some thought mermaids were supposed to be beautiful. "On the previous day, when the Admiral [Columbus] went to the Rio del Oro, he saw three mermaids, which rose well out of the sea; but they are not so beautiful as they are painted, though to some extent they have the form of a human face. the admiral says that he had seen some, at other times, in Guinea [the western African Coast], and on the coast of Manequeta.

What to me seems clear is that in the late 1600s and early 1700s mermaids were not the most common thought in mariners' or pirate's minds. It seems you had hard time finding references.

Edited November 17, 2015 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Mission]

Actually, I was most fascinated to find the mermaid images which showed two clawed feet in the middle, making them look more like monsters than the gorgeous creatures we're used to. A lot of the ghost stories and other fantastic material seems to have its origins either in the middle ages or the 19th century - there's sort of a gap of such material from the late 16th to mid-18th centuries based on the books I have. I came across this again when I was trying to substantiate a lot of the rumors about ghosts and the dead for the article I wrote this Halloween on burial. You read a more modern book on such things and you think you have something, but when you start hunting down the original source (which often isn't supplied by these peddlers of ghost stories - they leave you thinking the stories go back to ancient times), you find out most of them are from the 19th or early 20th centuries.

You're sort of right about the lack of material on mermaids. I think all I had that was period were the stories from Uring and Navarette. While searching for more, I found several thumbnail summaries of mermaid stories in encyclopedias. That's where I stumbled across the Columbus bit which was too absurd not to work into my article. I think there was also some ancient backstory in there too, mostly put in because I seem to recall that it was sort of funny - something about a woman being gradually turned into a fish by the gods until nothing but her head was human. Actually the lack of stories from the time period probably says as much about their presence in the minds of GAoP sailors as anything. If there are more of them out there that date to the late 17th - early 18th centuries, I'd love to see them. Maybe then I could write a full mermaid article instead of just a small section in an article on monsters.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

On the other hand: But what is also hard is that from the 1600s and 1700s there is so small amount of sources that can help you actually get into ordinary people's mind. I mean even while most captains were rather similar than they crew (depending on the ship etc.) most writing are from the captains' (like Woodes Roger's) or other observers (like Labat's) writings. Ordinary sailors didn't have much to say in the sources. (some did write texts thought.)

People didn't really see need to note common folks traditions and beliefs yet in those days and write about them. It changed in the 1800s with nationalism when the ordinary people were seen as important. People just weren't interested in commoners' things until 1800s when large amount of traditions and stories were collected from the ordinary populace.

So while we cannot automatically assume so, some if not many traditions or old stories are notably older than 1800s while some were just invented then. Traditions sometimes pass from one generation to another. Yet, this also means they change a little with time (like a rumor changes if it goes from one person to another). So we cannot just say that a tradition of 1800s was the same things as the the tradition in 1700s. But, there may be notable similarities.

And some old pictures have more modern like view of mermaids

Theodore de Bry, engraving, “Mermaid in St. John’s Harbour,” dated 1628.

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/cns_images/id/0

And see the contemporary ship model of Dutch East Indiaman Zeven Provincien (1723). It isn't awfully clear, but I think that at least is a mermaid without legs.

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66379.html

Edited November 18, 2015 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Mission]

You may have a point about not knowing what was in the mind of the common sailor, but until you prove it, you're just speculating. They may have. They may not have. Right now, we don't know. (The problem with most GAoP research, really.) The few accounts I have that provide insight into the common man's mind don't say anything about mermaids.

Nor did I find a lot of images of mermaids from the GAoP, which is also interesting. Mine are about as out of period as yours. (BTW, can you definitely say there isn't a leg under the water? There are hints of it in the one in the foreground. ) Either way your image definitely presents a more traditionally beautiful mermaid than those I used. And the figurehead is an uncontestable example of the traditional, non-legged form, which doesn't surprise me. I'll bet you can find more examples of this form.

In fact, instead of arguing with me about my article, why not go and dig up some more period and pre-period images? You are usually very good at finding images. I'm sure folks researching the link between pirates and mermaids would really appreciate it. And if you find any golden age of piracy stories about them, you'll be one up on me and we'll both learn something.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Indeed. And I was mostly just thinking, not arguing with the article. More with myself in my previous statement.

And yes pictures will follow.

In general it seems there was no consensus what mermaids were like in those days (which is hardy surprising as they were imaginary).

I couldn't find the course for this picture, only thing that it is from the 18th century. I presume this is some mid century encyclopedia image of fish. After GAop for sure, but at least here the mermaid, understood as a real creature as they did back then, is more or less a monster. (number 2)

Some relevant old engravings

1

2

3

4

Edited November 18, 2015 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Mission]

The second and third of those numbered images suggest or show fins at the waist instead of feet. Do you get the idea they didn't quite know what to draw for the transition portion of mer-creatures?

That image you included at the top looks distinctly manatee-like.

I wonder what images Columbus was referring to? There must be some Italian or Spanish images of mermaids from the late 15th century...

[Swashbuckler 1700]

To Continue

This should be a 15th Century woodcut from Germany. Not Spanish or Italian but from Columbus' time. It seems that in those days people thought there were many different mermaids and of both sexes. Some were more human than others.

Also twin tails were common in pictures

This is from 'Naturalis Historia' (1565)

This should be a 1560s map

Later during the napoleonic/ Nelson era we see engraved pictures where mermaid are human enough to have sexual intercourse with sailors but whose lover legs are like fins. At least a picture by Thomas Rowlandson of the late 18th/ early 19th Century shows that and certainly sailors wished them to be like that if they even encountered them.

All in all it is not hard to find pictorial description of mermaids of the era. So they were certainly part of the period literature and imagination.

To me it seems, even while now it sounds funny, clear that we should not actually see mermaids as folklore of the age but rather as a scientific concept of the age. To me it seems clear that for the people of early modern era (1400s- early 1800s) mermaids were very real creatures and were rather "studied" by scientists than told tales about by sailors. Even while people didn't actually see them (or I think so) to them they were a mundane part of the sea life that they just didn't see. Thus they didn't think about them awfully much. Out of sight out of mind.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Swashbuckler 1700