Hello and welcome to the third part of our six part series on Scary Stories. Last week, we shared with you a story about Wicked Fairies. This week, we’ll turn to the Merrow, the women and men who live under water.
There’s information on these people from all over the world and they’re called by different terms depending on the culture. Kulitu, Melusine, Sirens, Sea Nymphs, Selkie, Naiads, Rusalkas, Jiaoren, Ningyo, Njuzu. These water people all lived underwater. In Ireland, we call them the Merrow. Sometimes they are also called mermaids, but there is a small difference between them.
The women of this race are beautiful creatures. They are said to have smooth skin all over except on their backs, where they have scales. They have long yellow-green hair which they wear under their magic red caps. Their bodies are essentially the same as human women, apart from the scaly backs, and they use their magic caps to breathe underwater. Unlike Merrow, from the waist down, Mermaids have the bodies of different fish. Normally they have the tails of salmon, but there are some accounts of them having the bodies of sea serpents.
The men of the Merrow have an entirely different look. They are said to have blotchy skin and red noses. They have sharp, green teeth as well as bright, green hair. Their legs are also like that of human men but there are some accounts of the Merrow men having short, scaly tails. They are said to have an ugly form. This could be why the Merrow women seek the company of human men.
There are many stories about the interactions of Land Men and Merrow Women, such as the Lady of Gallarus. In this story, Richard Fitzgerald comes across a Merrow woman sitting on the beach, one morning. He sees her red cap and steals it from her while she combs her hair. This is what allowed her to return under water, and so without it, she was trapped on land because of Richard. They spoke and fell in love with one another. She told him that her father was the King of the Sea and from this, he heard that she had a lot of money. They went to marry, but the priest did not approve since she came from the sea. He called her a fish repeatedly until Richard told him that her father had money. The priest changed his mind on the spot and married them. They spent years together building a family but Richard kept a tight grip on that red cap. After having three children together, Richard went out to the market one day. He left the red cap hidden in the house and as soon as he had left, the woman of the water went looking for it. She didn’t find it until she questioned her children, who revealed its hiding place to her. She took back her red cap and said her goodbyes to her children. She returned to the water and to her home. Richard returned and searched for his wife, but the neighbours told him they’d seen her running to the water with a red cap. The man never remarried. He waited on his Mermaid to return to him but she never did.
In reality, this was the best result this story could’ve had for such an interaction. There are so many stories where men, particularly fishermen trapped the Merrow. Usually, the Merrow escaped their nets. Weeks after the men had returned home, they’d fall ill and die.
As well as this, the Merrow ar not always as big as we are. There’s a story from the Annals of the Four Masters where a Merrow landed in Scotland. She was nearly sixty metres in length. That’s more than two blue whales put together. Her hair was nearly six metres long, which is three times the size of an average man. Imagine that! You’re out in a ship in the middle of the sea in the night and a hand rises from the black water, with fingers longer than you are tall. Imagine!.
We’ve got another scary story on the Merrow, the story of Port Láirge, or Waterford. In the Dindshenchus, there’s a story on the naming of Port Láirge. For those of you who may not know, Port Láirge is the Irish name for Waterford, which lies in the South of Ireland, near the sea. Well, one day, Roth, the son of Cithang, King of Inis Áine, went out to sea. He was in search of a Merrow, since he had heard stories of their beautiful songs. He rowed out across the water until he came across a woman swimming in the water. Again, she had an incredible figure, with smooth skin and all the rest of it. But under the water she had the body of a serpent. She continued singing to Roth as he came closer to her. When he reached her, he saw more women in the water, each of them singing. The Merrow attacked him and ate him. They left his thigh or leis as Gaeilge and it floated past the ninth wave until it finally came to port in Ireland. This became known as Port na Leise or Port Láirge.
There’s a few of our stories on the Merrow. Join us next week for another story on our next creature.
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