Inland mermaids

Simon Young notes that mermaids were often spotted in fresh water [ FT402:29].

In Scotland, mermaids seem to have made manifest the spirit and power of a lake just as well as water-horses or water bulls. The first known report describes Morag, the monster of Loch Morar, as a mermaid, and another one lived in Loch Rannoch:

“Then there are the mermaids, the kelpies of the south and the water bulls and horses of the north, of the lochs and streams, as stoutly believed by the peasantry who now live beside them as they were centuries ago. [..] As to the mermaids of the lochs, they still exist past all dispute – at least with their friends the Highlanders. The railways, telegraphs and newspapers, like the heartless poachers they are, have ‘sweeped’ or seined them well out of the lowland shires. They

are and were both dangerous and beneficent personages. In olden times they were not above giving recipes for brashes, ringworm and other common ailments. Today they have all retreated to the shadowy Highland lochs, where they find comfortable flat stones to sit upon, and there, while combing their masses of long, yellow hair, sing in plaintive tones much that is ill or good to be heard. I know one canny auld wife of northern Perthshire who gets along very comfortably through her confidential relations with a mermaid that at present passes the summer season at Loch Rannoch.” ( Kentucky New Era, 18 July 1891)

At Loch Ness, a local possessed not only a kelpie’s bridle but also a mermaid’s stone (Alexander MacDonald: Story and Song from Loch Ness-side, Gaelic Society of Inverness, 1914, p.142). And finally, that stalwart of serious journalism, the Weekly World News, carried on the tale and headlined on 27 August 1996 “Divers Spot Mermaids in Loch Ness”. “Jean and Genevieve Dousson, a

married couple from Bordeaux, France, say they saw ‘at least 50’ fish-tailed humanoids swimming together in a group 92 feet beneath the surface.” They have yet to show up on sonar, though. Ulrich Magin

Hennef, Germany

In his column on ‘meremaids’ [ FT402:29], Simon Young professes to be shocked at the prevalence of inland placenames referring to mermaids. The reason can be found in Old English (OE) etymology. OE mere can signify either the sea (as in mermaid) or an enclosed body of water or pond (as in, for example, Windermere). Maid

is a diminutive form of maiden (OE maegden), but OE maed

comes down to us as meadow or (archaically) mead.

What Mr Young has probably come across is a corruption of the once fairly common fieldname meremead – a meadow with a pond. This explains how, once the ancient meaning had been lost, tales of mermaids might arise, however far from salt-water the place might be.

Interestingly, there is a pub in Portsmouth which is called the Mermaid. On the surface this looks like an obvious name in a naval city full of seafaring folk, but it is in fact named after Meremede Field in which it was built. There are no reports of spectral nudity unless you count the occasional appearance of a stripper at another pub nearby. Philip Eley

Gosport, Hampshire