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MERLON

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 172 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MERLON , in See also:

architecture, the solid See also:part of an embattled See also:parapet between the embrasures, sometimes pierced by See also:loop-holes. The word is See also:French, adapted from Ital. merlon, possibly a shortened See also:form of mergola, connected with See also:Lat. mergae, pitchfork, or from a diminutive moerulus, from murus (moerus), a See also:wall. 'MERMAIDS and MERMEN, in the folk-See also:lore of See also:England and See also:Scotland, a class of semi-human beings who have their dwelling in the See also:sea, but are capable of living on See also:land and of entering into social relations with men and See also:women.' They are easily identified, at least in some of their most important aspects, with the Old See also:German Meriminni or Meerfrau, the Icelandic Hafgufa, Margygr, and Marmennill (mod. Marbendill), the Danish Helmand or Maremind, the Irish Merrow or Merruach, the See also:Marie-See also:Morgan of See also:Brittany and the Morforwyn of See also:Wales ;2 and they have various points of resemblance to the vodyany or See also:water-sprite and the rusalka or stream-See also:fairy of See also:Russian See also:mythology. The typical mermaid has the See also:head and See also:body of a woman, usually of exceeding loveliness, but below the See also:waist is fashioned like a See also:fish with scales and fins. Her See also:hair is See also:long and beautiful, and she is often represented, like the Russian rusalka, as combing it with one See also:hand while in the other she holds a looking-See also:glass. For a See also:time at least a mermaid may become to all See also:appearance an See also:ordinary human being; and an Irish See also:legend (" The Overflowing of Lough See also:Neagh and Libgn ' The name mermaid is compounded of See also:mere, a See also:lake, and mcegd, a maid; but, though mere wif occurs in See also:Beowulf, mere-maid does not appear till the See also:Middle See also:English See also:period (See also:Chaucer, Romaunt of the See also:Rose, &c.). In See also:Cornwall the fishermen say merry-maids and merry-men. The connexion with the sea rather than with inland See also:waters appears to be of later origin. " The Mermaid of See also:Martin See also:Meer " (See also:Roby's Traditions of See also:Lancashire, vol. ii.) is an example of the older force of the word; and such " meer-women " are known to the See also:country-folk in various parts of England (e.g. at See also:Newport in See also:Shropshire, where the See also:town is some See also:day to be drowned by the woman's agency). 3 See Rhys, " Welsh Fairy Tales," in Y Cymmrodor (1881, 1882).the Mermaid," in Joyce's Old See also:Celtic Romances) represents the temporary transformation of a human being into a mermaid. The mermaid legends of all countries may be grouped as follows.

(a) A mermaid or mermaids either voluntarily or under compulsion reveal things that are about to happen. Thus the two mermaids (merewip) Hadeburc and Sigelint, in the See also:

Nibelungenlied, disclose his future course to the See also:hero See also:Hagen, who, having got See also:possession of their garments, which they had See also:left on the See also:shore, compels them to pay See also:ransom in this way. According to Resenius, a mermaid appeared to a See also:peasant of Samsoe, foretold the See also:birth of a See also:prince, and moralized on the evils of intemperance, &c. (See also:Kong Fredericks den andens Kronike, See also:Copenhagen, i68o, p. 302). (b) A mermaid imparts supernatural See also:powers to a human being. Thus in the beautiful See also:story of " The Old See also:Man of Cury " (in See also:Hunt's Popular Romances of the See also:West of England, 1871) the old man, instead of See also:silver and See also:gold, obtains the See also:power of doing See also:good to his neighbours by breaking the spells of See also:witchcraft, See also:chasing away diseases, and discovering thieves. (c) A mermaid has some one under her See also:protection, and for wrong done to her 7vard exacts a terrible See also:penalty. One of the best and most detailed examples of this class is the story of the " Mermaid's Vengeance " in Hunt's See also:book already quoted. (d) A mermaid falls in love with a human being, lives with him as his lawful wife for a time, and then, some compact being unwittingly or intentionally broken by him, departs to her true kome in the sea. Here, if its mermaid form be accepted, the typical legend is undoubtedly that of Melusine (q.v.), which, being made the subject of a See also:romance by See also:Jean d'See also:Arras, became one of the most popular folk-books of See also:Europe, appearing in See also:Spanish, German, Dutch and Bohemian versions. (e) A mermaid falls in love with a man, and entices him to go to live with her below the sea; or a merman wins the See also:affection or captures the See also:person of an earthborn See also:maiden.

This form of legend is very See also:

common, and has naturally been a favourite with poets. Macphail of See also:Colonsay successfully rejects the allurements of the mermaid of Corrievrekin, and comes back after long years of trial to the maid of Colonsay.3 The Danish See also:ballads are especially full of the theme; as " Agnete and the Merman," an antecedent of See also:Matthew See also:Arnold's " Forsaken Merman "; the " Deceitful Merman, or Marstig's Daughter "; and the finely detailed story of Rosmer Hafmand (No. 49 in See also:Grimm). In relation to man the mermaid is usually of evil issue if not of evil See also:intent. She has generally to be bribed or compelled to utter her prophecy or bestow her gifts, and whether as wife or paramour she brings disaster in her See also:train. The fish-tail, which in popular See also:fancy forms the characteristic feature of the mermaid,, is really of secondary importance; for the true See also:Teutonic mermaid —probably a remnant of the See also:great cult of the Vanir—had no fish-tail;' and this symbolic appendage occurs in the mythologies of so many countries as to afford no See also:clue to its See also:place of origin. The Tritons, and, in the later representations, the See also:Sirens of classical antiquity, the Phoenician See also:Dagon, and the Chaldaean See also:Oannes are all well-known examples; the Ottawas and other See also:American See also:Indians have their man-fish and woman-fish (See also:Jones, Traditions of the See also:North American Indians, 183o); and the See also:Chinese tell stories not unlike our own about the sea-women of their See also:southern seas (See also:Dennis, See also:Folklore of See also:China, 1875). Quasi-See also:historical instances of the appearance or See also:capture of mermaids are common enough,' and serve, with the frequent use of the figure on signboards and coats of arms, to show how thoroughly the myth had taken hold of the popular See also:imagination.' See See also:Leyden's " The Mermaid," in See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott's Borttar., Minstrelsy. ' Karl See also:Blind, " New Finds in Shetlandic and Welsh Folk-Lore," in See also:Gentleman's See also:Magazine (1882). 'Compare the See also:strange See also:account of the quasi-human creatures found in the See also:Nile given by Theophylactus, Historiae, viii. 16, pp. 299-302, of See also:Bekker's edition.

Phoenix-squares

' See the See also:

paper in Journ. Brit. See also:Arch. Assoc., xxxviii., 1882, by H. S. Cuming, who points out that mermaids or mermen occur in the arms of Earls See also:Caledon, See also:Howth and See also:Sandwich, Viscounts See also:Boyne and See also:Hood., See also:Lord See also:Lyttelton and Scott of See also:Abbotsford, as well as in those of the See also:Ellis, See also:Byron, Phen6, See also:Skeffington and other families. The English heralds represent the creatures with a single tail, the French and German heralds frequently with a See also:double one. A mermaid captured at See also:Bangor, on the shore of See also:Belfast Lough; in the 6th See also:century, was not only baptized, but admitted into some of the old calendars as a See also:saint under the name of Murgen (Notes and Queries, Oct. 21, 1882); and See also:Stowe (Annales, under date 1187) relates how a man-fish was kept for six months and more in the See also:castle of See also:Orford in See also:Suffolk. As showing how legendary material may gather See also:round a See also:simple fact, the oft-told story of the sea-woman of See also:Edam is particularly interesting. The See also:oldest authority, Joh. Gerbrandus a Leydis, a Carmelite See also:monk (d.

1504), tells (Annales, &c., See also:

Frankfort, 1620) how in 1403 a See also:wild woman came through a See also:breach in the See also:dike into Purmerlake, and, being found by some Edam milkmaids, was ultimately taken to See also:Haarlem and lived there many years. Nobody could understand her, but she learned to spin, and was wont to adore the See also:cross. Ocka Scharlensis (Chronijk See also:van See also:Friesland, Leeuw., 1597) reasons that she was not a fish because she could spin, and she was not a woman because she could live in the sea; and thus in due course she got fairly established as a genuine mermaid. See also:Vosmaer, who has carefully investigated the See also:matter, enumerates See also:forty writers who have repeated the story, and shows that the older ones speak only of a woman (see " Beschr. van de zoogen. Meermin der stad Haarlem," in Verh. van de See also:Holl. Maatsch. van K. en Wet., part 23, No. 1786). The best account of the mermaid-myth is in See also:Baring-See also:Gould's Myths of the Middle Ages. See also, besides See also:works already mentioned, See also:Pontoppidan, who in his logically credulous way collects much matter to prove the existence of mermaids; Maillet, Telliamed (See also:Hague, 1755) ; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, i. 404, and Altddn. Heldenlieder' 1); Waldron's Description and Train's Hist. and Stat. Acc. of the Isle of Man; Folk-lore Society's See also:Record, vol. ii.; See also:Napier, Hist. and Trad.

Tales connected with the See also:

South of Scotland; Sebillot, Traditions de la haute Bretagne (1882), and Conies See also:des marins (1882).

End of Article: MERLON

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