h Velund, was the son of King Vilkin and a mermaid whom he met in a wood on the sea-shore in Russia[1]. In the Saga of Half and his knights is an account of a merman who was caught and kept a little while on land. He sang the following entreaty to be taken back to his native element—
“Cold water to the eyes
Flesh raw to the teeth!
A shroud to the dead!
Flit me back to the sea!
Henceforward never
Men in ships sailing!
Draw me to dry land
From the depth of the sea[2]!”
In the “Speculum Regale,” an Icelandic work the twelfth century, is the following description a mermaid:—
“A monster is seen also near Greenland, which people call the Margygr. This creature appears like a woman as far down as her waist, with breast and bosom like a woman, long hands, and soft hair, the neck and head in all respects like those of a human being. The hands seem to people to be long, and the fingers not to be parted, but united by a web like that on the feet of water-
