Merlin, 1861) cannot be regarded as much more trustworthy than
Geoffrey himself. The story of the tower, and the Boy without
a Father, has been critically examined by Dr Gaster, in a paper
read before the Folk-lore Society and subsequently published in
Folk-lore (vol. xvi.). Dr Gaster cites numerous Oriental parallels
to the tale, and sees in it the germ of the whole Merlin legend.
Alfred Nutt (Revue celtique, vol. xxvii.) has since shown that
Aengus, the magician of the Irish Tuatha de Danaan, was also
of unknown parentage, and it seems more probable that the Boy
without a Father theme was generally associated with the Celtic
magicians, and is the property of no one in particular. Some
years ago the late Mr Ward of the British Museum drew attention
to certain passages in the life of St Kentigern, relating his dealings
with a “possessed” being, a dweller in the woods, named Lailoken,
and pointed out the practical identity of the adventures of that
personage and those assigned by Geoffrey to Merlin in the Vita;
the text given by Mr Ward states that some people identified
Lailoken with Merlin (see Romania, vol. xxvii.). Ferd. Lot, in an
examination of the sources of the Vita Merlini (Annales de Bretagne,
vol. xv.), has pointed out the more original character of the “Lailoken”
fragments, and decides that Geoffrey knew the Scottish
tradition and utilized it for his Vita. He also comes to the conclusion
that the Welsh Merlin poems, with the possible exception
of the Dialogue between Merlin and Taliessin, are posterior to, and
inspired by, Geoffrey’s work. So far the researches of scholars
appear to point to the result that the legend of Merlin, as we know
it, is of complex growth, combined from traditions of independent
and widely differing origin. Most probably there is a certain
substratum of fact beneath all; there may have been, there very
probably was, a bard and soothsayer of that name, and it is by no
means improbable that curious stories were told of his origin. It is
worth noting that Layamon, whose translation of Wace’s Brut is
of so much interest, on account of the variants he introduces into
the text, gives a much more favourable form of the “Birth” story;
the father is a glorious and supernatural being, who appears to
the mother in her dreams. Layamon lived on the Welsh border,
and the possibility of his variants being drawn from genuine British
tradition is generally recognized. The poem relating a dialogue
between Merlin and, his brother bard, Taliessin, may also derive
from genuine tradition. Further than this we can hardly venture
to go; the probability is that anything more told of the character
and career of Merlin rests upon the imaginative powers and faculty
of combination of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
See also G. Paris and Ulrich (Société des anciens textes français, 1886); Merlin, ed. Wheatley (Early English Text Society, 1899); Arthour and Merlin, ed. Kölbing. (J. L. W.)
MERLON, in architecture, the solid part of an embattled
parapet between the embrasures, sometimes pierced by loopholes.
The word is French, adapted from Ital. merlone, possibly
a shortened form of mergola, connected with Lat. mergae,
pitchfork, or from a diminutive moerulus, from murus
(moerus), a wall.
MERMAIDS and MERMEN, in the folk-lore of England and
Scotland, a class of semi-human beings who have their dwelling
in the sea, but are capable of living on land and of entering
into social relations with men and women.[1] They are easily
identified, at least in some of their most important aspects,
with the Old German Meriminni or Meerfrau, the Icelandic
Hafgufa, Margygr, and Marmennill (mod. Marbendill), the
Danish Hafmand or Maremind, the Irish Merrow or Merruach,
the Marie-Morgan of Brittany and the Morforwyn of Wales;[2]
and they have various points of resemblance to the vodyany
or water-sprite and the rusalka or stream-fairy of Russian
mythology. The typical mermaid has the head and body
of a woman, usually of exceeding loveliness, but below the
waist is fashioned like a fish with scales and fins. Her hair
is long and beautiful, and she is often represented, like the
Russian rusalka, as combing it with one hand while in the other
she holds a looking-glass. For a time at least a mermaid may
become to all appearance an ordinary human being; and an
Irish legend (“The Overflowing of Lough Neagh and Liban
the Mermaid,” in Joyce’s Old 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 (merewîp) Hadeburc and Sigelint, in the Nibelungenlied, disclose his future course to the hero Hagen, who, having got possession of their garments, which they had left on the shore, compels them to pay ransom in this way. According to Resenius, a mermaid appeared to a peasant of Samsöe, foretold the birth of a prince, and moralized on the evils of intemperance, &c. (Kong Frederichs den andens Krönike, Copenhagen, 1680, p. 302). (b) A mermaid imparts supernatural powers to a human being. Thus in the beautiful story of “The Old Man of Cury” (in Hunt’s Popular Romances of the West of England, 1871) the old man, instead of silver and gold, obtains the power of doing good to his neighbours by breaking the spells of witchcraft, chasing away diseases, and discovering thieves. (c) A mermaid has some one under her protection, and for wrong done to her ward exacts a terrible penalty. One of the best and most detailed examples of this class is the story of the “Mermaid’s Vengeance” in Hunt’s 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 home in the sea. Here, if its mermaid form be accepted, the typical legend is undoubtedly that of Mélusine (q.v.), which, being made the subject of a romance by Jean d’Arras, became one of the most popular folk-books of Europe, appearing in 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 affection or captures the person of an earthborn maiden. This form of legend is very common, and has naturally been a favourite with poets. Macphail of 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 ballads are especially full of the theme; as “Agnete and the Merman,” an antecedent of Matthew Arnold’s “Forsaken Merman”; the “Deceitful Merman, or Marstig’s Daughter”; and the finely detailed story of Rosmer Hafmand (No. 49 in Grimm).
In relation to man the mermaid is usually of evil issue if not of evil 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 train. The fish-tail, which in popular fancy forms the characteristic feature of the mermaid, is really of secondary importance; for the true Teutonic mermaid—probably a remnant of the great cult of the Vanir—had no fish-tail;[4] and this symbolic appendage occurs in the mythologies of so many countries as to afford no clue to its place of origin. The Tritons, and, in the later representations, the Sirens of classical antiquity, the Phoenician Dagon, and the Chaldaean Oannes are all well-known examples; the Ottawas and other American Indians have their man-fish and woman-fish (Jones, Traditions of the North American Indians, 1830); and the Chinese tell stories not unlike our own about the sea-women of their southern seas (Dennis, Folklore of China, 1875).
Quasi-historical instances of the appearance or capture of mermaids are common enough[5] 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 imagination.[6]
- ↑ The name mermaid is compounded of mere, a lake, and mægd, a maid; but, though mere wif occurs in Beowulf, mere-maid does not appear till the Middle English period (Chaucer, Romaunt of the Rose, &c.). In Cornwall the fishermen say merry-maids and merry-men. The connexion with the sea rather than with inland waters appears to be of later origin. “The Mermaid of Martin Meer” (Roby’s Traditions of Lancashire, vol. ii.) is an example of the older force of the word; and such “meer-women” are known to the country-folk in various parts of England (e.g. at Newport in Shropshire, where the town is some day to be drowned by the woman’s agency).
- ↑ See Rhys, “Welsh Fairy Tales,” in Y Cymmrodor (1881, 1882).
- ↑ See Leyden’s “The Mermaid,” in Sir Walter Scott’s Border Minstrelsy.
- ↑ Karl Blind, “New Finds in Shetlandic and Welsh Folk-Lore,” in Gentleman’s Magazine (1882).
- ↑ Compare the strange account of the quasi-human creatures found in the Nile given by Theophylactus, Historiae, viii; 16, pp. 299-302, of Bekker’s edition.
- ↑ See the paper in Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc., xxxviii., 1882, by H. S. Cuming, who points out that mermaids or mermen occur in the arms of Earls Caledon, Howth and Sandwich, Viscounts, Boyne and Hood-, Lord Lyttelton and Scott of Abbotsford, as well as in those of the Ellis, Byron, Phené, Skeffington and other families. The English heralds represent the creatures with a single tail, the French and German heralds frequently with a double one.
