Water

Legends

Water has always enchanted men with its mysteries and secrets…

Rivers, oceans and streams have been the home of many wonderful creatures such as the ones you will meet today!

The Merrows

The Merrow Folk is the Irish equivalent of the mermaids and mermen of other traditions.  These beings are human from the waist up but have the body of a fish from the waist down. They are gentle, modest, affectionate and benevolent. The Merrows are a kind of sea fairies.

The female merrows are beautiful and graceful and they can have long blond hair or long sea green hair. According to the legend, their song is irresistible and it attracts sailors. However, if they come too near, the mermaids dive into the sea, laughing at them.

Mermaids wear a red cap or cloak and if a man captures it, she will forget her past life and marry him. She is an obedient and loving wife, but she never adapts completely to living on land. A married merrow rarely laughs. But if she finds her cap or cloak and puts it on, she will remember her past life in the water and will abandon her home and her husband for the sea. When she remembers her past watery life, she will regain her youth and her beauty which she lost while living among the mortals.

The male merrows are deformed and ugly. They have green teeth, green hair, pig's eyes and red noses. Sometimes they come out of the sea, and wander about the shore in the shape of little hornless cows.

They wear a red cap usually covered with feathers. If this is stolen, they cannot again go down under the waves.

The Selkies

The Selkies are shy marine creatures in the shape of a seal and they are of Scottish origin.

Selkies can only make contact with one particular human for a short amount of time before they must return to the sea. They are not able to make contact with that human again for seven years.

A female can shed her skin and come ashore as a beautiful woman. When a man finds the skin, he can force the Selkie to be a good, but sad, wife. If she recovers the skin, she will immediately return to sea, leaving her husband behind.

The male Selkies are responsible for storms and also for the sinking of ships, which is their way of avenging the hunting of seals.

The Children of Lir

Once upon a time there was a king called Lir. He lived in a castle in the forest with his wife and his four children: one girl, Fionnuala, and three sons, Aodh and twins, Fiachra and Conn.

The Children of Lir is an Irish legend.

When Lir’s wife died they were all very sad. After a few years, Lir got married again. He married a jealous wife called Aoife.

Aoife thought that Lir loved his children more than he loved her. She hated the children. Soon she thought of a plan to get rid of them.

One summer's day Aoife took the children to swim in a lake near the castle. With a magic wand she turned the children into four beautiful swans, with their feathers as white as snow.

As swans, the children had to spend 300 years on a lake near their father's castle, 300 years in the Sea of Moyle, and 300 years on the Isle of Glora. To end the spell, they would have to be blessed by a monk.

The Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster, known as Nessie, lives in the depths of Loch Ness, a lake in the north of Scotland.

The Loch Ness Monster remains one of the world's most famous mysteries. Nessie is thought to be a giant creature with a huge rounded body, and a long neck. Some think it is a prehistoric seagoing dinosaur, pleiosaur.

Sightings of Nessie date as far back as the 6th Century, when an Irish monk caught sight of the monster while visiting the area.

However, it only became an international phenomena in 1934, when Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson got a photo of the legendary lake monster.

No one has proved Nessie’s existence. Does the Loch Ness Monster exist? Some people say yes, some say no... maybe someday we will know the truth.

The Lady of the Lake

The Lady of the Lake is a mysterious woman from the Arthurian legends.

She is also known as Nimue, Vivienne and the Maiden of the Lake.

She gave king Arthur the legendary Sword Excalibur and the mystic scabbard which protected the wearer from dying.