Piratical Folklore
General Resources
Mythology Guide Online
http://www.online-mythology.com/Encyclopedia Mythica—searchable encyclopedia containing over 4200 articles about gods/goddesses, heroes, supernatural beings and legendary creatures and monsters from all over the world (Aztec, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, Haitian, Hindu, Japanese, Latvian, Mayan, Native American, Norse, Persian, Polynesian and Roman)
http://www.pantheon.org/mythica.htmlMythweb—site complete with search engine
http://www.mythweb.com/English Online—links to resources for myths and legends
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/myths_legends/other.htmlencyberpedia—Myths and Gods
http://www.encyberpedia.com/gods.htmRegional Folklore and Mythology
http://www.pibburns.com/mythregi.htmResources for Folktales and Fairytales
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folklinks.htmlFolklore and Mythology—Electronic texts
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html
Mermaids
Water Spirit Legends
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/water.htmlMermaids
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MermaidOcean Mysteries—See discussion of mermaids
http://marinebio.org/Oceans/Mysteries/Mermaids on the Web
http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/mermaids/Mythical Mermaids
http://www.hans-rothauscher.de/dugong/mermaid_e.htmMermaid’s Grotto
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/4214/mermaidgrotto.htmlLiterary References to Mermaids
(from: http://www.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Cheek/Narrative/myth.html)
Antipholus of Syracruse:
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears.
Sing, siren, for thyself, and I will dote;
Spread o'er the silver waves thy golden hairs,
And as a bed I'll take them and there lie,
And in that glorious supposition think
He gains by death that hath such means to die;
Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink!- Comedy of Errors
Ariel:
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell
Burthen Ding-dong
Hark! now I hear them,--Ding-dong, bell.- The Tempest
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water and back.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.- T.S. Eliot,
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
This evening (June 15) one of our company, looking overboard, saw a mermaid, and, calling up some of the company to see her, one more of the crew came up, and by that time she was come close to the ship's side, looking earnestly on the men. A little after the sea came and overturned her. From the navel upwards, her back and breasts were like a woman's, as they say that saw her; her body as big as one of us, her skin very white, and long hair hanging down behind, of colour black. In her doing down they saw her tail, which was like the tail of a porpoise, speckled like a mackerel. Their names that saw her were Thomas Hilles and Robert Rayner.
- Henry Hudson, 1625
from Mermaid, by Elizabeth Ratisseau
A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.- W.B. Yeats