29 March: Mermaid Day

Today is Mermaid Day. A mermaid is a mythical sea-dwelling creature, with the head and body of a woman and a fish's tail below the waist. Here are ten things you didn’t know about mermaids:

1. The idea of mermaids has probably been around for as long as humans have been observing creatures in the Oceans. Archaeologists have found accounts in Mesopotamian mythology dating back more than five thousand years, of Oannes, a male fish-god. An early mermaid legend comes from Syria, around 1000 BC. The goddess Atargatis wanted to take the form of a fish, but the gods didn’t want her to give up her great beauty, so she was only allowed to become a fish from the waist down.
2. The earliest depiction of a mermaid in England is in a Norman chapel in Durham Castle, built around 1078. The mermaid, strangely, appears beside two leopards and in several hunting scenes.
3. There are legends from all over the world about mermaids or similar creatures. They even appear in landlocked countries. In Africa, mythical water spirits called Mami Wata (meaning "Water as Mother" or "Mother of the Waters") are seen as benevolent spirits who bring healing and wisdom, and ward off disaster. In Ireland, legends speak of merrows, which look like beautiful mermaids with green hair. Many legends depict mermaid like creatures as malevolent, or at least unpredictable. The ancient Greek sirens, for example, are said to lure sailors to their deaths, and the Slavic Rusalki were believed to be the ghosts of women who died from drowning. The Rusalki lured other to watery graves out of anger and revenge.
4. In medieval times, mermaids were assumed to exist alongside other sea creatures such as Whales or Dolphins. It was an accepted fact they existed. Sightings were often reported. Christopher Columbus claimed to have seen mermaids, although he commented that they weren’t as beautiful as he’d been led to believe. It’s generally believed that he’d actually seen Manatees. Considering how hard it can be, even today, to identify a fast moving sea creature when you only get a brief glimpse of part of its body above the water at a distance, especially when the light or weather isn’t great, it’s quite understandable that sailors in olden days imagined they were seeing mermaids.
5. Could mermaids really exist, though? Scientists don’t think so. Not only is there a lack of genuine physical evidence for them, their existence would raise some tricky questions such as how would a mammal/fish hybrid regulate its body temperature, digest its food or reproduce?
6. If they are going to reproduce, then mermen, their male counterparts, would have to exist. Mermen tend to be described as less beautiful and more vengeful than the females. They, too, summon storms and drown people. For example, the Blue Men of the Minch, said to live in the Outer Hebrides have blue-tinted skin and grey beards. The Blue Men often challenge a captain to a rhyming contest; if the captain can beat them, they might spare the ship.
7. As for the Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen's original tale is way darker than the Disney version. In Andersen's story, the mermaid princess has to sacrifice her tongue to obtain legs; walking is incredibly painful for her, like "walking on knives." The Disney tale has a happy ending with the princess getting her man and living happily ever after, but Andersen's story doesn’t end so well The princess fails to undo her curse and the prince marries someone else. The little mermaid kills herself and ends up living with the "spirits of the air". The statue in Copenhagen is by the Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen who was commissioned to create it in the early 20^th century.
8. Sailors, needless to say, have a fair bit of folklore concerning mermaids. They can be both lucky and omens of disaster. They are popular forms for the figurehead of a ship, because sailors believed that they would appease the cruel sea and bring good weather and fortune. There’s a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I known as the Armada portrait, in which there is a mermaid carved into her throne. It’s possible the mermaid represents Elizabeth's ability to provide calm seas for her fleet yet summon storms for her Spanish enemies, much like a mermaid.
9. Mary Queen of Scots was also represented by a mermaid in contemporary drawings, but these were a lot less complimentary. In these representations the mermaid was shown alongside a Hare. Historians believe the mermaid was a figure of temptation and prostitution while the hare depicted lust, in contrast to her cousin Elizabeth’s reputation as a pure virgin queen. Some legends say mermaids don’t have immortal souls, and the fact they are often depicted holding combs and Mirrors is a sign they were the epitome of vanity.
10. Mermaids sometimes appear in heraldry. Mermen, not so much. Crests and coats of arms which include mermaids include those of Sir Thomas Cusack (1490–1571), Michaëlle Jean, former Governor General of Canada, The city of Norfolk, Virginia, the city of Warsaw and the University of Birmingham, England.

Character Birthday

Caroline Drake, Tabitha’s cynical and practical older sister, who appears in Death and Faxes.

Death and Faxes

Several women have been found murdered - it looks like the work of a ruthless serial killer. Psychic medium Maggie Flynn is one of the resources DI Jamie Swan has come to value in such cases - but Maggie is dead, leaving him with only the telephone number of the woman she saw as her successor, her granddaughter, Tabitha Drake.

Tabitha, grief-stricken by Maggie's death and suffering a crisis of confidence in her ability, wants nothing to do with solving murder cases. She wants to hold on to her job and find Mr Right (not necessarily in that order); so when DI Swan first contacts her, she refuses to get involved.

The ghosts of the victims have other ideas. They are anxious for the killer to be caught and for names to be cleared - and they won't leave Tabitha alone. It isn't long before Tabitha is drawn in so deeply that her own life is on the line.

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