The Sea Maidens Tale

I first came across this tale in Popular Tales of the West Highlands Volume 1 edited by J F Campbell; as the title of the book suggests it contains transcriptions of 19^th century oral folk tales told by people from the west highlands of Scotland. Another well-known version of it (also from the 19^th century) can be found in Celtic Fairy Tales edited by Joseph Jacobs. The tale is quite long and involved, almost feeling as if more than one story has been incorporated into it. Essentially, a poor, childless fisherman makes a bargain with a sea maiden or mermaid, in return for reliable abundant catches of fish and for his wife to have children. As always in such tales there is a price to be paid and here the fisherman must give the sea maiden his eldest son when the child reaches a particular age. After putting it off for as long as he can the fisherman avoids giving up his son by no longer going to sea. The story follows the fortune of the eldest son as he goes out into the world to make his fortune. He gains a sword and becomes a cattle herd to a king and triumphs over various monsters and super natural beings, winning the hand of a princess along the way. The sea maidens curse follows him and to escape it he must destroy the sea maiden’s soul which is kept apart from the sea maiden on an island, inside an egg, inside a fish, inside a hoody crow, inside a white hind. The fisherman’s son does this with the assistance of animals he has previously helped.

I find the malevolent Sea Maiden a much more satisfactory mermaid than the wishy washy Disnified versions based on Hans Christian Andersen’s mermaid, that little girls are encouraged to admire. I have left out the fisherman’s son’s encounter with the three giants in my version because I felt it made my story too long and meandering. The theme of bargaining with a super-natural being and in return having to give up a child is a common one in many well-known fairy stories such as Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin. Another very ancient theme in the tale, is the Sea Maidens life force being held in an object elsewhere, making her in-vulnerable unless it is destroyed. An example of a similar scenario is found in the Norwegian tale the Giant who had no heart in his body. This is also a theme covered in Tolkien’s essay On Fairy-stories.