Mermaid

, c. 1856–1858 The English word "mermaid" has its earliest-known attestation in Middle English (Chaucer, ''Nun's Priest's Tale, c. 1390). The compound word is formed from "''" (sea), and "". Mermin Another English word "†mermin" ( in the OED) for 'siren or mermaid' is older, though now obsolete. It derives from Old English , ad. 'sea' + 'female slave', and the one in Rabenschlacht is a great-grandmother of Wittich; this same figure appears in an Old Swedish text a '''', and not well-attested later. a valid English definition. The word is attested, among other medieval epics, in the Nibelungenlied'', and rendered "merwoman", "mermaid", "water sprite", or other terms; the two in the story are translated as ON ("sea-women"). == Origins ==

The siren of Ancient Greek mythology became conflated with mermaids during the medieval period. Some European Romance languages still use cognate terms for siren to denote the mermaid, e.g., French and Spanish and Italian ''''. Sirens In the early Greek period, the sirens were conceived of as human-headed birds, but by the classical period, the Greeks sporadically depicted the siren as part fish in art. Medieval sirens as mermaids The siren's part-fish appearance became increasingly popular during the Middle Ages. stating that she has a body and breast like that of a maiden but joined, at the navel, by a body part which is definitely fish, with fins growing out of her. Scylla and Charybdis lived near the sirens' domain. In Etruscan art before the sixth century BC, Scylla was portrayed as a mermaid-like creature with two tails. This may be tied to images of two-tailed mermaids ranging from ancient times to modern depictions, and is sometimes attached to the later character of Melusine. A sporadic example of sirens as mermaids (tritonesses) in Early Greek art (third century BC), can be explained as the contamination of the siren myth with Scylla and Charybdis. The prophetic sea deity Glaucus was also depicted with a fish tail. According to Dorothy Dinnerstein, human-animal hybrids such as mermaids and minotaurs convey the emergent understanding of ancient peoples that humans were both one with and different from animals: Ancient Middle Eastern mythology Kulullû Depictions of entities with the upper bodies of humans and the tails of fish appear in Mesopotamian artwork from the Old Babylonian Period onwards, on cylinder seals. These figures are usually mermen (kulullû),--> A mermaid-like goddess, identified by Greek and Roman writers as Derceto or Atargatis, was worshipped at Ashkelon. In the myth, Semiramis's first husband is named Onnes. Some scholars have compared this to the earlier Mesopotamian myth of Oannes, one of the apkallu or seven sages described as fish-men in cuneiform texts. and proposed that surely "Oannes had a fish-tailed wife" and descendants, with Atargatis being one deity thus descended, "through the mists of time". Diodorus's chronology of Queen Semiramis resembles the feats of Alexander the Great (campaigns to India, etc.), and Diodorus may have woven the Macedonian king's material via some unnamed source. Naturalistic theories on the origins of the mermaid postulate that they derive from sightings of manatees, dugongs or even seals. Another theory, tangentially related to the aforementioned Aquatic Ape Theory, is that the mermaids of folklore were actually human women who trained over time to be skilled divers for things like sponges, and spent a lot of time in the sea as a result. A proponent of this theory is the British author William Bond, who has written several books about it. == Medieval literature ==

Merwomen in Germanic literature Nibelungenlied Two prophetic merwomen (MHG pl.: ), Sigelinde (MHG: Sigelint) and her maternal aunt Hadeburg (MHG: Hadeburc) are bathing in the Danube River when Hagen von Tronje encounters them (Nibelungenlied, Âventiure 25). In any case, this brief segment became the "foundational" groundwork of subsequent water-nix lore and literature that developed in the Germanic sphere. also known as the "Swedish epilogue"). calls the same mermaid a ( [sic.]) Thus the saga is an early source which associates a famed clan of merfolk with a place in Denmark, Sjælland. This was the divided portion of Villcina-land inherited by the bastard prince Vaði/Wade according to the saga. The Swedish epilogue transposed the locations concerning the battle (from Italy to Germany), and claimed the rescued Viðga/Witige was brought to Sjælland. That is to say, the crucial battle had been in Ravenna, Northern Italy in the German epic Rabenschlacht), but the battle spot was changed to Gronsport, somewhere on the Moselle, in Northern Germany in the Swedish version. == Folkore worldwide ==

The mermaid is a harbinger of shipwreck in English-Scottish balladry, though the attestation (Child ballad 289 A number of such omens were recorded in Japan by the Kamakura shogunate, for example, the entry in the Azuma kagami for year 1247 (Hōji 1) records a beaching of a "big fish" (as it was called here), tied to the the same year. == Folklore of Britain and Ireland ==

The Norman chapel in Durham Castle, built around 1078, has what is probably the earliest surviving artistic depiction of a mermaid in England. , Cornwall Mermaids appear in British folklore as unlucky omens, both foretelling disaster and provoking it. Several variants of the ballad Sir Patrick Spens depict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships. In some versions, she tells them they will never see land again; in others, she claims they are near shore, which they are wise enough to know means the same thing. Mermaids can also be a sign of approaching rough weather, and some have been described as monstrous in size, up to . In another short ballad, "Clerk Colvill" (Child ballad No. 42), the mermaid seduces the title character and foretells his doom. It has been surmised that in the original complete version, the man was being penalized for spurning her, though the Scandinavian counterparts that tells the complete story feature an elf-woman or elf queen rather than mermaid. But mermaids could occasionally be more beneficent; e.g., teaching humans cures for certain diseases. Mermen have been described as wilder and uglier than mermaids, with little interest in humans. According to legend a mermaid came to the Cornish village of Zennor, where she used to listen to the singing of a chorister, Matthew Trewhella. The two fell in love, and Matthew went with the mermaid to her home at Pendour Cove. On summer nights, the lovers can be heard singing together. The legend, recorded by folklorist William Bottrell, stems from a fifteenth-century mermaid carving on a wooden bench at the Church of Saint Senara in Zennor. Mermaids from the Isle of Man, known as ben-varrey, are considered more favorable toward humans than those of other regions, with various accounts of assistance, gifts and rewards. One story tells of a fisherman who carried a stranded mermaid back into the sea and was rewarded with the location of treasure. Another recounts the tale of a baby mermaid who stole a doll from a human little girl, but was rebuked by her mother and sent back to the girl with a gift of a pearl necklace to atone for the theft. A third story tells of a fishing family that made regular gifts of apples to a mermaid and was rewarded with prosperity. In Irish lore, Lí Ban was a human being transformed into a mermaid. After three centuries, when Christianity came to Ireland, she was baptised. == Scandinavian folklore ==

Haffrue The mermaid corresponds to Danish and Bokmål Norwegian , whereas merman answers to Danish/Norwegian havmand. General characteristics The beautiful havfrue of Scandinavia may be benevolent or malicious, and legends about her abducting maidens (cf. infra) is given as a case of point for her malice. Omen, prophecy and wisdom The appearance/sighting alone betides an impending storm. Merfolk as abductors The Swedish ballad "Hafsfrun" Early sources say that Norwegian fishermen who capture the marmæte or marmæle may bring them home but do not dare keep it for more than 24 hours before turning them back into the sea whence they found it. Margýgr Jón Árnason describes the margýgur as yellow-haired woman who is fish from the waist down, who drags careless seamen to the depths of the sea. However, margygr literally means something like "mer-troll", and in medieval tradition, the margygr is more of a "sea monster" or "sea-ogress". According to a version of the Saga of St. Olaf (Olaf II of Norway) the king encountered a margygr whose singing lulled voyagers to sleep causing them to drown and whose high-pitched shrieks drove men insane. Her physical appearance is described thus: "She has a head like a horse, with ears erect and distended nostrils, big green eyes and fearful jaws. She has shoulders like a horse and hands in front; but behind she resembles a serpent". This margygr was also said to be furry like a seal, and gray-colored. == Western European folklore ==

, Le livre de Mélusine, 1478. Melusine is a mermaid-like character from European folklore, cursed to take the form of a serpent from the waist down. Later depictions sometimes changed this to a fish tail. At some point, possibly in the late nineteenth century, her name became attached to the two-tailed mermaid of heraldry. During the Romanesque period, mermaids were often associated with lust. == Byzantine and Ottoman Greek folklore ==

The conception of the siren as both a mermaid-like creature and part bird-like persisted in Byzantine Greece for some time. The Physiologus began switching the illustration of the siren as that a mermaid, as in a version dated to the ninth century. There is a modern Greek legend that Alexander the Great's sister Thessalonike turned into a mermaid () after her death, living in the Aegean. She would ask the sailors on any ship she encountered only one question: "Is King Alexander alive?",() to which the correct answer was: "He lives and reigns and conquers the world" (Greek: "Ζει και βασιλεύει και τον κόσμον κυριεύει"). This legend derives from an Alexander romance entitled the Phylláda tou Megaléxandrou (Φυλλάδα του Μεγαλέξανδρου) dating to the Ottoman Greece period, first printed in 1680. == Eastern Europe ==

, Sadko (1876) Rusalkas are the Slavic counterpart of the Greek sirens and naiads, often seducing sailors to their doom. The nature of rusalkas varies among folk traditions, but according to ethnologist D.K. Zelenin they all share a common element: they are the restless spirits of the unclean dead. In Sadko (), a Russian oral epic poem (bylina), the title character—an adventurer, merchant, and gusli musician from Novgorod—lives for some time in the underwater court of the Sea Tsar and marries his daughter, Chernava, before finally returning home. The tale inspired such works as the poem Sadko by Alexei Tolstoy, the opera Sadko composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and the painting Sadko by Ilya Repin. == Chinese folklore ==

A merfolk race called the are described as populating its own nation in the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) compilation of Chinese geography and mythology, dating from the fourth century BC. The ancient work also included several types of human-headed fish, such as the or "red ru fish"; as well as creature with some humanlike qualities like the renyu () or "human-fish". There is an account of the (; literally "sea human fish"), given in the Taiping guangji compilation, sourced from the work entitled Qiawenji (). The female of its kind had a head like beautiful woman's, with hair like a horse's tail, and white skin like jade without scales, covered with multicolored downy hair (or peach fuzz), and legless. The male and female had sexual organs like humans, so that widows and would keep them in their ponds, and the creatures could perform sexual intercourse normally as a human would. An anecdote considered relevant concerns a renyu ("human fish") allegedly seen by the ship carrying Zha Dao (), and emissary to Korea. She had an unkempt hairdo and scarlet mane extending to the back of her elbows. Zha ordered the crew to bring her aboard with poles, but she escaped. Zha explained that she was a renyu, adept at copulating with humans, and was a type of human dwelling in the sea. The anecdote in the lost Cuyiji ("Records of Bygone Extraordinary Things") from the Northern Song period, survives in quotes, e.g., from leishu compilation Gujin tushu jicheng ( "Comprehensive Compendium of Illustrations and Books, Ancient and Modern"). == Korean folklore ==

Korea is bound on three sides by the sea. In some villages near the sea in Korea, there are mysterious stories about mermaids. Mermaids have features just like humans. Kim Dam Ryeong, a mayor of the town, saved four captured mermaids from a fisherman, as recorded in the Eou yadam (unofficial histories). In Dongabaek Island of Busan is a tale of Princess Hwang-ok from Naranda, a mythical undersea kingdom of mermaids; this tale is based on the historical Heo Hwang-ok from India. Another tale concerns a mermaid named Sinjike () who warned fishermen of impending storms by singing and throwing rocks into the sea from Geomun Island. The island's residents believed her to be a goddess of the sea and that she could predict the weather. Tale of Nangan The Tale of Nangan is a mermaid legend handed down in Pyongyang, the capital of Goguryeo (currently Pyongyang). One day, a fisherman named Lee Jin-su went to the Dragon Palace and spent the day enjoying himself. Upon his departure, he received a mermaid, which was said to grant eternal youth and longevity if eaten. Suspicious of it, Lee hid it away without eating it, but his daughter Nangan ate it. She obtained rare and unchanging beauty, but was never blessed with marriage or children. At the age of 300, she climbed Moranbong and went missing. There is a theory that this Korean legend of Nangan was transmitted to Japan and became the origin of the Yao Bikuni folktale. == Japanese folklore ==

The Japanese equivalent is . According to one dictionary, ningyo oftentimes refers to a "half-woman and half-fish fabulous creature", i.e., mermaid, though the term ningyo is technically (though not customarily) inclusive of mermen. A ningyo might be counted as a yōkai since it is included in Toriyama Sekien's Hyakki Yagyō series. Gender is unclear, as it is only described as a being with "a human face, a fish body". However, Sekien's ningyo picture actually represents a "human-fish" that lives in Western China, also known as the Di people , according to the inscription printed alongside. They are described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and translated as the "Low People" or the "Di People". ==Indian, Southeast Asian, and Polynesian folklore==

and Hanuman, mural at Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok. In Hinduism, Suvannamaccha (literally "golden mermaid") is a daughter of Ravana who also appears in the Thai and other Southeast Asian versions of Ramayana. She is a mermaid princess who tries to spoil Hanuman's plans to build a bridge to Lanka but falls in love with him instead. In Cambodia, she is referred as Sovanna Maccha, a favorite for Cambodian audiences. Indonesia In the Javanese culture of Indonesia, Nyai Roro Kidul is a sea goddess and the Queen of the Southern Seas; the mermaid queen is said to inhabit the southern beach in Java. She has many forms; in her mermaid form, she is called Nyai Blorong. Philippines In the Tagalog language mermaids are known as sirena and siyokoy respectively. The general term for mermaid among all ethnic groups is Sirena. In the Philippines, mermaid concepts differ per ethnic group. Among the Pangasinense, the Binalatongan mermaid is a Queen of the sea who married the mortal Maginoo Palasipas and ruled humanity for a time. Among the Ilocano, mermaids were said to have propagated and spread through the union of the first Serena and the first Litao, a water god. In the folktale "Mermaid" (Cebuano language: ) localized in Cebu and Bohol Provinces, a couple named Juan and Juana is about to have a daughter, but the pregnant wife has a constant craving for milkfish (Cebuano: ). One day his fishing caught nothing, but met a talking milkfish wearing a crown, the "King of the Fishes" (Cebuano: ) who offered to give him plenty every day, in exchange for the taking the child later, at 7 years of age. She was eventually swept away by the waves, and presumed lost to the king. The parents, hoping to see her again on the beach did so finally, on a moonlit night, witnessed a black haired woman with the body of a milkfish, whom they knew was Maria. New Zealand Mermaids are characters in the myth of "Pania of the Reef", a well-known tale of Māori mythology. == African folklore ==

Mami Water (Lit. "Mother of the Water") are water spirits venerated in West, Central and southern Africa, and in the African diaspora in the Caribbean and parts of North, Central and South America. They are usually female, but are sometimes male. They are regarded as diabolical beings, and are often femme fatales, luring men to their deaths. The Persian word "پری دریایی" or "maneli" means "mermaid". Among the Shona of Zimbabwe, njuzu are mermaid-like spirits. The jengu, also known as the "Itongo" (Sea Queen), of Cameroon is sometimes depicted as half woman and half fish. The Man Who Caught a Mermaid A folktale from Madagascar. The story described below was collected by Natsuki Kawasaki as a tale handed down in Antsohihy, Sofia Region, Mahajanga Province. One day, a poor fisherman named Butu caught a beautiful mermaid in a river. The mermaid told him that she knew Butu wanted a wife, and that was why she had entered his net. The mermaid transformed into a human form and became Butu's wife on the condition that he keep her true identity a secret. The mermaid possessed mysterious powers, and Butu's life became comfortable. However, one day, under the influence of alcohol, Butu revealed his wife's true identity. The wife used her mysterious powers to return Butu's house to its former shabby state and returned to the river. The next morning, when Butu sobered up, it was already too late, no matter how much he regretted it. == Arabian folklore ==

One Thousand and One Nights The One Thousand and One Nights collection includes several tales featuring "sea people", such as "Jullanâr the Sea-born and Her Son King Badr Bâsim of Persia". Unlike depictions of mermaids in other mythologies, these are anatomically identical to land-bound humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater. They can (and do) interbreed with land humans, and the children of such unions have the ability to live underwater. In the tale "Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman", the protagonist Abdullah the Fisherman gains the ability to breathe underwater and discovers an underwater society that is portrayed as an inverted reflection of society on land. The underwater society follows a form of primitive communism where concepts like money and clothing do not exist. In "The Adventures of Bulukiya", the protagonist Bulukiya's quest for the herb of immortality leads him to explore the seas, where he encounters societies of mermaids. == Americas folklore ==

The Neo-Taíno nations of the Caribbean identify a mermaid called Aycayia with attributes of the goddess Jagua and the hibiscus flower of the majagua tree Hibiscus tiliaceus. In modern Caribbean culture, there are a number of mermaids that are derived from West African originals and transplanted by enslaved West Africans. These include Watramama in Suriname and Guyana, Mamadjo in Grenada, Yemanya or Yemaya in Brazil and Cuba, Erzulie in Haiti, and Lamanté in Martinique. There is a mermaid recognized as a Haitian vodou loa called Lasirèn (from the French , "the mermaid"), representing wealth, beauty and romance, but also the possibility of death. Iara and Ipupiara In Brazilian folklore, the iara, also known as ''mãe-d'agua'' ("lady/mother of the water") is a water-dwelling beauty whom fishermen are prone to fall prey to. though the blond, blue-eyed image was not attested until after the mid-nineteenth century, to the best knowledge of Camara Cascudo. Cascudo in his earlier writing contended that though the Iara was rooted in two indigenous beings, the water-devil Ipupiara (cf. below) and the Cobra-Grande, he also saw the combining of the Portuguese lore of the Enchanted Moura (moorish girl), who was dark-skinned. The Iara became increasingly regarded as a woman-fish, after the image of the European sirens/mermaids. Again, modern commentary paints her as a "beautiful white woman ()", which would be consistent with the name Alamoa being an older form of , which now means "blonde, fair-skinned woman" whereas older literature describes her as fulvous or tawny (), though dressed in white, as according to (d. 1923). According to one telling, on Friday nights, the rock of Pico splits and emits a light beam, followed by Alamoa's appearance, attracting men; but she will then transform into skull and skeleton, resulting in disappearances, except cries of terror can be occasionally heard. The Alamoa evidently maintains an underwater palace as well. These elements (skull, light, palace) are lacking in European (Dutch) lore, though general similarity to Holland's mermaid has been suggested. == Reported sightings ==

Roman Lusitania and Gaul In his Natural History 9.4.9–11, Pliny the Elder, remarked that a triton (merman) was seen off the coast of Olisipo (present-day Lisbon, Portugal), During Henry Hudson's second voyage on 15 June 1608, members of his crew reported sighting a mermaid in the Arctic Ocean, either in the Norwegian or Barents Seas. Colonial Southeast Asia Seventeenth-century Visayas A type of mermaid referred to as "anthropomorphus" who also thought that the Philippine woman-fish tasted like fatty pork. The bones were made into beads (i.e., strung together), as it was believed effective against s (of the humours). Eighteenth-century Moluccas Allegedly captured in the Moluccas in the seventeenth century was the so-called "Amboina mermaid" (after the then Dutch Province of Ambon), which its leading researcher has referred to as Samuel Fallours's "Sirenne", after the man who came into possession of it and made an original painting of it in full color. The painting was reproduced by Louis Renard on the "Fish" of the region, first published in 1719, It was supposedly caught by Boeren in Ambon Province (Buru, in present-day Maluku Province), presumably around the years 1706–1712, or perhaps the year 1712 precisely. During this period, Fallours served briefly as soldier for the VOC (Dutch East India Company) starting June 1706, but turned associate curate (Krankbezoeker) for the Dutch Reformed Church (September 1706 to June 1712). Fallour's mermaid with additional details were described by François Valentijn in a 1726 book. The mermaid was 59 Dutch inches () long, or 5 feet in Rhineland measures. She reportedly survived 4 days 7 hours in a water tank, and died after refusing food it was given, having uttered no intelligible sound, The mermaid was suspected to be a dugong in reality, even by contemporary scholars such as Georg Rumphius, although Valentijn was unable to believe they were the one and the same. Leading researcher Theodore W. Pietsch concurs with the dugong identification, but an ichthyologist has opined that "I could more easily accept a small oar-fish, or another eel-like fish, rather than a dugong as a partial basis for the drawing", noting that Renard's book carries an illustration of a plausibly realistic dugong as well. U.S. and Canada Two sightings were reported in Canada near Vancouver and Victoria, one from sometime between 1870 and 1890, the other from 1967. A Pennsylvania fisherman reported five sightings of a mermaid in the Susquehanna River near Marietta in June 1881. Twenty-first century In August 2009, after dozens of people reported seeing a mermaid leaping out of Haifa Bay waters and doing aerial tricks, the Israeli coastal town of Kiryat Yam offered a $1 million award for proof of its existence. In February 2012, work on two reservoirs near Gokwe and Mutare in Zimbabwe stopped when workers refused to continue, stating that mermaids had hounded them away from the sites. It was reported by Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, the water resources minister. == Hoaxes and show exhibitions ==

Manufactured merfolk specimens 's Fiji mermaid (1842) A celebrated example of mermaid hoax was the Fiji mermaid exhibited in London in 1822 and later in America by P. T. Barnum in 1842; in this case an investigator claims to have traced the mermaid's manufacture to a Japanese fisherman. Fake mermaids made in China and the Malay Archipelago out of monkey and fish parts were imported into Europe by Dutch traders since the mid-sixteenth century, and their manufactures are thought to go back earlier, according to ichthyologist E. W. Gudger. The manufacture of mermaids from monkey and fish parts also occurred in Japan, especially in the Kyūshū region, In the middle of the seventeenth century, John Tradescant the elder created a wunderkammer (called Tradescant's Ark) in which he displayed, among other things, a "mermaid's hand". Mermaid shows Scantily clad women placed in watertanks and impersonating mermaids performed at the 1939 New York World's Fair. It was part of the "Dream of Venus" installation by Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. The mermaid interacted with Oscar the Obscene Octopus, and the ongoings were portrayed in E. L. Doctorow's novel ''World's Fair''. and was extremely popular in the 1960s, drawing almost one million tourists per year. Most of the current performers work part-time while attending college, and all are certified Scuba divers. They wear fabric tails and perform aquatic ballet (while holding their breath) for an audience in an underwater stage with glass walls. Children often ask if the "mermaids" are real. The park's PR director says, "Just like with Santa Claus or any other mythical character, we always say yes. We're not going to tell them they're not real". The Ama are Japanese skin divers, predominantly women, who traditionally dive for shellfish and seaweed wearing only a loincloth and who have been in action for at least 2,000 years. == Scientific inquiry ==

The topic of mermaids in earnest has arisen in several instances of scientific scrutiny, including a biological assessment of the unlikelihood of the supposed evolutionary biology of the mermaid on the popular marine science website DeepSeaNews. Five of the primary reasons listed as to why mermaids do not fit current evolutionary understanding are thermoregulation (adaptations for regulating body heat); evolutionary mismatch; reproductive challenges; digestive differences between mammals and fish; and lack of physical evidence. Mermaids were discussed in a scientific article by University of Washington emeritus oceanographer Karl Banse, written as a parody. == Arts, entertainment, and media ==

, Rhinemaidens, from The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie (1910). '' Becky Sharp as a man-killing mermaid, by the work's author William Thackeray. Literature The best-known example of mermaids in literature is probably Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, "The Little Mermaid", first published in 1837. Andersen's works has been translated into over 100 languages. One of the main literary influences for Andersen's mermaid was Undine, an earlier German novella about a water nymph who could only obtain an immortal soul by marrying a human. Andersen's heroine inspired a bronze sculpture in Copenhagen harbour and influenced Western literary works such as Oscar Wilde's The Fisherman and His Soul and H. G. Wells' The Sea Lady. Art and music Sculptures and statues of mermaids can be found in many countries and cultures, with over 130 public art mermaid statues across the world. Countries with public art mermaid sculptures include Russia, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Denmark, Norway, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, India, China, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Guam, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Saudi Arabia (Jeddah), the United States (including Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and Canada. An influential image was created by the Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse, from 1895 to 1905, entitled A Mermaid (Cf. figure, top of page). An example of late British Academy-style artwork, the piece debuted to considerable acclaim (and secured Waterhouse's place as a member of the Royal Academy), but disappeared into a private collection and did not resurface until the 1970s. It is currently once again in the Royal Academy's collection. Waterhouse's mermaid grooms her hair with comb and mirror, the stereotypical implements of the mermaid, likely designed to portray her as temptress, drawing men to destruction. In the modern age of course, the word "siren" is used as a synonym of femme fatale. Motion pictures Film depictions include Miranda (1948), Night Tide (1961), the romantic comedy Splash (1984), and Aquamarine (2006). In She Creature (2001), two carnival workers abduct a mermaid in Ireland and attempt to transport her to America. The film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides makes many uses of the mermaid theme. Disney's musical animated version of Andersen's tale, The Little Mermaid, was released in 1989. Notable changes to Andersen's story include removing the religious aspects of the fairy tale, including the mermaid's quest to obtain an immortal soul. The sea-witch herself replaces the princess to whom the prince becomes engaged, using the mermaid's voice to prevent her from obtaining the prince's love. However, on their wedding day the plot is revealed and the sea-witch is vanquished. The knife motif is not used in the film, which ends with the mermaid and the prince marrying. Heraldry In heraldry, the charge of a mermaid is commonly represented with a comb and a mirror, and blazoned as a "mermaid in her vanity". In addition to vanity, mermaids are also a symbol of eloquence. Mermaids appear with greater frequency as heraldic devices than mermen do. A merman and a mermaid are depicted on the coat of arms of Schouwen-Duiveland. A mermaid appears on the arms of the University of Birmingham, in addition to those of several British families. Images of a mermaid have symbolized Warsaw on its arms since the middle of the fourteenth century. Several legends associate Triton of Greek mythology with the city, which may have been the origin of the mermaid's association. The Cusack family crest includes a mermaid wielding a sword, as depicted on a memorial stone for Sir Thomas Cusack (1490–1571). Mermaids appear on the coat of arms of Ustka, Białobrzegi and Białobrzegi County (Poland), Seeboden am Millstätter See (Austria), Bray (Ireland), Santa Colomba de Curueño, Ruente, Bertizarana, Villanueva de la Serena (Spain), Päijät-Häme (Finland), Åsgårdstrand (Norway), Royat, Xammes, Lancieux, Erquy, Chens-sur-Léman, Didenheim, Wimereux (France), Eemsmond, Makkum, Uithuizermeeden (Netherlands), Waasmunster (Belgium), and Westerdeichstrich (Germany). The city of Norfolk, Virginia also uses a mermaid as a symbol. The personal coat of arms of Michaëlle Jean, former Governor General of Canada, features two mermaids as supporters. == Fandom ==