The Penguin book of mermaids / edited by Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown.

9780143133728 (paperback)
0143133721 (paperback)
9780525505570 (electronic book)

New York : Penguin Books, 2019.

English

xxix, 330 pages ; 20 cm

GR910 .P34 2019

398.21

Among the oldest and most popular mythical beings, mermaids and other merfolk have captured the imagination since long before Ariel sold her voice to a sea witch in the beloved Disney film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." As far back as the eighth century BC, sailors in Homer's Odyssey stuffed wax in their ears in order to resist the Sirens who lured men to their watery deaths with song. More than two thousand years later, the gullible New York public lined up to witness a mummified "mermaid" specimen that the enterprising showman P.T. Barnum swore was real. The Penguin Book of Mermaids is a treasury of such tales about merfolk and water spirits from different cultures, ranging from the Scottish selkies to Hindu water-serpents to Chilean sea fairies. A third of the selections are published here in English for the first time, and all are accompanied by commentary that explores their undercurrents, showing how public perceptions of this popular mythical hybrid at one a human and a fish illuminate issues of gender, spirituality, ecology, and sexuality.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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