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Merrow


Merrow (from Irish murúch, Middle Irish murdúchann or murdúchu) is a mermaid or merman in Irish folklore. The term is Irish-English.

The word appears in two tales set in Ireland published in the 19th century: Lady of Gollerus, where a green-haired merrow weds a local Kerry man who deprives her of the "magical cap" (cohuleen druith); and The Soul Cages where a green-bodied grotesque male merrow entertains a fisherman at his home under the sea.

These tales with commentary were first published in T. C. Croker's Fairy Legends (1828). William Butler Yeats and others writing on the subject borrowed heavily from this work. The Soul Cages turned out not to be a genuine folktale, but piece invented by Thomas Keightley.

A number of other terms in Irish are used to denote a mermaid or sea-nymph, some tracing back to mythological tracts from the medieval to the post-medieval period. The Middle Irish murdúchann is a siren-like creature encountered by legendary ancestors of the Irish (either Goidels or Milesians) according to the Book of Invasions. This, as well as samguba and suire are terms for the mermaid that appear in onomastic tales of the Dindsenchas. A muirgheilt, literally "sea-wanderer", is the term for the mermaid Lí Ban.


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