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Author
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Comment
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dollydudes
Registered User
(3/21/06 6:21 am)
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another forgotten tale
hello all can anyone identify a story that involves a mermaid not sure it was a mermaid or water spirit being seen on shore by fisherman who fell in love with her and took her from her home.. she had 3 children with him and a good life but the spell was broken somehow and she was returned to sea but the fisherman used to find wet patches on floor of childrens beds where she would visit them secretly?would love to read this again.. thankyou.
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(3/21/06 8:33 am)
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Re: another forgotten tale
(Damn E-ZBoard lost my first posting of this.)
It's an Irish legend, though I'm not sure of the specific story you're referring to. In the story I'm familiar with, the water maid has a skin of seal which she dons each night to enter the sea. A fisherman find her and hides her skin in an old tree. Her children find it and return it to her. She then dons it and returns it to the sea.
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Nalo
Registered User
(3/24/06 11:01 am)
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Re: another forgotten tale
*nods* Usually called "The Seal Wife," I think? But I don't recognise the specific story.
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lisajensen
Unregistered User
(3/28/06 11:42 am)
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Mermaid Wife
In another version I remember, the wife is a mermaid, not a seal, and she wears an enchanted red cap. The fisherman finds her discarded cap while she's ashore in human form; he hides her cap so she can't return to the sea, marries her, and she's a model wife until her children find the cap and return it to her. At which point, she returns to the sea. There's a version of this tale called 'The Enchanted Cap' in Mary Pope Osborne's book "Mermaid Tails From Aound the World." I've come across it in folklore books too, but I can't remember which ones right off hand.
I think there are other versions of the tale where the magical object is a belt or a necklace or something (frequently red), besides the sealskin version.
Lisa
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