Don’t mess with river mermaids

I never ever knew that there were mermaids in rivers and fresh water as well as in the sea; having spent so much of my childhood on rivers, by rivers and in rivers too, I’m actually not surprised, all sorts of things live under the tranquil surface of rivers and streams. I was listening to  the radio and came across a programme called ‘Lore of the Land’ presented by Dr Carolyne Larrington who in this episode was visiting Marden in Herefordshire; she was out of the studio and walking along beside the River Lugg, with Sophia Kingshill. Sophia Kingshill is the author of The Fabled Coast, which sounds a most interesting book , and has what the programmed described as ‘a unique area of expertise – mermaids’. The book is ‘a maritime compendium of British and Irish material, tracking tales and yarns’, according to Adam Thorpe who wrote a fascinating review of it.

Back to the programme, and I learnt about Nelly Longarms, Peg Powler and Jenny Greenteeth, fampus mermaids who pulled children to their deaths below the weedy green surface of the local rivers. No all mermaids are malign, although their relationship with local humans is not always happy or without problems. One of the most famous river mermaids is Sabrina, who gives her name to the River Severn, as written about by John Milton in ‘Comus’:

Sabrina fair
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lillies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair,
Listen for dear honours sake,
Goddess of the silver lake,
Listen and save.

In Comus, it’s clear that river mermaids, or goddesses were seen as a personification of the rivers themselves, and in Ben Aaonovitch’s series about the Rivers of London, these river beings are actual characters. As you might guess from the title of the series, most of the novels are set in London; however the most recent one, Foxglove Summer is set in Herefordshire, where Carolyne Larrington and Sophia Kingshill were wandering.

Next time I’m by a river, I shall keep my eye out for a mermaid… I might even write about one in my next book!

Here is a link to the programme:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069b4ly

here is a link to Adam Thorpe’s review:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/03/fabled-coast-kingshill-westwood-review

and here is a link to an article about Foxglove Summer:

http://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/2014/12/review-foxglove-summer-ben-aaronovitch.htm