Editing Merrow (section)

==Overview==
The term appears in two tales set in Ireland published in the 19th century: "[[The Lady of Gollerus|Lady of Gollerus]]", where a green-haired merrow weds a local [[County Kerry|Kerry]] man who deprives her of the "magical red cap" (''{{lang|ga|[[#Cohuleen druith|cohuleen druith]]}}''); and "[[The Soul Cages (story)|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 rather a piece of fiction fabricated by [[Thomas Keightley]].

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