Editing Merrow (section)

==Folk tales==
[[Thomas Crofton Croker]]'s Second Volume to the ''Fairy Legends'' (1828) laid the groundwork for the folkloric treatment of the merrow. It was immediately translated into German by the [[Brothers Grimm]]. Croker's material on the merrow was to a large measure rehashed by such authors on the fairy-kind as [[Thomas Keightley]], [[John O'Hanlon (writer)|John O'Hanlon]], and the poet [[William Butler Yeats]].{{r|"kinahan"}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Kinahan vaguely puts this as "several volumes [of the ''Fairy Legends''] between 1825 and 1828". To be more precise, the first volume appeared in 1825, followed by a second edition in 1825. The Grimms published the German translation in 1825. Croker produced the second volume in 1828, with additional tales.<ref name=hennig/> And the additional tales included the merrow material.}} A general sketch of the merrow pieced together by such 19th century authors are as follows.

===Characteristics===
The merrow-maiden is like the commonly stereotypical mermaid: half-human, a gorgeous woman from waist up, and fish-like waist down, her lower extremity "covered with greenish-tinted scales" (according to O'Hanlon).{{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=56}} She has green hair which she fondly grooms with her comb.{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 6, 73|ps="The Lady of Gollerus", ''[[The Wonderful Tune]]''.}} She exhibits slight webbing between her fingers, a white and delicate film resembling "the skin between egg and shell".{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 5|ps="The Lady of Gollerus"}}

Said to be of "modest, affectionate, gentle, and [benevolent] disposition",{{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=56}} the merrow is believed "capable of attachment to human beings", with reports of inter-marriage.{{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=57}} One such mixed marriage took place in [[Bantry]], producing descendants marked by "scaly skin" and "membrane between fingers and toes".{{r|"kennedy-LFIC-p121"}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Croker notes that the O'Flaherty and the O'Sullivan clans of County Kerry believed themselves descended from a mixed marriage (with the merrow-kind), and the Macnamaras of County Clare believed their name derived from such ancestry.{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 16}}}} But after some "years in succession" they will almost inevitably return to the sea, their "natural instincts" irresistibly overcoming any love-bond they may have formed with their terrestrial family.{{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=57}} And to prevent her acting on impulse, her ''{{lang|ga|[[#Cohuleen druith|cohuleen druith]]}}'' (or "little magic cap") must be kept "well concealed from his sea-wife".{{r|"kennedy-LFIC-p121"}}

O'Hanlon mentioned that a merrow may leave her outer skin behind in order to transform into other beings "more magical and beauteous", {{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=57}} But in Croker's book, this characteristic isn't ascribed to the merrow but to the merwife of Shetlandic and Faroese lore, said to shed their seal-skins to shapeshift between human form and a seal's guise{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 13–16}} (i.e., the [[selkie]] and its counterpart, the ''{{linktext|kópakona}}''). Another researcher noted that the Irish merrow's device was her cap "covering her entire body", as opposed to the Scottish Maid-of-the-Wave{{Efn|{{langx|gd|maighdean na tuinne}}.}} who had her salmon-skin.{{sfnp|Kickingereder|2008|p=60}}

Yeats claimed that merrows come ashore transformed into "little hornless cows".{{sfnp|Yeats|1888|p=69}} One stymied investigator conjectured this claim to be an extrapolation on Kennedy's statement that sea-cows are attracted to pasture on the meadowland wherever the merrow resided.{{r|"kennedy-LFIC-p121"}}{{sfnp|Kinahan|1983|p=261}}

Merrow-maidens have also been known to lure young men beneath the waves, where afterwards the men live in an enchanted state. While female merrows were considered to be very beautiful, the mermen were thought to be very ugly.  This fact potentially accounted for the merrow's desire to seek out men on the land.{{sfnp|Yeats|1888|p=61}}

Merrow music is known to be heard coming from the farthest depths of the ocean, yet the sound travels floatingly across the surface.{{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=57}} Merrows dance to the music, whether ashore on the strand or upon the wave.{{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=58}}

===Merrow-men===
While most stories about merrow are about female creatures, a tale about an Irish merman does exist in the form of "[[The Soul Cages (story)|The Soul Cages]]", published in Croker's anthology. In it, a merman captured the souls of drowned sailors and locked them in cages ([[lobster pot]]-like objects) under the sea.{{sfnp|Keightley|1850|pp=527–536}}{{sfnp|Yeats|1888|p=69}} This tale turned out to be an invented piece of fiction (an adaptation of a German folktale), although [[Thomas Keightley]] who acknowledged the fabrication claimed that by sheer coincidence, similar folktales were indeed to be found circulated in areas of counties [[County Cork|Cork]] and [[County Wicklow|Wicklow]].{{sfnp|Keightley|1850|pp=536n}}{{r|markey}}

The male merrow in the story, called Coomara (meaning "sea-hound"{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 55}}), has green hair and teeth, pig-like eyes, a red nose, grows a tail between his scaly legs, and has stubby fin-like arms.{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 34}} Commentators, starting with Croker and echoed by O'Hanlon and Yeats after him, stated categorically that this description fitted male merrows in general, and ugliness ran generally across the entire male populace of its kind,{{sfnp|Kennedy|1866|p=121}}{{sfnp|Yeats|1888|p=69}}{{sfnp|Kinahan|1983|p=260}} the red nose possibly attributable to their love of [[brandy]].{{sfnp|Kennedy|1866|p=121}}

The ''merrow'' which signifies "sea maiden" is an awkward term when applied to the male, but has been in use for a lack of a term in Irish dialect for ''merman''.{{sfnp|Keightley|1850|pp=370n}}{{sfnp|Yeats|1888|p=61}} One scholar has insisted the term ''macamore'' might be used as the Irish designation for merman, since it means literally "son of the sea", on authority of Patrick Kennedy, though the latter merely glosses ''macamore'' as designating local inhabitants of the [[County Wexford]] coast.{{sfnp|Kinahan|1983|p=260n|ps= : The term "macamores" is glossed in Patrick Kennedy's ''Banks of the Boro'', p. 370}} Gaelic (Irish) words for mermen are ''{{lang|ga|murúch fir}}'' "mermaid-man" or ''{{lang|ga|fear mara}}'' "man of the sea".{{r|"o-hogain-mermaid"}}

===Cohuleen druith===
Merrows wear a special hat called a ''{{lang|ga|cohuleen druith}}'',{{efn|The spellings vary from ''{{lang|ga|cohuleen driuth}}''" (Croker), "''{{lang|ga|cohuleen druith}}''" (O'Hanlon, Kennedy), to "''{{lang|ga|cohullen duith}}''" (Yeats).}} which enables them to dive beneath the waves. If they lose this cap, it is said that they will lose their power to return beneath the water.{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 4}}{{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=57}}{{sfnp|Yeats|1888|p=61}}

The normalized spelling in [[Irish language|Irish]] is ''{{lang|ga|cochaillín draíochta}}'', literally "little magic hood" (''{{lang|ga|[[wikt:cochall|cochall]]}}'' "cowl, hood, hooded cloak" + ''{{lang|ga|-ín}}'' diminutive suffix + [[genitive case|gen.]] of ''{{lang|ga|[[wikt:draíocht|draíocht]]}}'').{{r|"zimmermann"}}{{r|"almqvist"}} This rendering is echoed by Kennedy who glosses this object as "nice little magic cap".{{r|"kennedy-LFIC-p121"}}

Arriving at a different reconstruction, Croker believed that it denoted a hat in the a particular shape of a [[matador]]'s "{{lang|es|[[montera]]}}",{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 18|ps="'from ''{{lang|ga|cuthdarún}}'', a sort of montera or monmouth cap"}} or in less exotic terms, "a strange looking thing like a cocked hat", to quote from the tale "[[The Lady of Gollerus]]".{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 13}} A submersible "cocked hat" also figures in the invented merrow-man tale "[[The Soul Cages (story)|The Soul Cages]]."

The notion that the ''{{lang|ga|cohuleen druith}}'' is a hat "covered with feathers", stated by O'Hanlon and Yeats{{sfnp|O'Hanlon|1870|p=57}}{{sfnp|Yeats|1888|p=61}} arises from taking Croker too literally.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kinahan|1983|p=261}}: "O'Hanlon was echoing Croker directly [when he wrote the paragraph on the ''{{lang|ga|cohuleen druith}}'' being] ‘generally covered with feathers...’..."; ‘The feathers on the merrow's cap’ are clearly a touch borrowed from O'Hanlon' in Yeats's case."</ref> Croker did point out that the merrow's hat shared something in common with "feather dresses of the ladies" in two ''[[Arabian Nights]]'' tales.{{efn|The tales of ''[[The Story of Janshah|Jahanshah]]'' and ''[[Hassan of Bassorah|Hassan of Bassora]]''.}}{{sfnp|Croker|1828|loc='''II''', 17}} However, he did not mean the merrow's hat had feathers on them. As other commentators have point out, what Croker meant was that both contained the motif of a supernatural woman who is bereft of the article of clothing and is prevented from escaping her captor.  This is commonly recognized as the "feather garment" motif in [[swan maiden]]-type tales.{{r|"bolte-polivka"}}{{r|"leavy"}} The ''{{lang|ga|cohuleen druith}}'' was also considered to be of red color by Yeats,{{sfnp|Yeats|1888|p=61}} although this is not indicated by his predecessors such as Croker.

An analogue to the "mermaid's cap" is found in an Irish tale of a supernatural wife who emerged from the [[freshwater]] [[Lough Owel]] in [[Westmeath]], Ireland. She was found to be wearing a [[fish leather|salmon-skin]] cap that glittered in the moonlight. A local farmer captured her and took her to be his bride, bearing him children, but she disappeared after discovering her cap while rummaging in the household.{{r|"rhys"}} Although this "fairy mistress" is not from the sea, one Celticist identifies her as a ''{{lang|ga|muir-óigh}}'' (sea-maiden) nevertheless.{{efn|The Celticist, [[Tom Peete Cross]] adds that the ''{{lang|ga|muir-óigh}}'' in Patrick Kennedy's example wears the "magic cap", i.e., the ''{{lang|ga|cohuleen druith}}''.}}{{r|cross}}

The Scottish counterpart to the merrow's cap was a "removable" skin, "like the skin of a salmon, but brighter and more beautiful, and very large", worn by the Maid-of-the-wave.{{sfnp|Kickingereder|2008|p=57–60}} It was called in [[Scottish Gaelic]] ''cochull'', glossed as 'slough' and "meaning apparently a scaly tail which comes off to reveal human legs",<ref name="bruford1980"/> though it should be mentioned that a ''cochull'' in the first instance denotes a piece of garment over the head, a hood-cape.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The word ''cochull'' denoted a piece of garment (hood-cape). The ''cochull craicion'' is explained to be a leather or skin cloak over the head and shoulders, such as became the nickname of [[Muirchertach mac Néill]] ({{lang|ga|na gcochull gcraiceann}}; 'of the Leather Cloaks', d. 943), a would-be [[High King of Ireland|high king]].<ref name="macadam"/> It is pointed out that in Scottish-Gaelic folklore the nickname is applied to fantastical figures, such as the Supernatural Smith<ref name="mcinnes"/> (usually identified as Lon mac Liomhtha, the forger of Finn's sword [[Mac an Buin]] according to the ''Duan na Ceardaich'' ("Lay of the Smithy") in ''Duanaire Finn''.<ref>{{harvp|McInnes|1986–1987|p=108}} and ''Duan na Ceardaich'' Str. 42, quoted pp. 109–113.</ref> Scottish lore speaks of a certain hag or sea-hag ({{langx|gd|Muilghertach, Muirghertach}}, quite similar sounding to the Irish king's name, and she too is applied the "of the leather cloak" ("{{lang|gd|A Mhuilgheartach nan cochull craicinn}}")) in derisive manner in  a [[waulking song]]. Muilghertach bears resemblance to the sea-ogress ''margýgr'' in Old Norse texts, in the opinion of [[Reidar Thoralf Christiansen]].<ref name="mcinnes"/>}}

The "fishtail-skin" mermaid folklore (as well as that of "seal-skin" seal-woman/[[selkie]]) are found all over the Irish and Scottish coasts.<ref name="bruford1980"/>