The mermaid of Galloway

The mermaid of Galloway

, Scotland
The tale: We are today familiar with tales of mermaids singing at sea, combing their golden hair and trying to attract sailors to be their lovers down below the waves. But fresh water has its mermaids too.

In one such folklore tale, the mermaid of Galloway lived in a beautiful burn, or watercourse, and every evening she would perch on a seat-shaped rock and give medical advice to the people who gathered to ask for her help. But a highly religious woman thought that this was the devil’s work, and, clutching her bible for protection, pushed the mermaid’s seat into the pond. The next evening when the mermaid appeared, she was distressed by the loss of her seat, and cried out, “You may look to your toom (empty) cradle/And I’ll look to my stane. And meikle [a lot] we’ll think, and meikle we’ll look/But words we’ll ne’er hae nane!” The next morning the religious woman’s baby was found dead in its cradle. In retaliation the local folk filled in the Dalbeattie Burn with stones and dirt, and the mermaid was never seen again.

Fresh water is perceived to be life-giving and healing; the many sacred wells associated with saints speak to older traditions of kindly female spirits dwelling in watery plac es.