Four Things I Learned About Mermaids

When I was older than I'd care to admit, Discovery Channel came out with a mockumentary about mermaids: their folklore, their history, and most importantly, what it might look like if they were real, and we were discovering them for the first time. It was a great film EXCEPT they did a poor job of announcing that it was all fake at regular intervals. So poor really-way-too-old-for-this me stumbled upon this program about one third of the way through and thought it was real for ninety blissful, dream-making minutes until the end credits when they set my hopes on fire and put them through a trash compacter.

I pride myself on being a logical, well-informed person, but there's just something about mermaids that delights me. The very idea of something existing on this earth that we may not have discovered yet seems insane, but we know more about the surface of Mars than we do about the deepest parts of the sea. Just yesterday, I heard on NPR that a new species of killer whale was discovered. Just this week! A huge marine mammal! (Excuse me while I geek out.) Part of being a writer is having an active imagination, right?

Perhaps this is why, after years of "maybe someday," my first really viable novel idea is about mermaids. I respect a well-researched novel, so here are a few things I learned today:

1. In 2012, construction on vital water reservoirs came to a halt in Zimbabwe because workers reported being terrorized by mermaids. They were only able to resume after completing a ritual involving locally-brewed beer.

2. After several reported sightings in 2009, the town of Kiryat Yam in Israel offered a one million dollar prize to anyone who could provide proof of a mermaid living in Haifa Bay. (There are a couple of delightfully unconvincing videos on YouTube related to this.)

3. In One Thousand and One Nights, mermaids are portrayed as being indistinguishable from normal humans, except for their ability to breathe and live underwater. (This was particularly relevant to the book idea I am working on. I can't wait to read some of these stories!)

4. Alexander the Great's sister, Thessalonike, is said to have turned into a mermaid. She swims in the Aegean sea and asks sailors, "Is King Alexander alive?" If they answer poorly, she creates rough seas in anger and sadness.

Bonus: In the Harry Potter movies, they specifically designed their CGI mermaids to move their tails back and forth (like a shark) rather than up and down to make them look as alien and fanciful as possible.

I'm not going to say I believe in mermaids. But I don't not believe in them.