In which fictional mermaids aren't all pink and purple sparkles and songs

 Don’t Ever Look at a Mermaid (Cornwall)

Once there was a young fisherman who met a mermaid face-to-face. 

Now that’s a rare thing, and it’s rarer still to meet a mermaid and live to talk about it because while they are pretty to look at, a mermaid would rather just drag a person down to the bottom of the sea than say “hello” like a civilized person.

This fisherman lived in a cottage by the sea with his wife and three children and a big brown dog. 

One day he was walking by the shore with the big dog at his heels.  The tide was out, and the sand was still wet.  Then suddenly, he heard a terrible cry of pain.

What could it be?

He followed the sound, up onto the rocks on the beach, and there he found a beautiful mermaid, struggling there to pull her scaley tail from where it was wedged between rocks.

As soon as she saw him, she called out “Have pity and help me!”

The fisherfolk all told each other, “Don’t look at a mermaid, for they will take you into the water and drown you there!”

But he was a kind man and didn’t like to see anything suffer. 

He started moving the rocks away from the tail, though his good dog barked and whined as he did it.

As he worked, she promised him things.  Riches, and power. 

But he wanted none of that. 

Then she said, “I can give you three wishes,” and he thought that sounded fine.

“All right,” he said.  “I’ll take three wishes.  And my first wish is that I could help people who are sick or injured, to heal them and make them strong again.”

“A healer,” said the mermaid.  “I grant you that.”

“My second wish is the power to break up fights and arguments so that people would not hurt each other.”

“A peacemaker,” said the mermaid.  “I grant you that.”

“My last wish is that these powers will come to my family when I die, so that the wishes will last forever.”

 “I grant you that too,” said the mermaid.  “Now, please carry me into the water.”

The fisherman picked her up—surprisingly heavy—and began to walk to the sea, with the dog barking and whining after.

When they got to the edge of the water, he started to put her down, but the mermaid sang a bit of song to befuddle his wits, and said “carry me in.” 

And he did, though that dog was barking and barking the whole time.

He waded in, and when the water came to the top of his boots he stopped, but the mermaid sang again and said, “carry me deeper.” 

And he listened to the song and not to the barking of his good dog.

He went deeper until the water was at his waist, but the mermaid sang. 

And he listened to the song and not the barking of his good dog.

He went deeper until the water was at his shoulders, for he could not swim with her clinging on. 

But she wrapped her wicked tail around him, and tried to take him deeper so that he would drown.

Just then that good dog barked again, the loudest and fiercest bark that man had ever heard. 

He looked at that dog and remembered the warnings of the fisherfolk.

“Let me go!” he shouted.  But she would not. 

He felt the water closing over his head, and then he remembered that he had his knife with him, his iron knife that he used to cut fishing lines and the like.

He drew out his iron knife. 

As soon as he did so, the mermaid let go of him, for she and all the magic folk want nothing to do with iron. 

“You are cleverer than I thought,” she said.  “You may keep your wishes, but for only seven years more.  Then I will claim you for the sea.”

 The man went home told his family what the mermaid had said. 

And they saw that he could now heal the sick and injured, he could make peace among people.

Many people travelled to him to ask for help, and he gave his help freely, so he never grew rich. 

And so it was for seven good years.

At the end of seven years, the man was out fishing with his eldest son.  Suddenly from nowhere came a great wave and at the top of the wave was the mermaid. 

He did not have his iron knife in his hand this time, and had no defense against the mermaid.  He was swept out to sea and never seen again.

But his sons, and his granddaughters, and their children after them, all inherited the powers to heal and make peace.  Their descendants are still among us.  

Watch for them and help them when you can.