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NINGYO Japanese 'human fish' Appears first in the Nihonshoki in Osaka in the year 619 as a fish child. Ningyo bring good fortune & in some cases immortality as in the myth of Happyaku bikuni, an 800 year old nun who ate a Ningyo as a child 🎨Hsu; Meyer

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2020-12-09

"Lo, the evening has come down upon the shore
And in the fading light the seabirds come flying to their nests.
Who knows when the chains will be off,
and the boat, like the last glimmer of sunset,
vanish into the night?"

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2020-12-09

Good Afternoon and fans - Love to see your posts and read your stories - hope your day is productive and whimsical

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2020-12-09

Japanese koi fish, also called Japanese carp, are by themselves unremarkable, lackadaisical fish. But every once in a while, one becomes ambitious: if they can jump to the top of a waterfall, they transform into a dragon! This inspired the famed Pokemon Magikarp

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2020-12-09


The booming cry of the is heard around swamps, billabongs & creeks in - Rarely seen, this shy water dweller is usually benevolent! Could it be a descendent of the largest ever to have existed?

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2020-12-09

Always liked this illustration by John Bauer for the story “Agneta and the Sea King”. The fact that one never gets a good look at the Sea King’s face always made that character seem kind of ominous.

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Reverse Mermaid - a humorous spin on this ! 😉
The second image is actually a Magritte that became part of a bizarre press hoax in 1973: https://t.co/vcKfu0WvtZ
(I think we can agree we prefer original mermaids! 🙈)

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2020-12-08

The Mock Turtle's Song by
Lewis Carroll

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2020-12-09

The Nicole are water spirits on Brittany’s north coast; fairly benign but mischievous, they tangle fishing nets and loosen anchor cables.
Conversely, the south coast was once noted for a most malevolent mermaid who crushed children against rocks for mere sport.

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2020-12-08

Hans Christian Andersen's, "The Little Mermaid," illustrated by Edmund Dulac. The colours are sublime. The initiation of females into the world of men whilst their father is absent is what this story symbolises.

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2020-12-08

In the Hans Christian Andersen story, the Little Mermaid falls in love with a prince and is willing to give up her life in the sea in order to gain a human soul, become human, and be with him


Art by Kata Kiss

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2020-12-08

In Welsh folklore, the Gwragedd Annwn are beautiful female fairies who live beneath lakes and rivers. Also known as Lake Maidens.

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2020-12-08

Jörmungandr is the biggest underwater snake in the world. He is also very mean.

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2020-12-08

The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley was written as a satire to support Darwin's The Origin of Species.
Once a mainstay of British children's literature, it eventually fell out of favour, partly due to certain prejudices included in the book.

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2020-12-08

Greek myth had several classes of water spirits: Naiads are fresh bodies of water, Oceanids represent saltwater, and Nereids represent the Mediterranean, to say nothing of sea and river gods. Despite this any nymph can appear in other waters

🖼: J.W. Waterhouse

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Living in the river the terrifying dragged off unsuspecting victims & caused flooding in the Conwy Valley. Lured onto land by a beautiful young woman, the Afanc was captured & taken to a new home in the deep & secure in

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2020-12-08

Loch Iorsa on the Isle of Arran has it's very own monster myth. The loch's name means 'loch of the snakes/ serpents'. This serpent is perhaps a wurm, a dragon with no legs nor wings from folklore.
🎨 unknown

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2020-12-08

Undines are a category of beings associated with water,1st named in the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Later writers developed the undine into a water nymph, with adaptations like Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" and the Undine of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué

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The Mermaid

A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.

-William Butler Yeats

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2020-12-08