| Kernow: Land of Myths |
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Page 4 of 8 Mermaids Numerous villages and towns have their own mermaid story, usually about a sailor losing his heart to a ‘siren of the deep.’ The most famous example is the mermaid of Zennor (if you visit the church there you can see a carving of her image), but there are others such as the mermaid of Lamorna whose mournful cries would herald the approach of a storm or imminent shipwreck. Why is the mermaid such a popular and enduring figure in myth? I think it says something about our love of the ocean, and also of men’s fear of the ‘danger’ of alluring beauty. Is the call of sea; its beauty and its dangers, not made flesh in the myth of the mermaid?  The carving of the mermaid at Zennor Church. Picture by Tom Dymond. Researching the book was an entertaining, fascinating process. The trove of Kernowan stories is both rich and full, so much so that I had to be brutally selective and use only those myths that are particularly strong and which would best serve the purposes of the story. Apart from collecting some great material, what did I learn? That myths – and the need for them - is universal; that there are common themes and mythic beings (ghosts, lost lands, mermaids) in many cultures, but they really come to life when flavoured with Kernowan history, language and landscape. And that Ted Hughes was right, there is indeed ‘something’ here that is thoroughly exorcised elsewhere, (curiously the further west you go, the more tales you will find). And having studied the myths, visited the home of, and written about these tales, you may well ask… Do I think these myths spring only from fearful and fanciful imaginations or do they tap into something all together deeper and more disturbing, something that runs through the moors and cliffs of Kernow like blood under the skin of our waking, rational life. In other words, do I believe any of it? No, not at all…at least not here, at my desk, in the daylight, away from the cliff top at Botallack. Chris Vick’s novel Storm of the Magi – A Cornish Fantasy, is published by Truran, the Cornish Publisher ISBN 978 185022 208 8. Available from bookshops and from the Truran website (www.truranbooks.co.uk – books/fiction). £6.99. |
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