20 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



water, which exactly resembled the tail of a fish, with a 

 broad fane at the end of it." 



Thormodus Torfaeus * maintains that mermaids are found 

 on the south coast of Iceland, and, according to 01afsen,t 

 two have been taken in the surrounding seas, the first in the 

 earlier part of the history of that island, and the second in 

 1733. The latter was found in the stomach of a shark. Its 

 lower parts were consumed, but the upper were entire. 

 They were as large as those of a boy eight or nine years 

 old. Both the cutting teeth and grinders were long and 

 shaped like pins, and the fingers were connected by a large 

 web. Olafsen was inclined to believe that these were 

 human remains, but the islanders all firmly maintained 

 that they were part of " a marmennill," by which name the 

 mermaid is known among them. 



Of course the worthy bishop of Bergen, Pontoppidan, 

 has something to tell us about mermaids in his part of 

 the world. " Amongst the sea monsters," he says, % " which 

 are in the North Sea, and are often seen, I shall give the 

 first place to the Hav-manden, or merman, whose mate 

 is called Hav-fruen, or mermaid. The existence of this 

 creature is questioned by many, nor is it at all to be 

 wondered at, because most of the accounts we have had of 

 it are mixed with mere fables, and may be looked upon as 

 idle tales." As such he regards the story told by Jonas 

 Ramus in his ' History of Norway,' of a mermaid taken by 

 fishermen at Hordeland, near Bergen, and which is said to 

 have sung an unmusical song to King Hiorlief. In the 

 same category he places an account given by Besenius in 

 his life of Frederic II. (1577), of a mermaid that called 



* Historia reriim Norvegicarum. 



\ Voyage en Islande, torn. iii. p. 223. 



X ' Natural Historj' of Norway,' vol. ii. p. 190. 



