The Sorcerer's Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter (55 page)

Many supernatural beings of folklore and myth are closely associated with water, yet not classified as merfolk. The best known of these creatures are naiads, sirens, and selkies. Although often mistaken for or confused with mermaids, each possesses distinctive and remarkable characteristics.

Naiads originated in Greek mythology and comprise one of the three main classes of water nymphs. (The other two are nereids, who dwell in the Mediterranean Sea, and oceanids, who live in the oceans.) Naiads inhabit bodies of fresh water, such as rivers, lakes, fountains, and springs. In ancient times, every major spring was believed to have a resident naiad, who gave the water special healing or prophetic powers. People were welcome to drink from the spring, but bathing was forbidden. Those who ignored this restriction were punished with illness or were driven mad. Although the naiads lived exclusively in water, they resembled humans and did not have tails or fins like mermaids.

Sirens also originated in Greek mythology, and, like naiads, inhabited rivers. However, when they offended the goddess Aphrodite, she turned them into malicious creatures with a bird’s body and a woman’s head and they went to live on an uninhabited island off the southern coast of Italy. Despite their anatomical differences, sirens are often confused with mermaids because of their similar seductive musical abilities. Sailors who passed the sirens’ island and heard their beautiful song were inevitably lured off course and fatally dashed against the rocks. Legend holds that the hero Odysseus was able to save himself from this doom by ordering his men to stuff their ears with wax and lashing himself to the mast of his ship as they passed the sirens’ island.

Selkies are creatures that look like seals and are said to live near the British islands of Orkney and Shetland. Female selkies can shed their sealskins and come ashore in the guise of beautiful women. If a human male finds the skin, he can force the selkie-woman into marriage. If she is able to locate her skin again, she will return to the sea, leaving her husband and children behind. Like mermaids, selkies will avenge any harm or insult by causing fierce storms or sinking ships.

Stories of marriages between mermen and human women also exist, but these are less common, probably because unlike their female counterparts, mermen are known to be grotesquely ugly. In fact, some cultures describe great differences between mermen and mermaids, claiming that mermen loathe mankind, do not desire souls, make brutal husbands, and even eat their own children.

Despite centuries of belief in merpeople, no such creature has ever been found. From medieval times until quite recently, mermaid sightings were reported by many respectable gentlemen, including sailors in the employ of Christopher Columbus and Henry Hudson, but no physical evidence has ever been produced. Some enterprising con men have exhibited so-called mermaids, but these have all turned out to be fakes. P.T. Barnum, for example, constructed the “Feejee mermaid” by sewing the top half of a monkey to the bottom half of a large fish. As for mermaid sightings reported by responsible citizens, scholars attribute these to mistakenly identified seals, walruses, manatees, or dugongs (Asian cousins of the American manatee). All of these animals frequently float upright and breast-feed their young like human mothers. Of course, if you’ve seen any of these creatures, you know they are not easily mistaken for the beautiful hair-combing, song-singing women of myth. But the people who most often spotted “mermaids” were sailors who’d been at sea for months or years. So maybe it’s not so hard to understand why their eyes rewarded them with an image of a beautiful woman instead of yet another chubby dugong.

he ability to conjure and enchant, fly through the air, appear as an animal, and heal with magic herbs all earn the sorceress Morgana her place on a Chocolate Frogs trading card. Also known as Morgan le Fay, sister or half-sister to King Arthur, Morgana is a versatile fictional character who appears in the literature and legends of Britain, Italy, and France. Sometimes she’s a goddess, sometimes a
witch
, a
hag
, an enchantress, or a
fairy
. Whichever guise she takes, her strong personality and supernatural skills make her a figure to be reckoned with.

Morgana makes her first appearance in Arthurian legend in the thirteenth-century writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who refers to her as Morgan le Fay (the fairy) and describes her as a learned and beautiful woman with healing powers and the ability to fly and change shape. She lives with her eight sisters on the island of Avalon. When King Arthur is wounded in his final battle, Morgan brings him to Avalon, lays him on a golden bed, and restores him to health. In many later accounts, Morgan is said to have learned her healing and other magic from
Merlin
.

A nineteenth-century depiction of Morgan le Fay casting a spell
. (
photo credit 58.1
)

In the late Middle Ages, when witchcraft was becoming a matter of grave concern in Europe, a powerful woman who could perform
magic
was an object of suspicion, even if she was merely a fictional character. As a result, new versions of Arthurian legend began to portray Morgan le Fay in a negative light. In Thomas Malory’s
Le Morte d’Arthur
, Morgan appears as a thoroughly evil character, bent on using her magic to destroy her brother, his queen, and his court. Knowing Arthur is vulnerable without his magic sword, Excalibur, she steals it and gives it to Arthur’s enemy in the hope that it will be used to kill the king. On another occasion, Morgan gives her unwitting brother an enchanted cloak, apparently as a peace offering. He is saved at the last moment from putting it on and being reduced to smoldering coals. Pursued by Arthur’s men, Morgan escapes by turning herself into a stone.

Beyond Arthurian legend, Morgana appears in Irish folklore as a wicked fairy who enjoys frightening people and in Scottish folklore as the mistress of a castle inhabited by a band of evil fairies. In the Italian epic poem
Orlando Furioso
, Morgana is an enchantress who lives at the bottom of a lake, dispensing treasure to those who please her. She is also related to the Morganes or Morgens—
mermaids
said to live off the coast of France. It is perhaps a testament to the dual nature of Morgana’s character that in some tales the sailors who encounter these mermaids are doomed; in others, they are welcomed into a magnificent underwater paradise.