The mermaid theme is quite complex, intricate and layered. Here ideas about nature, and about the soul, and a social theme, and a medical one are intertwined. According to an already well-established tradition, I will consider here only the social side of this folklore phenomenon, since it has not been specifically written about it anywhere, although there are a lot of tips.
The image of mermaids is extremely poetic and metaphorical. A typical description of these virgins can be found on Wikipedia (I will highlight the most important):
Basically, this article says everything you need to do in order to compose a human portrait of a mermaid. You just need to recall a few folk metaphors and apply them to the theme of mermaids, which we will do, going through all the points highlighted above.
Simple haired
Everything is simple here. Loose hair is a sign of infantilism. Only young children were allowed to walk disheveled. Loose, untied curls show frivolity, violent disposition, disobedience, irresponsibility. This is pure energetic energy, natural, Velesova. This will be so until the parents and educators tame her, teach the "wild head" the rules of life and society. Changes in the status of boys were noted at the first signs of puberty with a special hairstyle - an aggressive tuft, which later, when the young man finally took responsibility for his actions in front of society, was braided (metaphorically curbed) in a braid or its semblance. Likewise, for girls - the braid symbolized the psychological readiness to become a wife (and after the wedding, the braid will generally be hidden with a headdress). It's eloquentbut a wordless system of social signs that exclude unnecessary questions about the status of both sexes.
In mermaids, we see loose hair, which they like to comb. Loose hair is a loose morals. Bad manners, incontinence. Women were allowed to publicly bare their hair only during the ritual Lamentation, grief (not necessarily funeral). Here, too, there is a kind of moral grief, which has become a part of the life of the "mermaids", but it is not at all ritual, not correct. And no matter how they scratched their hair, they cannot be braided into a braid. Therefore, the expression "walks like a mermaid" is really a stern reproach to the young maiden.
Promotional video:
Desire to get dressed
This metaphor is connected with the theme of bereinas and ghouls, telling us that the torn sundresses of mermaids, or their absence at all, are a symbol of deviation from social rules. Clothing is an outfit, a shell, a mask. It is restraint, a bond of morality. Ghouls gnaw at their clothes and skin, wanting to free themselves from the shackles of morality. Mermaids have the same thing. The only difference is that the ghouls are eager to break out, beyond the restraining boundaries, and the mermaids have already done this, their outfit is already tattered, mistakes have already been made.
Weaving wreaths
This is a spring-summer ritual action captured in round dance motives. The meaning of the wreath lies in its round protective shape and vitia strength. Simply put, he personifies girlish innocence.
Here is an example of one round dance song, quite funny, I must say, but typical, reflecting the girl's feelings that her "wreath" will go to the old man (in all the songs it is frankly sung about the desire to marry a peer, and marriage with old people, as well as with too young compared to a girl, is recognized as a misfortune):
During the round dance period, the maiden ritually lowers the wreath into the river, demonstrating her willingness to part with her virginity. The guys tried to grab this wreath, showing their willingness to snatch and its owner. An erotic compliment.
And during the pre-wedding bachelorette parties, the bride traditionally dismissed her prepared wreath, distributing parts of it to virgin girlfriends. Another non-verbal speaking sign.
The constant weaving of wreaths by mermaids symbolically shows us their main complex - "eternal brides". And this is against the backdrop of their special passion for men, whom they are ready to “tickle to death” … Well, well, now it’s so called))
Unbaptized
Yes, this is extremely important. Unbaptized virgins became mermaids. But religion has nothing to do with it.
The fact is that baptism is, in fact, a rite of birth (which at one time was brilliantly shown in the magazine spr-i-ng). It was during baptism that the generic naming was carried out. So, if young men were baptized even before the wedding with the traditional hair cutting in many nations, leaving only a branded "forelock" or "tuft" on the head (perhaps at the age of 9-10 years old, as will be shown in the song below; and indeed in myths, too, 9-year periods of life often appear), then the girls had a little differently - they were baptized during the wedding, they were given a new generic (through the husband's line) name (now I don't remember in which of the books of the 19th century it was mentioned, but as I find - I will add).
Therefore, the “unbaptized” in this case are just not married. That is why mermaids weave their wreaths endlessly
Drowned women
In folk songs, the theme of marriage is revealed by one of the main metaphors - drowning in the river or saving from drowning by a good fellow. This theme in fairy tales took on the epic proportions of sacrificing a virgin to a sea monster and saving from it by a hero.
Moreover, often metaphorical drowning occurs in front of the mother, and the girl seems to say goodbye to her.
In such songs, the symbolic river is called by its sacred name Danube, regardless of whether the real Danube flows nearby or not. It's just that we are not talking about the geographical Danube at all.
Down the Danube, along the bank
There Annushka charms soap;
Having washed the spell, let it go;
When she let it go, she said:
Taking into account the tradition of drowning in water during baptism, one can imagine where the image of drowning in the river came from, but this still needs to be thought about separately.
However, the strong connection of the girl in the water with the round dance motives of dating with the "dear friend" has been established long ago, examples of which can be found in the works of E. V. Anichnikov. in the book "Spring Ritual Song in the West and among the Slavs" (1905).
In some songs the Danube is associated with a guy going to a round dance. Or it acts as an impersonal personification of a love mood.
Round dances often ended with the abduction of the virgins, that is, dates. Actually for that the girls went to play, to show off. And if the girl was well-mannered, then the dates were relatively innocent. But there were other cases as well. For example:
This says it all: the young girl spent the whisk on the young boy, for which her mother beats her. After all, now she will not see suitors, after she, as it was said in the previous song, “Has muddied with water, twisted with sand”, now she is expecting an illegitimate child.
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Here, in fact, is the whole portrait of our Mermaids. These are girls who disgraced themselves before the wedding, succumbing to their spring impulses (which are described in the songs in all their glory) and the sweet speeches of unreliable "dear friends". Victims of their own simple-haired wildness.
The further fate of such brides is very sad: the first option is unlikely - a guy (we are not talking about honest young men in love) takes his head and marries the unfortunate one; the second option is the same hated marriage with an “old man”, to whom even such a wife will do in the household (an extra argument in his favor: “If I hadn’t picked you up …! So obey”); third - life with parents as a burden until their death, which only delays the next option; fourth - the maiden is kicked out of the house in shame, and now she is on her own. And this is the worst thing that could happen to her. After all, what can she do in the peasant world? To plow the field? In what? The field belongs to the family that drove it out. Without male and clan protection, she, one might say, had no chance of a decent existence.
That is why we come across references to mermaids making a cradle for their baby or fishing on the lake - you need to eat something, and even raise a child …
Considering the folklore data on the abduction of men by mermaids, we can say that such women became harlots (well, or simply “available” as opposed to “correct”). No wonder in the tale of Ivan Vodovich two brothers disperse at a crossroads: one goes "to death" - to save the maidens from the sea monster (we already know what that means), and the second - "to walk with the girls. Already from the very motive of the divergence of the paths of the two twins, it is clear that the girl is not the girl, and if Fedor is determined, then Ivan has not yet walked up. It's just time to walk with mermaids!
And all these tales about "see a mermaid, don't look at her" are designed to keep a man from fornication with shameful (or, as it was said in Wikipedia, "cursed") girls: the man doesn't care, but it's immoral from the standpoint "Decency"; well, and there was always a possibility that a man would fall in love with a “mermaid”, which was not approved by “decent people”, then “completely disappeared”, “was dragged away by the mermaid”.
In this regard, the data on the connection between images of mermaids and sirens are interesting. After all, from the Greek legends we know that the Sirens live on a separate island and invite sailors with their sad song. The songs are such that it is impossible not to succumb. This is understandable: the sailors have been at sea for several days (the sea can be replaced by a land voyage), and here free and liberated women are far from "decent people." Nobody will know, nobody will judge! You can stay a little longer. In the myths, Jason and Odysseus, as the embodiment of true role models for all young men, from the point of view of morality (they brought up the worldview with myths), of course, “tie themselves to the mast” so as not to be tempted by the Sirens. The symbol of binding is curbing your impulses.
Well, society could not help but put a bad reputation on poor women who want male attention (in the hope of patronage for themselves or their children), declaring them murderers, monsters, etc. If only potential suitors did not visit them.
This moment is interesting because it shows us female solidarity. For it is difficult to believe that everyone, as one, was perfectly chaste and did not succumb to the spring hormonal intoxication and the "heroes" purring around. In German and French songs, girls run after suitors from a noble family in the hope of becoming their wives (against which the "evil" and "incomprehensible" parents warned). So what was stopping the guys from taking advantage of the situation? And in the stories about the Sirens, we already see a certain female organization ["Sirens" - "Gray, orphaned"? Lithuanian "šeirė̃" means "widow", that is, it is not so much about the lost parents, but about those who have lost their patronage (family or husband)]. It is true: not accepted by their own society, the "fallen" organized their own. One virgin can do little, but the group is already power. A kind of community of "harlots"living separately from the people, but still visiting villages in order to find a husband (the appearance of mermaids coincides with the spring and summer periods of village romance), well, or visit their parents.
Fallen women (and maybe widows along with them) retired to the forests, becoming something like witches, because try to survive without the ability to protect yourself, heal, provide food, give birth and raise children on your own.