Other Divinities of the Sea
Besides these principal divinities of the sea, the Northern nations believed in mermen and mermaids, and many stories are related of mermaids who divested themselves for a brief while of swan plumage or seal-garments, which they left upon the beach to be found by mortals who were thus able to compel the fair maidens to remain on land.
“She came through the waves when the fair moon shone
(Drift o’ the wave and foam o’ the sea);
She came where I walked on the sands alone,
With a heart as light as a heart may be.”
L. E. R.
There were also malignant marine monsters known as Nicors, from whose name has been derived the proverbial Old Nick. Many of the lesser water divinities had fish tails; the females bore the name of Undines, and the males of Stromkarls, Nixies, Necks, or Neckar.
“Where in the marisches boometh the bittern,
Nicker the Soul-less sits with his ghittern,
Sits inconsolable, friendless and foeless,
Wailing his destiny, Nicker the Soul-less.”
From Brother Fabian’s Manuscript.
In the middle ages these water spirits were believed sometimes to leave their native streams, to appear at village dances, where they were recognised by the wet hem of their garments. They often sat beside the flowing brook or river, playing on a harp, or singing alluring songs while combing out their long golden or green hair.
“The Neck here his harp in the glass castle plays,
And mermaidens comb out their green hair always,
And bleach here their shining white clothes.”
Stagnelius (Keightley’s tr.).
The Nixies, Undines, and Stromkarls were particularly gentle and lovable beings, and were very anxious to obtain repeated assurances of their ultimate salvation.
The Neckan
J. P. Molin
Many stories are told of priests or children meeting them playing by a stream, and taunting them with future damnation, which threat never failed to turn the joyful music into pitiful wails. Often priest or children, discovering their mistake, and touched by the agony of their victims, would hasten back to the stream and assure the green-toothed water sprites of future redemption, when they invariably resumed their happy strains.
“Know you the Nixies, gay and fair?
Their eyes are black, and green their hair—
They lurk in sedgy shores.”
Mathisson.