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Mermaids, like many other creatures of mythology and folklore, are regularly depicted in literature, film and music. ==Literature== *''The Search for Delicious'' features a mermaid child named Ardis who helped a fairboy save his kingdom. *Sirens are creatures of Greek mythology, most famously featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''. In ancient accounts they are typically described as being part woman, part bird. But later classical portrayals, such as Herbert James Draper's ''Ulysses and the Sirens'', would attribute them merfolk features. *''Moby-Dick'' - In Chapter 126, "The Life-Buoy", the crew of the ''Pequod'' hear human-like cries in the night. Superstitious crewmen believe they are the sounds of mermaids or ghosts, which signify a bad omen. Captain Ahab scoffs at this, saying they have merely passed a seal colony in the night. His explanation does little to calm their nerves and the next day a crewman falls to his death from the masthead. *Perhaps one of the best known works featuring mermaids is Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale ''The Little Mermaid'' (1837), which has been translated into many languages. Andersen's portrayal, immortalized with a famous bronze sculpture in Copenhagen harbour, has arguably become the standard and has influenced most modern Western depictions of mermaids since it was published. The story has been retold in other films and television programs, and regularly features in collections of fairytales. It has been adapted into various media, the most famous of which is the 1989 Disney movie of the same name. *L. Frank Baum (creator of Oz) wrote a novel about merfolk, ''The Sea Fairies'' (1911). Later, in ''The Scarecrow of Oz'' (1915), the same characters are rescued from danger by the mermaids. * In E. Nesbit's ''Wet Magic'' (1913), four children hear that a mermaid has been captured by a circus, and rescue her. Their reward is to visit the hidden kingdom of the mermaids. *T. S. Eliot, in ''The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'' (1915), uses the metaphor of mermaids to emphasise Prufock's plight: "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me." *H. P. Lovecraft created a grim variant of merfolk lore via The Deep Ones in the novella ''The Shadow Over Innsmouth''. Man-fish creatures subservient to their patron gods Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, they had an affinity for intermarrying with humans and promoting the worship of The Old Ones. * One of the stories embedded in L. Sprague de Camp's ''The Goblin Tower'' (1968), told by the book's protagonist Jorian, is about a human king who fell in love with a mermaid. The story tells in hilarious detail of the couple's difficult efforts to physically consummate their love, which nearly ends in disaster (he nearly drowns in trying to have sex underwater, and she is nearly killed by his bodyguards in revenge). In the end, the king marries a human woman, though keeping a platonic friendship with the mermaid. *Mermaids appear in Poul Anderson's ''The Merman's Children'' (1979).〔John Grant and John Clute, ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'', "Mermaids" p 639 ISBN 0-312-19869-8〕 *In ''The Mermaid Summer'' (1988), a novel by Mollie Hunter, Eric Anderson must leave his island home when he incurs the wrath of a mermaid by speaking slightingly of her, and he can never return unless his grandchildren Jon and Anna confront and tame the mermaid. *In ''The Moon and the Sun'' (1997), a novel by Vonda N. McIntyre, Yves and Marie-Josephe de la Croix are siblings and natural scientists who capture and bring a mermaid to the court of Louis XIV. *In ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' (2001), J. K. Rowling writes of magical creatures in the Harry Potter world, including mermaids. They are described as in three different species: sirens, selkies and merrows. Similar to other humanoid magical creatures in this universe, they do not wield or understand magic themselves. They appear in the fourth and sixth books of the series. *''Aquamarine'' (2001), a novel by Alice Hoffman, is about two 13-year-old girls who discover a sassy teenage mermaid. The novel was popular among teen and preteen girls, and was made into a film released in 2006 by Twentieth Century Fox that starred Sara Paxton, Emma Roberts and JoJo. *"The Last Mermaid" - a short story by Brendan Connell in the collection ''Unpleasant Tales''. It relates how the last mermaid in existence was brought to the table of Carlos II of Spain.〔Unpleasant Tales, Eibonvale Press, 2010〕 *''Sereia de Curitiba'' (2007) - Rhys Hughes, in the connected stories that form this book, relates the adventures of a mermaid in a variety of locations, including Brazil, Madeira, Wales, and also on the moon, where she meets a species of mermaid with the heads of fish and lower bodies of humans who surf the dry lunar seas on motorised skateboards. *''The Chronicles of Narnia'' - CS Lewis mentions mermaids at the end of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', and Lucy sees a group of them in ''Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' and bonds silently with a young mermaid girl. *''Forgive My Fins'' - This novel by Tera Lynn Childs is about a half-mermaid princess who tries to win over the school's champion swimmer with unlikely results. *''The Forbidden Sea'' - Shiela A. Nielson's novel about a girl living on Windwaithe Island who tries to protect her sister from a mermaid that is living in the waters around the island. *''Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings'' - Helene Boudreau's novel about an aquaphobic mer-girl who tries to find her missing mermaid mother. *''Mermaid'' - Carolyn Turgeon's 2011 novel retells The Little Mermaid fairytale as a love triangle between the mermaid, the human princess, and the prince. *''Fins Are Forever'' - Tera Lynn Childs' 2011 summer sequel to ''Forgive My Fins''. *''Just For Fins'' (2012) - Tera Lynn Childs' third book in the series, after ''Forgive My Fins'' and ''Fins Are Forever''. *''The Mermaid's Mirror'' - L.K. Madigan's novel about a surfer girl who finds a mermaid. *''Meredith the Mermaid'' - Written by Ted Price, this is the supposedly true story of a mermaid, named Meredith Elzea, who is trapped in the landlocked American Midwest and desperately trying to escape back to the ocean so she can travel around the world to find her secret mermaid treasures. *The "Emily Windsnap" series by Liz Kessler, which consists of ''The Tail of Emily Windsnap'', ''Emily Windsnap and the Monster From the Deep'', ''Emily Windsnap and the Castle In The Mist'', and ''Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret'', is a middle-grade book series about a twelve-year-old girl who discovers she is half-mermaid and has several underwater adventures with her mermaid best friend Shona. *The 2010 novel ''Keeper'' includes mermaids and mentions a "mermaid mama." *''Lost Voices'' - Sarah Porter's book is the first in a trilogy about abused girls who become mermaids due to a traumatic event, who sing ships to their doom. *''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black has merfolk and other water creatures like kelpies, nixies and sea serpents. *''The Sisters Grimm'' series, written by Michael Buckley and illustrated by Peter Ferguson, has many characters from fantasy and fairy tales, including the Little Mermaid. *In the ''Goosebumps'' series written by R. L. Stine, the nineteenth book, ''Deep Trouble'' is about a boy named Billy Deep who finds a mermaid. *The ''Everworld'' series by K. A. Applegate has mermaids and mermen. They live underwater in the Roman version of Atlantis. *''Ice Massacre'' by Tiana Warner is about a teenage girl who is sent to battle a population of hostile mermaids that's driving her people into poverty. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mermaids in popular culture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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