Cornwall it is located just next to the sea so there are lots of stories about mermaids in Cornwall and the Cornish mermaids are very typical mermaids.
They have long beautiful hair that they like to comb and they have beautiful singing voices and they are known as mermaids.
In the eastern tip of Cornwall there is a rock called the mermaid rock and there's a legend that if a mermaid is heard singing the ship is going to sink seven days after that.
Sometimes the mermaids are not so merry,
Sometimes they are angry and revengeful,
But usually there's a good reason for that.
There's a story from the city of Badstow.
There was a friendly mermaid who used to sit in a rock near the town's cove and she used to guide the ship safely through the river's camel into the harbour and one day a sailor shot her.
In her lasting breath the mermaid cursed the city of Badstow and never again would ship sail to the harbour of Badstow.
Soon a storm rose destroying a number of craft in the area.
In the river's mouth the turbulent tides deposited huge masses of sand which floundered all the ships.
So these waters that used to be very easy to navigate,
They became too shallow for big boats and only small boats could make their way to Badstow and the mermaid's curse became true.
Mermaid of Zener is one of the most famous Cornish mermaid legends.
There was a beautiful young lady who was well poised and well dressed,
Well mannered and she fell in love to a man from Zener called Matthew Turella.
Matthew had a very handsome singing voice,
He was well known from his voice throughout Cornwall and he used to perform in churches and the lady was mesmerized by his voice and she would come to church to listen to him and Matthew was captivated by this mysterious beautiful young lady,
But nobody really knew a lot about her,
Where she came from and who she was.
One Sunday after the church Matthew followed her to the rocks where the woman was gazing at the sea and he never returned to Zener.
And years later a captain waited an anchor near Zener and a mermaid appeared to him and said him in a very beautiful voice that could he lift the anchor for it laid in the roof of her underwater home where she lived together with Matthew Turella.
The name of mermaid was Morveren,
She was the daughter of the sea god Lir and the fishermen and sailors in Zener still say that sometimes on the sea they can hear Matthew singing and his voice soaring in the waves.
If he sings high the sea will be smooth but if he sings low it is going to be stormy and waves will be rough and high.
In Cornwall there is a bas-relief in a church from a 16th century that portraits the mermaid of Zener.
She has a mirror in one hand and a comb in another.
So why there are mermaids portrayed in christian churches especially in medieval times?
When I lived in the UK I studied in the University of Wrexham.
There is a mermaid painted to the ceiling in one of the churches.
My friend said that it was because one of the old leaders of the town,
Their family was believed to be descended of mermaids.
So sometimes these mermaid reliefs are there in the churches to warn about the dangers of flesh and sometimes they are simply just good luck symbols for the fishermen.
We don't always know the reasons why they are there but it's very interesting to come across a mermaid in a church.
