”The Mermaid” is a short story written by Julia Blackburn. The story takes place in a small society, a fishing village, in the year 1410. The people in the village are closely connected to the sea. Their community is very unapproachable and old habits have left their stamp on all of them. When the young man finds the mermaid he is pretty sure that she is dead, but when he returns to the beach she is gone. The incident results in people blaming the mermaid for what has happened in the village after she was found.
The Short story is of course full of superstition. That is a matter of course because the title of the short story is called “The Mermaid”. I do not think that a mermaid has been seen yet, only in books and movies. One of the largest superstitions from the text: ”On the following morning a cow died for no good reason and the shoemaker’s wife gave birth to a baby with the head of a monstrous fish which only lived for a few hours” (Page 2, line 53).
Next I think that infatuation is an important theme. The young man lives in a small village with a very restricted life. He met an exotic woman and cannot get her out of his mind. He will probably search for her for the rest of his life.
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