Scary and beautiful stories about mermaids. Scary stories and mystical stories
Fairy tale for preschool and primary school children
Egorova Galina Vasilievna.Position and place of work: teacher of home education, KGBOU "Motyginskaya comprehensive boarding school", Motygino village, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Description of material: This fairy tale is written for children of different ages. Therefore, it will be of interest to teachers primary classes and educators. This fairy tale tells how an evil witch became good. This fairy tale can be used in extracurricular reading lessons at school and for reading with the family. My daughter also took part in the composition.
Target: Formation of the significance and importance of friendship through the content of a fairy tale.
Tasks:
-educational: talk about the importance of having friends;
-developing: develop memory, attention, imagination, ingenuity, logical thinking, ability to analyze and draw conclusions;
- educational: cultivate a desire to have friends, a sense of empathy, and an interest in reading fairy tales.
Content
Once upon a time there lived a little mermaid named Zhemchuzhina in the underwater kingdom of Oceania. And although she was a mermaid, she still loved bright jewelry, shiny tops and shell hair clips. Very often she could be found at the mirror with new beads.
The entire family of the little mermaid was endowed with a magical gift. It was pearl magic. With its help, one could protect oneself from enemies, decorate one’s home, or turn into a person.
Very often balls were held in the underwater kingdom. And they invited seahorses, angelfish, giant squid, monkfish, hammerhead fish, crayfish, crabs, octopuses, green turtles, shrimp and starfish.
And now Zhemchuzhina’s birthday was approaching. Everyone was getting ready for big holiday. And no one even suspected the treachery that the evil sorceress Thorn was planning.
Zhemchuzhinka's parents invited musicians from the neighboring underwater kingdom to the ball. And her sisters put together a beautiful necklace from elite mother-of-pearl pearls. Well, the chefs did a great job! We prepared a tall, fluffy cake soaked in cream and decorated with pearls. Cakes dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with strawberries. Cupcakes with sweet vanilla aroma. The smell of all these sweets spread throughout the underwater kingdom.
Suddenly, in the midst of the fun, a witch appeared. She grabbed the little mermaid and rushed off with her on a trio of sea horses. There was silence, silence and bewilderment in the hall.
The evil witch hid the princess in a dungeon. Thorn wanted to ransom her. And she sent a letter to the king, which said: “If you want to get your daughter alive and unharmed, then I must receive seedlings of young pearls.”
The inhabitants of the underwater kingdom read the message and became thoughtful. They began to think about how they could return both the princess and deceive the sorceress. And this is what they came up with. They collected a basket of small clown fish eggs, sprinkled them with pearls, sent them to the evil witch and began to wait.
Stupid Thorn was delighted to receive the long-awaited ransom. She grabbed the heavy basket and sent the princess home. And what a surprise she was when, after a while, funny and funny fish - clowns - began to appear instead of pearls. The witch realized that she had been deceived. But I just didn’t get angry. The fish turned out to be very cute and beautiful. And really, why does she need these pearls when they gave her so many friends with whom she won’t be lonely.
Since then, Thorn has not bothered the inhabitants of the underwater kingdom with her pranks. She just became kind because she made friends. And now she was not bored with the mischievous clown fish. They were always trying to climb somewhere, or asking Thorn to play hide and seek with them, or just all reading a funny illustrated magazine together.
In a word, a truce has come in the underwater Odyssey.
Most people are well aware of the story of the little mermaid Ariel thanks to the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen and the cartoon by Walt Disney Studios. However, mermaids in East Slavic folklore- the phenomenon is not so cheerful and joyful and is associated with “wrong” death. By the way, they didn’t have any tails.
"Wrong" death
U Eastern Slavs, like many other peoples, it was believed that the dead were divided into two categories: those who died a “correct” and an “incorrect” death. Actually, the “correctly” dead are those who died a natural death, having lived the prescribed period. Suicides; babies killed by their mothers; unbaptized; died as a result of an accident; those who were cursed by their parents; sorcerers (those who were friends with evil spirits) etc. - died “wrongly”. Such people do not end up in the “other” world, they “live out” life (in this, by the way, there is a difference from the Christian understanding of “wrong” death, where a suicide committed a terrible sin, and death as a result of an accident does not mean anything “like that” leads). Everyone who died “wrongly” is dangerous to the living, they cannot be buried in the usual way and are unworthy of commemoration. Such dead people become mermaids, kikimoras, ghouls and various minor demons.
In science, the “wrong” dead are called “hostage” or walking. It is curious that ideas about such dead people were formed among the Slavs in ancient times, but are still preserved in a slightly modified form. By the way, very old people were also treated poorly, as they believed that they were “eating someone else’s age,” because it can’t just be a matter of good health, there is definitely witchcraft involved, as a result of which the witch/sorcerer feeds on the life force of flowering plants and living people and even cream from milk.
Who are called mermaids?
So who becomes a mermaid? The girl who died a “wrong” death; unbaptized or born dead child; rarely - a man, if he dies during Rusal Week (after or before the Trinity holiday). But still, as a rule, this is an engaged girl who drowned or drowned because of love. In this sense, Andersen's fairy tale about the little mermaid Ariel is surprisingly readable. After all, she sacrificed herself for her lover and became sea foam, in addition gaining a soul. As they say now: “broke the system.”
The origin of the word "mermaid" is a serious question. Among scientists there are different opinions on this matter, but more or less popular at the moment says that this word originates in the ancient festival of roses - rosalia, which was dedicated to the souls of the dead. At the same time, the image of a mermaid developed in the life of the ancient Slavs. But the Slavs, depending on the region of residence, called this creature in other words: “shutovka”, “devil”, “vodyanika”, “loskotukha” (from Ukrainian “shlopat” - “tickle”), “mavka”, “kupalka” ", "kazytka" (from the white "kazychut" - "tickle").
Mermaid image
The mermaid looks like this: no fish tail, white (the color of mourning in Ancient Rus') clothes, long flowing green (like sedge) or light brown hair and a flower wreath on the head (this is how they buried unmarried girls). They do not have a fish tail - this is a phenomenon characteristic of Western European legends and refers to the sea people about whom we wrote. The East Slavic image of mermaids was complemented by beauty, a pale face, cold hands and eyes closed, like a corpse, and an almost transparent body. Some beliefs say that they are as tall as trees. A less common popular image of a mermaid emphasizes her belonging to evil spirits: scary, ugly, overgrown with hair, hunchbacked, pot-bellied, clawed and with long, saggy breasts.
Mermaids usually live at the bottom of reservoirs, so children were warned not to go near wells. Mermaids are usually dangerous to people, although not always, like any evil spirit, they are able to turn into animals and objects used in human life. A mermaid kills a person by tickling him to death, but she can also bite, strangle, and pinch. Ideas about the activities of mermaids on land vary radically: either they harm the human economy, or they guard the livestock and help the crops grow well. By the way, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin did not invent the mermaid sitting on an oak tree himself. People said that during Mermaid Week, mermaids settle in forests and especially love oak and birch trees. The love of mermaids for vegetation, especially trees, is a distant echo of the belief that trees connect the world of the living and the other world. For a young man (mermaids especially love them), certain death is certain if he sits down to swing with such a mermaid on a branch or swing. And whoever the mermaid kills becomes a mermaid himself.
There is only one salvation for the one who gets to the mermaid - folk beliefs They say that you can pay her off: give her fabric or ready-made clothes so that she can cover herself or cover her child. The mermaid can even reward for such virtue supernatural ability or give a magic item.
You will laugh at me, but I want to tell you about a mermaid that happened in the summer. Although it may not have been a mythical creature, my friend and I have no other explanation.
It all happened on the night of the third to fourth of August, for some reason I remember this very clearly. My friend and I decided to go swimming in his car after a hot day, but we were late and arrived at our lake already at dusk. The lake is called Imandra, our Monchegorsk stands right, one might say, on it. These days, oddly enough, the weather was good, rain was soon promised, so we decided not to delay the moment.
We arrived at “our” place, only we know about it, and there have never been people there. We undressed, went into the lake, and by evening the water was already warm (although warm water here and, for example, in Sochi, are two different phenomena). We swam, climbed out onto the shore, sat and smoked. Calm, quiet, good. I don't even feel like talking.
And then they heard a quiet splash and something like laughter. I say something because it was very illegible, barely audible. We looked closer, along the shore, in the distance, about sixty meters away, two girls were swimming, having fun, splashing around. My friend immediately perked up, climbed into the water, and began noisily swimming butterfly to attract attention. And he succeeded. The girls turned around and waved at him, saying, swim to us.
Ilya says, let’s swim, maybe we’ll walk along the shore. But I resisted. I didn't like all this. In a deserted place, at night, girls are alone, swimming, flirting with men. It’s not that I’m always so suspicious, but here I just unconsciously tensed up. And a friend waves his hand at them, saying, come to us. This is where the worst thing happened.
She really swam, but not like ordinary people. In terms of speed, it was more like the movement of a motor boat, only smooth, without splashes. Ilyukha already realized that everything was going wrong somehow and managed to jump ashore, fortunately he was not far away, and these “girls” were near us in a matter of seconds. Here we were able to take a closer look at them.
The skin is strange, pale, with a whitish tint, the eyes are large, truly “fishy”, there is no other way to say it. But the worst thing is the jaw. She stuck out somehow strangely, at first we didn’t even understand why, but when one of them opened her mouth and we saw a small row of sharp teeth, our souls sank into our heels. Without saying a word, they rushed into the car and locked themselves from the inside. I keep thinking that now two creatures will crawl out onto the shore and who knows what will happen.
“These” two swam for about five minutes, not taking their eyes off us, but then the first one said something to her friend - although we didn’t hear a sound, we could only see an open mouth, after which they simply swam away from the shore and soon disappeared from view. We crawled out, not without trembling, quickly packed our things and left from there.
That's my whole scary story about mermaids. We can say that it was not them at all, I will even be happy to listen to your opinion regarding this issue. I myself didn’t really believe in mythical creatures, especially since it would seem where they would come from in our Murmansk region. The conditions are not the most favorable for the place to live. On the other hand, what do we know about mermaids? Never mind. Therefore, anything is possible.
My grandmother told me this story last summer. When I heard this, it became a little unclear to me and a lot of questions arose... Well, she told me about a scary mermaid living in a lake not far from her house.
One day, when her mother asked her to go for a walk with the geese around a large mountain, this lake was located right on it. My grandmother agreed and immediately went there for a walk, since it was late. And so, when she walked all the geese and was about to return, she heard strange music, as if it was coming from a music box, playing an old melody that everyone had loved for a long time! Grandmother decided to check what or who was playing this music. She took all the geese back to the farm and decided to return, but when she was leaving, she was detained and she decided not to go there, but to go tomorrow!
The next day she could not decide to go there. Therefore, after the disco, she called her friends to go with her, because she was afraid... And when they began to approach, three of them left and only she and four others remained. They climbed the mountain a little higher, it was made of sand, which surprised them very much! Then they looked up and saw that almost the entire area was covered with watermelons. And they decided to pick a little... Which is what they did.
And finally, all the guys climbed to the very peak of the mountain, there was a small lake, or rather a swamp, but not a single frog croaked in it, not a single reed grew! They came closer and saw that it was all covered with foam! And then a wonderful melody began to play, someone got scared, and someone began to listen... They all sat down behind a small bush. And they saw something rising from the water, it was disgusting at first impression, they looked more closely and saw a woman coming out, covered with hair from head to toe.
It was a shock! Then the children decided to run away, because this monster was terrible, it moved its tongue like a snake and made terrible sounds, its arms curled like snakes, and its eyes were simply huge and glowed green-red.
My grandmother's mouth dropped open at what she saw. This little mermaid, as she was later called, moved her head sharply and hissed when she came completely out of the water. Absolutely everyone ran out of the bushes and back home!
And the next day the parents of these children rushed there to look at it, but nothing happened, even the foam had almost disappeared! No one ever found out what happened that night, but it remained in the memory of those children forever, just like my grandmother!...
And all this was revealed only in late winter, when children and parents were no longer afraid of anything. One man got drunk and was riding horses through the village and one day he drove up this mountain. And the lake was covered with ice and snow. And so he fell onto the ice in front of everyone and everyone saw that his cart seemed to heat up to 1000 degrees and the ice under it began to melt as if scalded. The man screamed loudly, and the horses screamed in horror. Even though that cart was made of wood, when the ice melted, not a single piece of wood floated up, and the body was not found...
In summer next year These same children started poking the river bank with huge sticks and never found it, since there was no end to the bottom of this damn lake-river or swamp!...
A lot of time has passed since then, the lake has disappeared, but if you come to the area at night, you can still hear that charmingly frightening music of the box!
For hundreds of years now, humanity has been trying to get the only correct answer to the question: do mermaids exist? As always, society is divided into two camps. Some people shout that this is all just fiction, and the facts do not prove anything. Others firmly believe in the existence of mermaids. Evidence of the existence of these mythological creatures has been collected since the 19th century. In this article we will figure out whether mermaids are a myth or truth?
Who are mermaids?
Before you begin to analyze the evidence for the existence of mermaids, you should figure out what kind of creatures they are. You can find descriptions of mermaids in legends, myths, and even in ordinary children's fairy tales. You can even find descriptions of eyewitnesses that date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. However, those who actually managed to meet these unique creatures describe them appearance completely different. And not only the appearance is different, you can find different names, different descriptions of character traits and behavior. For example, in European countries the word “mermaid” will be common, while the Greeks called these mythological creatures “siren”, and the Romans firmly believed in the existence of nymphs. What is the truth about mermaids?
Mystic
If we turn to the mystical point of view, then in the understanding of magicians, a mermaid is an accumulation of energy, a spirit of water, whose ability is to fulfill desires and help others. There are a huge number of myths and legends about mermaids. But such a mermaid is just a clot of energy, an incorporeal creature that controls the water element. However mythical creatures, found by people in the vastness of the ocean, also differ from the heroes of myths and fairy tales. Scientists have put forward a version that several species of so-called mermaids live at the bottom of the sea. Of course, they don't look much like the wonderful characters from their cartoons. Some experts put forward the theory that man originated from these sea creatures, because life originated in the ocean. The debate about whether mermaids are a myth or reality has become serious.
This version has not yet received a full scientific justification, but history is rich in examples and eyewitness accounts that confirm their existence. Many are also of the opinion that it is true that mermaids attack when meeting people.
They exist?
So is the mermaid myth or reality? The best proof of their existence is documented. First mention of mythological creatures dates back to the 12th century and belongs to the Irish chronicles. The description says that the creature had the body of a woman, but instead of legs there was a fish tail. It was called the word “margigr”.
The next mention appeared only in 1403 in Holland. The book “Wonders of Nature” by Sigault de la Fonda describes a rather atypical situation. After a terrifying storm, a strange girl was thrown ashore from the water. She was covered in mud and algae, and instead of legs there was a fin. The book says that people took the girl to the city and taught her how to do housework. The siren spent 15 years on land, among people, but never began to speak their language and tried to return to the water at every opportunity, but this never happened. Soon the siren died among ordinary people.
17th century references
The next significant mention, which is ready to answer the question of whether mermaids are a myth or reality, dates back to 1608. On June 15 of this year, two men set off on a journey under the guidance of the famous navigator G. Hudson, where they discovered a living mermaid. Two sailors with fire in their eyes convinced everyone around that they had seen a siren with long black braids, a bare bust and a huge fish tail. However, none of the other sailors could confirm the words of the two men.
A new storm of discussions in the 17th century was caused by the found archives about the amazing guy Francisco de la Vega Casar. He lived in Lierganes and was distinguished by his ability to swim excellently. Legend has it that a sixteen-year-old boy went swimming and fell into the abyss. He got sucked in and people were never able to find the boy. After some time, the sailors discovered a very strange creature at the place where the guy went missing. It was still the same guy, but his skin was snow-white, and scales grew on some parts of his body. Membranes grew on the boy’s limbs, but he himself could not speak as before, but only made sounds incomprehensible to human hearing. The creature was distinguished by its incredible strength, but it was still caught and taken to the temple, where an exorcism ritual was performed on the guy. For three weeks the young man was subjected to rituals of expelling demons and only a year later he was returned home to his mother, who immediately said that her son was not a person at all. Two years later, the guy was able to escape and disappeared into the sea.
Evidence of the existence of monsters in the 18th-19th centuries
In 1737, a new wave of discussion began on the topic of the existence of mermaids, as more evidence appeared. New story happened already in England, where fishermen, along with the day's catch, pulled a strange creature onto land. Frightened by the sea monster, the sailors immediately killed it, and those who were on board claim that the sea creature moaned like a man. Waking up from fear, the fishermen discovered that in front of them was a male siren. The appearance of the creature was frightening, but remotely the mermaid was very similar to a person. The siren's corpse was used for a long time as an exhibit in the museum in Exeter.
The year 1739 also became significant; an article appeared in Scot’s magazine, which talked about what the sailors had caught a real mermaid, but there was no significant evidence of this fact, since the sailors had to cook and eat the caught sea creature.
Discussions were returned to in 1881, because on October 31, a Boston publishing house released news that people had caught the body of a strange creature. was a woman, because the entire upper part of the body looked like an ordinary person, and everything below the waist was covered with scales, instead of legs there was a fin. And this was not the last case of the nineteenth century when sailors managed to catch a siren.
Mermaids in the USSR
In the Soviet Union, the situation was more complicated, and the story of the appearance of a mermaid on the shores of Lake Baikal was kept secret for a long time. In 1982, combat swimmers were trained on the western shore of the lake. This is where the unusual was found. One of the tasks for the swimmers was to scuba dive to a depth of 50 meters, and it was there that the unusual creatures were found. They reached about three meters in length and were covered with scales. Scuba divers are firmly convinced that these were not people, since the creatures moved much faster and without swimming suits and special equipment.
The squad leader decided that the swimmers needed to make contact with the creatures, and prepared a team of 8 people. All scuba divers were well equipped and prepared for the task. But the mission was never completed: as soon as the squad approached the siren and attempted to throw nets at the creature, it seemed as if by the power of thought it pushed them to the shore of the lake. After the incident, all members of the operation fell ill with decompression sickness, three of them died two days later, others remained disabled.
Strange monsters in the USA
The territory of the United States has not been spared strange stories. For example, an interesting incident occurred in 1992 in the village of Key Beach, Florida. Eyewitnesses say that near the shore they noticed unusual creatures with a human-like upper body, and the lower part was like that of a seal. When people tried to come closer to look at the unusual creatures, they quickly disappeared to the bottom of the sea. After some time, the fishermen took their nets out of the water, but they were cut, and the catch was released.
An unusual exhibit is presented in the Tombstone Museum. It represents the body of a creature, the upper part of which is quite similar to a human one. Arms, shoulders, neck, ears, nose, eyes - the strange creature had it all. Locals claim that they often catch such creatures in their fishing nets. The best proof of the debate about whether the mermaid is a myth or reality is a photo. However, their reliability is questionable.
Mermaids: myth or reality?
It is actually very difficult to answer the question whether these unusual inhabitants of the sea exist. Dragons were also considered ancestral legends until complete dinosaur remains were found. As for mermaids, they really could exist, but due to the fact that they were often caught by people, a person could completely destroy their race. Some scientists believe that sirens are just a type of dolphin. One can argue for a long time about the real and mythical existence of mermaids; one can firmly believe or reject it. But the fact remains that people still encounter unusual creatures. Perhaps high technology and human activities, including in the depths of the sea, force these sea creatures to hide in the depths of reservoirs.