Hear The Mermaids Singing

of course you were. You were old school reading the book as a kid, and then well, yeah, and out you're harping on and being like, wow, it's not very true to the original hands Christian, like, there's none of the gore and the awfulness. The Sea Witch. She was always my favorite. I think she was. What I remember the most is that the Mermaid, whenever she tried to walk on her her legs, her newly formed legs, it would feel like daggers. Each step would feel like a dagger.

That really stuck with me. Yeah, that they didn't quite captured that in the the actually animated film. My I have two sisters, two younger sisters, so growing up they were really into a Little Mermaid, and they were also really into the movie Splash, Hannah. They loved Splash. Like Splash, We splash must have been on our TV like every day for like a year. There was a lot of splash going on because that features of mermaid and was right up their alley. And then there were the mermaid

barbies were everywhere. They were always hanging out like wet haired by the bathtub. So, I mean, and and the thing is that the mermaid the myth when you're really looking to it, I mean, it's it's old, it's fascinating's been running forever and continues um to fascinate modern audiences in new ways. Yeah, I mean exactly when those things that has captured our imaginations through folklore, and you know, there's probably a little tiny part in all of us

that wished that mermaids were an actual thing. Yeah, so so why aren't we talking about mer folk? Right? Well, we recently did an episode about the centaur Um in which we we looked little, you know, a little bit at the folk uh tales that gave us the centaur and and talked to a little bit about where these ideas come from, you know, why to win, why do we as humans decide that we need to think about

half humans havelf horses? And then we looked at some fascinating stuff, some basically comparative anatomy, which which a German anatomis said, well, let's see if they're Centaurs obviously don't exist, but if they did, how might it work? And it serves as an interesting thought experiment into into how uh, animals actually work on an anatomical level. It's something called speculative biology. Speculative biology. Yeah, so right after we had the center, we had a listener right in the name

was Danelle Danielle. Yeah, yeah, she said, hey, please please cover mr Folk. I actually think she called them rfolk specifically. And and at the time we're like, okay, yeah, maybe we'll do our folks. At some point, we weren't in a particular hurry, but then Animal Planet did this uh an Animal Planet, of course as part of the discovery our our our parent company. They did this the show about me people, and it was a huge hit. And I my sister is like texting me at night saying,

what's the deal with this Mermaids show? Is? This is this legit? And uh? And so we're like, well, okay, we we probably should go ahead and do it. Yeah, because it's a what if proposition, This this um this show, it's called Mermaids The Body Found Now. It's it's um presented in a documentary style fashion, which you know, some people weren't crazy about. But to be fair, UM, Animal Planet did say that this was a bit of science fiction that was you know, based on some scientific theories.

So we wanted to take the premise of this show and and start to tease apart from the things they talked about, because it's really interesting how they strung this together. Basically, the setup is that it's two thousand and four and whales were washing up from a llegal deep water sonar emanating from US Navy experiment. Because again, whales and dolphins that use the echolocation sound is a very important aspect of the way they navigate, the way they communicate. UM,

we've talked about this in the past. We've talked about whales and dolphins and uh, and also about underwater sound. Yeah, and so in this fictional account, what they're what they're saying is that, you know, the Navy is trying to cover up something. UM officials are coming out and has that suits looking at these beached whales and and pulling in specimens and taking them away. UM. And then the

remains of a mysterious creature is discovered. So then the plotline starts talking about, uh, this this fringe hypothesis called the aquatic eight hypothesis, which we'll get into and in some people actually that insist that it be called the the the aquatic eate theory of citing that the that it's not a true scientific hypothesis. But that's kind of splitting hairs. Well, some people say it's not a theory, it's a hypothesis, or it's just an idea. Um, So

we probably leave it at that. But then they also go into not only this aquatic ape idea, but these unidentified sound profiles from the ocean, which we've talked about before, like the bloop. And then in the in the plot of this show, the mysterious body is autopsied and lo and behold they find pelvic bone. Actually it's kind of half autopsy if it's half here exactly the torso um.

So the pelic bones are found and hands are discovered, and so then it becomes this question as well as then maybe trying to cover up the fact that they were using this at illegal sonar system or that there's a creature that we are a new species that we just don't know about. Mm hmm. So using that is our backdrop today, we thought, well, why not talk about um, you know, this this idea of these strange noises in the ocean, or the aquatic ape theory, or even the

Mermaid RelA of your. Yeah, so let's start with the Mermaid relics of your because that's the part I really enjoy. I mean, I love the I love the the the a hypothesis as well. But I think it's been important to sort of take a step back and look at the Mermaid myth and you know where it comes from and uh and some of the more interesting variations on it. Um. We can't put an actual date on the Mermaid because the Mermaid is one of those those stories that has

existed since time out of mind. As long as humans have lived near the sea and struggled really hard to live with the sea to go out and and harvest its riches. We've we've dreamed of people and or quasi people who can do it naturally that live in the ocean, and uh and and we've we've speculated about the mysteries that this would entail. Um. You see a lot of mermaids in in UH in Scottish, Welsh and Irish tales.

In the UH. In the Scottish and Welsh tales particularly, um, you might rescue a mermaid and the mermaid would share the secrets of various herbal cures with humans, and then sometimes they would marry humans, but the web footed offspring would invariably return to the ocean. And and and you see this as a common theme too, because you know you have some lonely men out there catching fish, and that their minds may start to wander and they might think, wow,

you know what, have I met somebody out here? The chances are slim, and she might be part fish, but maybe I can find true love, if not on land, then at sea. They didn't have mermaid match dot com back then. No, not yet, not then, but but hopefully, especially with this series being successful, we can start hooking people up with mermaids and merfolk and merman uh. During medieval times, the mermaid was considered to be an agent of the devil in a symbol of the seat and

get this the way this would work. Often you'd see this in you know and carving, so often church related stuff. Um, you would see the mermaid holding a fish in the fish some balizes the entrapment of the Christian soul that was drawn to sin. And of course the mermaid is very sinful because she's not wearing a top and all that she represents lust and attractiveness and grandeur and riches, not wearing a shell. Bra Um. No, not nothing. These these early early face It wasn't until later until they

became tool users, I guess right. Um. Later you see mermaids showing up in coat of arms as well. Uh Merman. For the most part, when they're depicted, they're they're they're generally seen as more aggressive. Uh. They're also like the mermaids, you know, fish lower half humans upper half, but they have a prevensity to be uglier uh up at the up at the top. Uh. And they're also big into like some summoning storms, pulling sailors out of ships to

their death, that kind of thing. Uh merman. Well, he was a god, but I'm trying to remember how he was depicted. Well, there the true Well you see depictions of him where he is uh, where he has mermaid esque qualities. And they're also the tris of Greek myth which were which were offspring of gods, and they had they had lower portions. That were they were they were

essentially mermien. Um. There were the blue There were the blue Men of Niche, which were a humanoid uh blueskin creatures that lived supposedly lived in deep water water caves near the Isle of Man. Uh. They were ruled by a chief. And the interesting thing about these guys that they came after your ship. Um. A clever captain could beat them with a cunning tongue he could use. He could throw out some riddles. Get the murf the mur folk these uh, these men of Minich thinking about the

about this and then making out with them. Uh. They're the Nixies of Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland. And these are a fresh water mermaid creature, often gray or gray green skinned um and their bodies of course terminating these fish monstrosities as well. Uh. There are the marrows of Ireland. And these are in these you see traditional mermaids, but really ugly mermn They have green teeth, sharp uh, red noses, tiny eyes, green hair, webbed fingers. But they're also shape

shifters who depend on a magical red cap. And they're they're basically the good natured and they don't like to they'll wander out and using their shape shifting abilities, they may marry humans with a magical red cap. There's the Welsh Morgan, which was a nursery boogie. Uh that was you know, existed solely to scare children into good behaviors. Cork Welsh nursery boogie who had abduct bad children. Uh.

They were the halfway people. These are pretty interesting. These this was a myth of the Micmac people of eastern Canada. And these mer people sang like a lot of because with mermaid traditions you see a lot of the siren in the mermaids. You know, they're these creatures that sing beautiful songs and they lure sailors to their doom or they're like the mermaid and they're they're summoning horrible storms. There. Their gods are demi gods of the ocean. Well, the

the Halfway people of the of Micmac folklore. Uh. They sang but that, but not to lure humans to their death. They did to warn local fishermen of brewing storms. It was only if you managed to antagonize them that they would actually summon storms against you. And then, as I mentioned in our episode on milk, Uh, there are a number of different myths where you see mermaids as herdsman or herds women for aquatic cattle beasts that may or may not be whales. Um, they're they're various sort of

hag like creatures. There's a there's for instance, Margreger, a mermaid made in the folks editions of the people of Greenland that has an ugly flat face and evil eyes. Um. There's a creature called the Canito uh in Finland, and this was a mermaid creature with the breasts so large that she could throw them over her shoulder. And this is a really cool In Japan, Uh, their traditional mermaid was called Thenno and up and basically they were enormous

fish with only the head of a beautiful woman. And they were benevolent, protective creatures that would warn humans of pending misfortunes, both at sea and on land. Uh. And then the one final one to mention here, because I imagine everyone's seen this one a lot. Uh when you go to Starbucks, there's a there's a there's a Meliusine or Meliusina, which is a medieval French mr Monster, daughter

of a fairy and a mortal king. Uh. In the older depictions you'd see are addressed in medieval finery above the waist, but then she also has the wings of a dragon in this double serpentine fish tail below the waist. And you see this creature showing up in a lot of coat coat of arms, but also most notably at Starbucks. You know, I actually have a Mermaian at home. Yeah,

I could you not? Well, I mean not obviously a real Mermaian, but it is because not your husband, because I saw him walking on two legs acincing like daggers were in his his legs or in his feet. Um. Yeah, Actually, I've got an old carney ride, or it was. It's a carved wood mermaids about five ft long, and it's got a little cut out in the center where kids can get in and ride. But it's obviously they are all linked together. But I have just one and it

is terrifying, and it has huge glass eyes. Someone put glass eyes in it, and my daughter hates it, but it hangs exactly right. It was her cradle first. I'm kidding, um, but yeah, I mean we definitely have had a relationship with this idea of of mermaids and um, you know, it's pervaded our culture. And I think that that that that bit of wood sculpture I have is from like the nineties or something so like sort of Fiji mermaid days. Yeah, which I sent you a picture earlier. Just a real

quick on modern mermaids as we see them in films. Um, in the rob zombie horror movie House of a Thousand Corpses, you get to see a pre Dwight shoot Rain Wilson um sewn to a fish as a as a a Fiji mermaid. It's pretty It made me kind of scream inside. But yeah, I mean these Fiji mermaids were something that we're we're often pro offered by Huckster's right, the turn of the center. Fish, you get a monkey, you sew

them together. Uh. You know, corpses, you haven't kind of preserved they either you know, dried out or maybe I guess you could also most of them you see dried out and kind of mounted and stuff. But I guess you could also have put them in from how the

height if you wanted to. Uh, and then you so, hey, here's the actual proof that mermaids existing, people would panicle for it, right, and you know, back in the day when you didn't necessarily have a lot of evidence, Um, that was like, oh good, yeah, but that is that could be a mermaid, all right. So that was an older sort of scientific, if you will, proof that mermaids did exist or could exist, because here is this body. Uh,

you examine it, you realize it doesn't really hold up. Uh. Today we have a similar situation with the aquatic Gate. We should probably take a quick break, but when we come back, we will perform a necropsy on the idea of the aquatic days. All right, we're back, so you can imagine this here in our our podcast studio, and and stretched out before us on the table is the

aquatic Gate. Uh. And we are going to cut this apart, look at it, feel it, uh, and see which parts feel truthful, which parts feel made up, which parts feel like a fish, which parts feel like a human. Let's time travel first. Okay, a million years ago, million years the earth is. You know, there's earthquakes, there's all sorts of crazy things going on. There's coastal flooding. Okay, and it's kind of like our future. It's much like her

path right. Uh. And so the idea, this, this aquatic ape idea, is that hominin hominins, hominal hominins split off from terrestrial apes millions of years ago and because of this this coastal flooding and they were treated into the water,

evolving into aquatic creatures somewhat related to humans. So it's kind of like it's kind of like in the morning, you wake up, you get out of bed, you realize you're too tired, you don't really like the waking world, so you creep back into bed for a little bit. It's it's similar. Mammals have have have risen out of the ocean. They've they've they've come onto the land, and then for whatever reason, they decide this is not working out. I'm gonna actually go back in the water now, which

is something you see with with whales and dolphins. So taking that argument and uh and saying hey, maybe it happened with apes as well, taking the argument and then even saying like okay, well what about our lack of body hair. Yeah, we think that we can. You know, proponents of this idea and our idea, we grew body here, we evolved into hairy creatures when we initially came out of the the the oceans of the the primordial earth, and then when we returned, we lost that hair because

it was unnecessary. Uh. And then you can point to examples like a hippo or a dolphin and say, look, there you go, an aquatic mammal doesn't have hair, and that is why we don't have hair, because we used to be merc creatures. Well, but people would say some people would say that doesn't really add up in your kind of cherry picking details. You're kind of choosing with your with your aquatic mammals too, because otters are pretty hairy,

beavers are pretty hairy. I mean, these are all aquatic mammals that have kept a very you know, thick coat of hair. Right, And then you have the problem of evolution itself in terms of like, well, how could this

occur in this time period? Because if it took whales from from going to terrestrial to aquatic beings ten million years, how could it be that, you know, in a million years that this could happen with with apes aquatic apes, So that that's obviously one of the big questions that comes up um as well is is the philogenny that this tree of life concept of organisms um that are are detailed by us and they are cold from evidence

from morphological, biochemical, and gene sequenced data. Right, So this aquatic ape actually would exist outside of this organization, and this organization this philogenny is really the bedrock the central idea of evolution. So that's spotty too. Yeah, and another some of the other things that are thrown out there is is proof of the aquatic ape theory. Are are pretty suspect as well, Like the idea that, oh, well, look look at the human body. It's so it's a

streamlined clearly it was made to swim. Well, not so much because you look at at truly aquatic mammals and they tend to have more of the torpedo shape. Well, and it's actually pretty hard for us to swim in general, right like such, and other people say, oh, we're such great swimmers, and we're not really great swimmers. I mean, Michael Phelps maybe, but but he is aside, everyone else is kind of kind of lacking. Okay, so we've talked

about aquatic apes. Let's talk about the mermaid problem. The mermaid problem like as then we have a mermaid problem, and we need to put out some traps to catch some mermaids. Yeah, some combat, little huge traps, right that you just put behind your kitchen counter or your bathtube, because they're going to show some lobsters and some shells in there and a little bit of gold and they'll be attracted, you know. Now. The mermaid problem is this idea is that if they really existed, then what about

their reproductive abilities? Um? And this is also it's kind of like what we got into with the center. Yeah, where is it going to go? How's it gonna work? Yeah? Because human human and equine biologies rather rather different, and you if you try to merge the two, it's problematic. Even more so when you're trying to combine a human and a fish. Yeah. Uh. And um, here's the thing too.

If you've got the torso of a human and the trunk of the fish tail, then you've got all sorts of logistical nightmare problems going on here, because apparently if you've got the breast, then there's going to be some sort of lactation going on, right, And then if you've got a navel, then that suggests that there's going to be some sort of umbilical cord tied to any sort of progeny. So then you look at the tail itself and you say, ah, where where would all the stuff go?

Where would all the genitalia go? And you can look to something like a dolphin, for instance, and you can say that there could be a genitalia slit much like there's with a dolphin, But that still doesn't all sort of line up with how would um with the torso of human and this idea of a umbilical cord, how would all this work together? Yeah, it's it's really hard to to try and form a like a full theory

of mermaid anatomy. Yeah, and yet because people have been so entranced by this idea of mermaids, especially lately, UM Noah has actually put up a special fact sheet about mermaids and they went to to the links to say,

no mermaids have ever been found. Just about that, I mean, certainly throughout history to humans have I mean, part of it has been this sort of dream of what would it be like if there were people in the in the ocean, and what would it be like if I could need a beautiful woman out here in the sea. But then the other. The other part of that, we've

we've often seen other creatures from a distance. We've seen seals or sea lions or manatees and uh, and we've fooled ourselves into thinking that we saw something that was half man and half fish. Right. And here's the other problem with this. If if mermaids are are going to be uh, this new species, this this idea that there would be a new species, and um, they would be connected to this bluep sound that we talked about. And

we'll get more into that. Um. In order to produce that bluop song sound, they would have to be at least a hundred and ten feet long, longer than any other known organism, so that you would think that you'd be able to spot that pretty easily, right, Um, Which that gets into this whole blup idea in the first place. We talked about this before in our Underwater Sounds podcast,

but just to bring it up again. The blue sound was actually recorded in originated from a point about fift miles west of the southern Chilean coast, and it was powerful enough to be picked up on sensors located up to three thousand miles away. Now there are a bunch of different sounds that um that Noah has picked up and has catalogued. But this is and remains an unidentified sound. And um, there is this idea that the sound profile sounds animalistic, but we're not quite sure. You know. Again,

there's there's the morphology problem. If this emanated from an animal, it's got to be huge, a huge animal that would be easily spotted, right and would have to have would have to work fit into the ecosystem itself. Um, which is which is another thing you get into when you're we're talking about any cryptozoological creature via a a mermaid or bigfoot. Um, you know where where how is that?

How would this fit into a given ecosystem? Where where is its uh it's protection particular niche in the system at large and uh and and often that that's where you see a lot of big holes. We'd be like, well, we would we would have observed it because there would be ex number of them. We would uh you know, we would we would see evidence of their feeding. Yeah, and so you know the the animal planets, Uh, what

if scenario of of mermaids definitely entertaining. But you can kind of see how when you start to look at some of those details in earnest um. I mean, and everybody knows that they're not for real anyway, but you can see how the the sort of organism probably would never exist. Yeah. But I love the idea of just getting people talking about it, you know, like just you know, get get people drawn into to view a show about mermaids and then uh, you know, then let's discuss the

science of it. Let's uh, I mean, it's it's good food for thought, all right. You know, I'm gonna be a total downer here too, Okay, Okay, I'm gonna say to the other thing that I think that it does and inadvertently is to throw a little light on this problem of sonar. As you say, um, you know, this has been a concern with with naval testing and just general noise pollution in the oceans. Yeah, and as you say, dolphins oils they use echo location um and just um.

Just not too long ago, earth Watch reported that three thousand dolphins were found dead along the coast of Peru, and they were killed by deep water sonar sonar systems using seabed oil. UM exploration and researchers at the Organization for the Conservation of Aquatic Animals says that they found image in the dolphins middle earbones which was caused by ships son are blast and these acoustic booms actually disorient the animals and they produce hemorrhages and this is why

they beached themselves. So actually, uh, the Animal Planet show does go into detail about this in the fictionalized account. Um, but I did think it was important to to bring this up, that that that is an actual, you know, part of the show, that that does have um, a foundation in reality. Downer Yeah, yeah, kind of a downer.

And plus mermaids don't exist, so there's that too. So I'm sorry for for anyone who was listening hoping for for something different, but it would it would have been kind of jerky if we hadn't just come clean on that and said, well, they might have existed, because I don't want to build up false hope, especially for those lonely sailors out there who are listening to this podcast. Yeah, but you don't want to be at a cocktail party

and start like dropping mermaid fats, you know. Ah, the mermaids are are they continue to just be a really fascinating creature at least you know, in the in the mind and whether you're just thinking about it as as a folk tale idea or is a possible scientific reality, or as a it's just a fodder for for movies. A couple of other film mermaids that come to mind. Uh. There was a movie called The She Creature years ago.

I believe it had rufus Sewel in it and uh, and it was like an old timy horror story on a boat, and there was like a mysterious mermaid, but she had like a dual nature, so sometimes she looked like, uh, you know, typical pretty lady on the top, half fish on the lower, and but then she would also turn into this aquatic monster that kind of looked like a

Fiji mermaid. Uh. And then there was a there was another film that came out called Dagon, which loosely based on HP Lovecraft's uh the Shadow over in Smith and some of the other aquatic horror tales and uh this uh it was this movie was kind of a mixed bag, but it did depict a mermaid with that double tail the star about stage, which is kind of neat. So if you ever find yourself, uh considering picking up that film, it has some moments that work, and you do get

to see a a double tailed mermaid in it. So there's that. I really wish that Splash would be remade with droll Hannah and uh, Quentin Tarantino would direct it a horror film or she's just okay, that's a horror film, now, okay, horror film. Yes, there's a lot of I mean, it clicks because clearly you look at the folk tales as there are many of these stories where it's like the Mermaid is there, the mer people are dragging humans down and they're you know, to some watery hell of drowned sailors.

There's there's all sorts of horrible stuff with the Mermaid. It seems like you would see more horror tales involving them rather than just straight up fantasy. But well maybe we will. But then again, you said, you said that in the Christian's Christian Anderson there was more more horror than we have. There's always horror and gore. Yes, yes, so there you go. Mermaids. You can check out the show on Animal Planet and you can also write into us and like, let us know what you think about Mermaids.

Do you have particular thoughts about mermaids and folk tales, mermaids and legend and myth, Mermaids at the cinema, I don't know, mermaids in video games? Where wherever mermaids gathered? Mermaids in space, mermaids in space. I'm not sure how that would work, but I'm all for it. Um. And there you know there's actually um. I forgot to mention the merror creature that is a half pope. I should have like the pontiff. Yeah, is this in the pontiff? I'll have to throw him on the block press because

he's pretty cool. But yeah, they're They're just countless cool mermaids from history. Um, So let us know what you think about that. Let us know what you think about this aquatic eight uh theory slash hypothesis. If you have any thoughts on that, we'd love to hear from you. You can find us on Facebook, where we are stuff to blow your Mind, and you can also find us on Twitter, where we go under the handle below the mind, and you can always drop us a line at blew

the Mind at house to coorts dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit Howstuff Works dot com