EDGE - A Rivets Short Story: Forsaken by Katherine Langrish

Author:Katherine Langrish
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781445110738
Publisher: Hachette Children's Books
Published: 2011-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

From the author

The idea for Forsaken came from a poem called “The Forsaken Merman” by a Victorian poet called Matthew Arnold (1822–1888). Based on an old legend, it tells the story of a merman who marries a human woman, Margaret. They live happily together under the sea, until one day she hears church bells ringing and feels a sudden longing to go and pray. The merman agrees to part with her for a short visit. But once on land, she never returns to the sea, leaving her husband and little mer-children grieving.

The old belief about mermaids was that – unlike human beings – they had no souls and therefore no life after death. Margaret fears she too will lose her chance of eternal life in heaven if she stays with the merman under the sea.

But this fear leads her to abandon her husband and children. Was she right to follow her beliefs? Or was she wrong to cause her family such suffering?

In the original Danish legend, the merman clambers into the churchyard to find his wife, but when he peeps into the church, all the little stone statues of saints and angels turn their backs on him.

When I read this, a shiver ran right down my spine, and I knew I had to tell the story again – but this time I wondered what would have happened if, instead of the merman, one of Margaret’s own mer-children came to find her?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.