The Penguin Book of Mermaids by Cristina Bacchilega & Marie Alohalani Brown

Author:Cristina Bacchilega & Marie Alohalani Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

Abyssus Abyssum Invocat1

“Some stories will never be right,” Genevieve Valentine, a contemporary author of science fiction, fantasy, comics, and film criticism, writes in “Abyssus Abyssum Invocat.”2 This statement could refer to “The Little Mermaid,” as the moment in Hans Christian Andersen’s story when the mermaid falls in love is rewritten three times in this one. None of the scenarios, however, leads to a happy ending. Iconic images from Andersen’s tale—the drowning prince, the pained woman found on the beach, the ship sinking in the storm—are reshuffled to link with the mythology of the Sirens’ call and the mermaid as a death omen. Valentine’s story amplifies the yearning and isolation of the little mermaid in the human world, turning it into an obsession that envelopes the two main characters, Miss Warren/the mermaid and Matthew/the prince.

In this short story, Matthew attends a small school on the shores of Cornwall, which is one of the clues to linking Valentine’s story with a legend told about a famous mermaid carving in the Cornish village of Zennor. In the “Mermaid of Zennor” legend, a local man named Mathey also disappears after falling in love with a mysterious woman and her singing voice.3 The Latin verse that gives the story its title translates as “deep calls to deep” in the King James Bible and is from Psalm 42. It perhaps evokes the idea of the mermaid seeking to acquire a soul, and it definitely raises questions about language, translation, love, and humans’ attraction to mermaids.

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