The Mermaid of Zennor - John Reinhard Weguelin // Mermaids - Florence + the Machine

The Mermaid of Zennor- Cornwall 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid_of_Zennor

Mermaid Of Zennor

The Mermaid of Zennor is a legendary creature and folk tale that originates from the village of Zennor in Cornwall, England. The story goes that a beautiful mermaid would sit on a rock, known as Mermaid's Chair, near the local church, enchanting the villagers with her mesmerizing voice during Sunday service.

One day, a young man named Matthew Trewhella became enchanted by the mermaid's voice and fell in love with her. He would frequently visit the church just to catch a glimpse of the mermaid. Eventually, they fell in love and Matthew disappeared from the village, never to be seen again.

Very much in love with the art from the painting of the Mermaid of Zennor

She looks just like me for real. Not sure what she likes about her big brother but I guess she will tell me when I get around to reading it.

La sirena de Zennor (John Reinhard Weguelin, 1900)

Helen Dunmore’s beautiful children’s novel, Ingo creates a beautiful and enchanting world that draws on traditional British folklore, and the authors own imagination to create a gripping novel. The story begins with protagonist, Sapphy, and her father, Mathew Trewheller, in a church looking at a carving of a mermaid. This carving does actually exist and can be found in the local church in Zennor, a seaside village in Cornwall. In the novel, Mathew is telling his daughter about the local Cornish legend of the Zennor mermaid.

The myth of the Zennor mermaid tells the story of a beautiful young maiden who would attend church at Zennor. Despite the years passing her beauty never faded and she never grew older. Eventually, she grew enchanted with a young man from the church choir, said to have the sweetest voice in the village, and he grew enchanted with her in return. One day, he followed her home and was never seen again. The mystery of his disappearance would have continued forever, were it not for a ship dropping anchor in a nearby cove. The young maiden appeared as a mermaid and asked the sailors to remove their anchor, as it was blocking the door to her home and she could not return to her children and husband. The husband was the young chorist. And according to legend, his name was Mathew Trewheller.

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John Reinhard Weguelin (English, 1849-1927)

The Mermaid of Zennor

I'm so proud to unveil my page art for Once Upon A Star, a non-profit fairy and folk tale-themed jotakak zine! Here we have my own spin on the Mermaid of Zennor, and it looks like Kakyoin is awfully pleased with being caught by this particular human 😏

The Zennor Mermaid Chair in the church of St Senara, Cornwall, 6th-12th century

Long ago, a beautiful and richly dressed woman occasionally attended services at St. Senara's Church in Zennor, and sometimes at Morvah. The parishioners were enchanted by her beauty and her voice, for her singing was sweeter than all the rest. She appeared infrequently for scores of years, but never seemed to age, and nobody knew whence she came, although they watched her from the summit of Tregarthen Hill. After many years, the mysterious woman became interested in a young man named Mathey Trewella, "the best singer in the parish." One day he followed her home, and disappeared; neither was ever seen again in Zennor Church. The villagers wondered what had become of the two, until one Sunday a ship cast anchor about a mile from Pendour Cove. Soon after, a mermaid appeared, and asked that the anchor be raised, as one of its flukes was resting on her door, and she was unable to reach her children. The sailors obliged, and quickly set sail, believing the mermaid to be an ill omen. But when the villagers heard of this, they concluded that the mermaid was the same lady who had long visited their church, and that she had enticed Mathey Trewella to come and live with her.

The parishioners at St. Senara's commemorated the story by having one end of a bench carved in the shape of a mermaid. The famed "mermaid chair" was the same bench on which the mermaid had sat and sung, opposite Trewella in the singing loft.

There are many reasons as to why there might have been a mermaid carved into a chair at a church, as mermaids represented two things to medieval Christians. They were thought to be a symbol of lust, due to their connection with the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and they were also thought to be an illustration of Jesus Christ, because of their fish-human form, for, just as mermaids are both human-like and fish-like, Jesus can be both human and divine.

what is the origin of your pen name & ao3 name?

thank you very much for the ask, anon! what a lovely question.

asenora is a mythical breton princess, who supposedly lived in the early middle ages in the city of brest. according to legend, she was falsely accused by her husband of adultery and thrown into the sea in a barrel - even though she was pregnant - and left to drown. however, owing to the providence of god [naturally...] the barrel didn't sink but floated from brittany to cornwall, where asenora was visited by an angel and helped to give birth to a son among the waves.

she then washed up on the cornish coast, where she founded the village of zennor, before she and her son - the fifth-century saint st budoc, also venerated in brittany and cornwall - continued on to ireland. the parish church in zennor is named st senara's [hence my name on tumblr] in her honour.

but there's another version of the story - found in legends surrounding st budoc - that asenora didn't receive the help of an angel, but the help of st brigid, and that she didn't wash up in cornwall, but in waterford, in south-east ireland.

i am an irishwoman myself, but i went to university in england, and did the early years of my medical training in england, before eventually returning back across the sea. by the mysterious machinations of fate, i ended up living near to zennor during this training, and the legendary link between cornwall and ireland found in the place always pleased me enormously, especially on the days when i would have liked to jump in a barrel and be carried home as well.

[zennor has a second major legend connected to it - that of the mermaid of zennor, a beautiful woman with a captivating singing voice who used to attend mass at st senara's. in a deviation from many other mermaid-related folktales in seafaring communities, the mermaid of zennor isn't considered an ill-omen in the village, but an upstanding member of the parish. st senara's church contains the famous 'mermaid chair' - a fifteenth-century wooden pew with a carving of a mermaid upon it. that's the explanation for the quote from song to the siren on my blog header...]

Mermaid Of Zennor

The Mermaid of Zennor is a legendary creature and folk tale that originates from the village of Zennor in Cornwall, England. The story goes that a beautiful mermaid would sit on a rock, known as Mermaid's Chair, near the local church, enchanting the villagers with her mesmerizing voice during Sunday service.

One day, a young man named Matthew Trewhella became enchanted by the mermaid's voice and fell in love with her. He would frequently visit the church just to catch a glimpse of the mermaid. Eventually, they fell in love and Matthew disappeared from the village, never to be seen again.

John Reinhard Weguelin: The Mermaid of Zennor

Hi everyone! I'm writing a quick post to let you know that I've uploaded a new build of Sweetest Monster (after all these years... Wow…) This new build fixes a couple of typos that were present in the English text, and (more importantly) adds a full Spanish translation to the VN courtesy of Aarón Acencio. You can buy Sweetest Monster on Steam here and Itch.io here if you’re interested! Aarón also translated my other short, dark VN, The Mermaid of Zennor, into Spanish, so you can check that out here if you're interested! I've also uploaded an exciting, shiny new Android build of Sweetest Monster onto Itch.io, which features six languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese). That's a lot of languages: Bell is quite an impressive polyglot. I hope you enjoy the new build, and thank you very much for all of the support thus far. It's very much appreciated!

Tagged by @fiofo 💜 - share 10 favorite songs with names in the title

Cosmia - Joanna Newsom

Sadie - Joanna Newsom

Tagging @neriine @the-roadgoeson @come-take-a-tumble-with-me @lesbiancadash @falldiewakefly @froopyhood @whamclubtropicana @mermaid-of-zennor