What Is The Role Of Mermaids In Today's Entertainment

Mermaids, Fairies, and Witches are some of the most prominent mythical characters in today’s entertainment. Folklore from other countries and cultures affects how we portray these creatures in our movies, books, and TV shows. One such country is Scotland that is filled with tons of different folklore. Scottish Folklore has many stories about these three well known creatures. The most commonly known folklore from Scotland has had a huge impact on some of the most well known entertainment in the United States today. One of these creatures, the mermaid, is the mostly widely known creature from Scottish folklore (Harris 10). People all over the U.S. enjoy different forms of entertainment that depict varying versions of mermaids. Scottish folklore tells of violent creatures of the

These dark underwater creatures are said to have many different magics as well (Harris para 12). These powers vary from the ability to predict the future, curse human beings, or even granting wishes (Harris para 10-11). The mermaids are also said to be beautiful of face and voice, shown by the way human men often tried to capture the mermaids and bind them to the land (Harris para 13). The effect of these folk tales on today’s entertainment can be found in some of our most popular and well known movies and plays. Today, we have changed the way we look at mermaids, but if you look at some of the popular movies you can find the influences of Scottish Folklore. In Peter Pan, when Peter takes Wendy to see the mermaids, he tells her that they are very cruel and like to drown people (Barrie scene 3). The mermaids in this story are shown to be very dark and even murderous. Even with this acknowledgement that the mermaids are not nice creatures, they are still shown as beautiful with long, flowing hair (Barrie, scene 3). The movies don’t even have to show the mermaids as evil creatures