Good evening,

I am writing a poem entitled:

Mermen of the Deep Sea

AND would very much like to know how to say this in Irish/Gaelic.

Your assistance is appreciated.

Thank you

Murúcha Fireann na Mara Doimhne

Murúch is a mermaid. Not sure how one would maculinify them. What I have written above is "male mermaids"

Someone may have a better solution.

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill has written several sequences of poems about the merfolk, and seems to use Murúch for both genders..
http://www.lyrikline.org/index.php?id=162&L=1&author=nn00&show=Poems&poemId=1962 &cHash=e283af2aeb

Thank you very much for the information.

All the best,

A Chara,

That poem sounds yummy, as in really nice and good. :) I'd love to see the finished product.

Beir bua agus beannacht

A couple more quick questions:

Would deep sea be:

doimhne aigean OR doimhne mhara?

And finally, high tide would be:

lan mara?

Thank you

lán mhara

aigéan	genitive aigéin	ocean
muir	genitive mara	sea
farraige	genitive farraige	sea
sáile	genitive sáile	sea (literally salt water)
bóchna	gentive bóchna	ocean

Take your pick!

The adjective Domhain, deep, follows the noun
And will change depending on teh gender of the noun it qualifies and whether it needs to be in the genitive case.

domhain [ainmneach uatha ]
domhain [ginideach firinscneach ]
doimhne [ginideach baininscneach ]
doimhne [ainmneach iolra / ginideach tréaniolra]
domhain [ginideach iolra lag]
doimhne [breischéim ]

Doimhne m(h)ara and doimhne f(h)arraige (for this one you can argue the séimhiú both ways) are also fine, but they mean something slightly different: "the depths/deep part of a sea." Doimhne is a variant, though, and I think you'd be less easily misunderstood if you used domhain and a definite article with it:
domhain na mara or domhain na farraige.

So it looks like you've got a choice:

Murúcha Fireanna na Mara/Farraige Doimhne
Male Merfolk of the Sea which is Deep

Murúcha Fireanna Dhomhain na Mara/Farraige
Male Merfolk of the Depths of the Sea


Your second phrase should be lán mara rather than lán mhara.

Is maith ann tú, a Abigail!
I'm glad somebody proofreads my stuff...

Thank you, everyone,

I really appreciate your feedback and guidance.

Hopefully, I will be able to put this together.

Best,

A Aonghuis

Do you recall the name of the movie set in West Ireland where a mermaid comes ashore in front of the house of an Irish fisherman who is mourning the loss of his wife, and the mermaid bedazzles him, and at the end she returns to a rock in the sea??

The notion of a "muru/ch fir" bedazzles me also!
I never knew there were male mermaids!!

Is mise,

You aren't thinking of the movie "The Secret of Roan Inish"????

The mythology in that movie centered around "selkies," seal/human-like creatures.

Cara
Thanks for giving me the name of the movie!
I learned that there are female selkies(from the Scots word for seal;selk or selch) who captivated fishermen, and that there are male selkies who captivated frustrated wives!!...which leads me to wonder if I'm a descendant of a "muru/ch fir!"

It seems that the mermaid is derived from Scots/Irish folklore about the Selkies.

Thanx again for the info!

Is mise,

I forgot to mention that the film "The Secret of Roan Inish"-Island of the seal-is based on the novel "Secret of the Ron Mor Skeery" by Rosalie Fry, and if you Google the title, you'll find excerpts from her novel.

I adore Roan Inish, its my favorite film, but its description doesn't exactly match that of Joselito's original description, that happens a lot with that film though, people remember part of it wrong or mix it up in their minds with something else they've seen. Secret Of The Ron Mor Skerry is hard to come by these days (as of a couple of years ago when I looked for it)

Beir bua agus beannacht

Thanks, Joselito and Riona for the information. Glad I could help with the film title.

Question off-topic: where are most people on this board from? I am from Toronto, Canada...

:-)

Most from the U.S. but some of the more prolific are from Europe.

France....Ireland....Finland (what was that guy's name...Lars??...real smart...speaks about 100 languages)...England

It's a really unique little crowd. If you have a question, these guys (and girls) will get it answered for you. It might take a day or so and there might be an argument or two in the process but, in the end...you'll get your answer!!

A James a chara,

Jonas was his name and I miss him, he was indeed clever.

Cara,
You should stick around here because people are really nice and we have a lot of fun. We do get in fights sometimes but it toughens one up and makes for entertaining amusement.

Speaking of selkie films, a friend of mine said she watched a film in which David Caradine falls in love with a selkie woman, has anyone heard of this or is it just another mix up that pertains to Roan Inish gone wrong.

Beir bua agus beannacht

Whatever happened to Jonas anyway?

I never heard of that David Caradine film....

Sorry, I wish I could offer further information.

Selkie is a Scots word, i.e. not gaelic at all.

In Irish fairy tales the differences between seal folk and mer folk is not clear cut. And they come in both genders. The seal/mermaid who married a man after he stole her skin/cloak is a common motif.

That was the basic motif at the start of Roan Inish, where the family concerned are supposed to be descended from a seal woman.

Yeah...Jonas. Quite an impressive guy.

Interesting that the word "selkie" has its roots in Scotland, while the movie took place in Ireland....There's Hollywood for you!

;-)

As far as I know, selkie comes from Norse.

Norse and Gael mixed in Scotland a long time ago.

Heigh, James, Aonghus, agus cairde eile,

The whole selkie story fascinates me.
I've met people in Ireland who told me that they were descendants of seals.
And The Secret of Roan Inish is a great movie.
I've always been struck at how different it is in tone and content from John Sayles' other films.
Plus it was filmed not too far from Oideas Gael.

Cara, all the best with your mermen poem.
Please update us on your progress.

Le meas, Paul

http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/

quote:

"Selkie" is simply the Orcadian dialect word for "seal".

Fascinating Orkney folklore on that site. Thanks, Angus/Aonghus.

Well then, is the selkie myth originally from the Orkneys? If so did it come to Ireland in real life or do people just associate it with Ireland because of Roan Inish. I hope that it was already associated with Ireland before that movie came out because if it wasn't I'd be rather disappointed.

Beir bua agus beannacht

There are plenty of stories about seal folk/mer folk in Irish folklore.

Orkney is not that far away. BUT the NAME selkie is not Irish.