Legends of The Sea: The Sirens I Grew Up With
As much as I try not to get too personal when I write an article, it is pretty hard not to do so when you find yourself looking for something to write about. To be completely honest, I am not too fond of the concept of the ocean. As someone who has lived 99,9% of their life right next to the sea and in a fishing town, you get to know the grim and gloomy details no one wants to know. I am not even exaggerating: the street where my mother’s house is goes all the way down to the sea, that every year seems to be trying harder and harder to swallow up the entire town. I will not get into much detail about my whereabouts, but though a lot of people consider that I am very lucky, I’ve always thought it was a bit nightmarish.
So, inspired by my own upbringing and the Celt culture I love and embrace, I decided I would tell you about the myth of the siren in the context of Galician tradition. However, I feel I should explain first where I actually come from—or none of this will make any sense.
Galicia is located in the north-west part of Spain—right above Portugal. Even though you might think about Spain and picture sun, flamenco music and Mediterranean smooth beaches, the north of Spain couldn’t be further from that. Even though we have some of the nicest beaches in the country, Galicia is mainly rain 24/7, green forests and cliffs and the beautiful magic sound of the bagpipes. Picture Ireland, but make it Spanish. Interestingly enough, though, we are even different from the rest of Spain in cultural terms, since Galicia is known as one of the Celt nations—we are not only similar to Ireland in terms of weather, after all. As Wikipedia very well explains:
“The Celtic nations is a cultural region and collection of geographical territories in Western Europe and the North Atlantic where Celtic languages and/or cultural traits have survived. The term "nation" is used in its original sense to mean a people who share a common identity and culture and are identified with a traditional territory.”
[..]
“Before the expansions of Ancient Rome and the Germanic and Slavic tribes, a significant part of Europe was dominated by Celts, leaving behind a legacy of Celtic cultural traits. Territories in north-western Iberia—particularly northern Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, León and Cantabria (together historically referred to as Gallaecia and Astures), covering north-central Portugal and northern Spain—are considered Celtic nations due to their culture and history.”
Galicia, as seen in a map of Spain.
It is most definitely this Celt influence, curiously mixed with a strong Catholic tradition brought by those who conquered the land afterwards, that fills Galician tradition with hundreds of different mythological creatures—such as meigas, trasnos and mouros, that you can look up yourself or allow me to bore you to death in the future. However, thinking about the sea and something more commonly known by everyone—whether it is because your own community has its own stories or because you’ve watched a lot of Disney when you were little—I think that sirens and, more particularly, those sirens that became famous through legends, are definitely the most interesting topic to explore.
Sirens appear for the first time in history in ancient Greece, where they were depicted as creatures with human faces—whether male or female—and bodies like birds. Contrary to what most people believe, it wasn’t until the Middle Ages that they appear depicted as half-fish human-like females, closer to the legend that still lives on today.
Sirena Alada (Winged Siren) by Urbano Lugrís
As mentioned before, Galician’s culture has been heavily influenced by religious tradition throughout the years. Thus, we find many different depictions of sirens in column capitals or cantilevers, though they are always connected to the idea of lust and sin. However, these are not the only artistic manifestations where we can find the myth of the siren, as they were the inspiration behind some of Urbano Lugrís’ pieces—a very remarkable Galician painter of the 20th century known as the painter who imagined the sea. Furthermore, sirens were also frequent in family crests and coats of arms. Castelao, who was one of the most famous writers in Galician literature and also a prominent figure in Galician politics, used the image of a siren for his proposal of a coat of arms for Galicia, at the beginning of the 20th century.
Castelao’s proposal for a Galician coat of arms.
I read about most of the following stories, some of them connected to physical items and some inspired by oral tradition, on Bluscus’ website—Bluscus is a Galician travel agency dedicated to marine tourism. Feel free to check out their website because it is really interesting, though it is only available in Spanish.
Before moving on, I would also like to point out that most of the legends you can find about sirens in Galicia do not depict sirens as vicious or malevolent creatures, even when eerie enough to give you goosebumps.
The legend I’m most familiar with is the legend of the siren of Mogor. Though it is rather cliché and vague—the story of a siren who would show up on a rock at sunset in the beach that gives the siren her name—it is the one I am most familiar with, since this beach is very close to my hometown. It is said that she lived in a cave underwater not so far from the beach, and that she would return there every night, once it was too dark. Legend says the cave doesn’t exist anymore, but it has become a tradition for people to go to the beach and look for it—or see the siren, if they’re lucky enough.
This story is very similar to that of the siren of the Miranda Islands, two very small islands where a lonely siren would hide away. Some of the stories about this one siren offer a lot of detail about her fish-like tail and how beautiful she was, opposite to the vague depiction of the Mogor siren. There is more to this story, though. Legend says that a very powerful man found her and fell in love with her, so he decided to take her home. They get secretly married and somehow, after being out of the water for so long, the siren starts to lose her tail and even gets pregnant with her and her husband’s children.
As if these legends were purposefully getting more and more complex as we go, this story tells almost the same people know about Mariña. Mariña is not only a legendary siren, but she is also known to be the first owner of the island of Sálvora, one of the islands that make the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park. What the legend says about Mariña is not only that she got married to a powerful man and somehow became human, but she was mute. Trying to find a way to “cure” her, Mariña’s husband decided to ask an abbot, who told him that she needed to experience a really strong shock—as one does, of course. Since no one would dare to question the authority of a member of the clergy back then, don Froilaz, Mariña’s husband, decided that he would light up a huge fire and pretended to throw their son into the fire—once again, as one does. As you can imagine, this was more than enough to make Mariña speak.
A statue of Mariña that you can find in Sálvora.
But the most famous siren in Galicia is A Maruxaina, who even has her own annual celebration. Not only that, but she is also the only siren in these stories who actually had malicious intentions and it is definitely closer to the traditional legends that inspired so many horror movies and stories.
A Maruxaina was a siren who would use her voice to make seamen drown in the ocean. Not only that, but she would also use her powers to create winds and storms that would make their ships sink—this area is known for being a spot where a lot of ships sank, so maybe this was their way of explaining why. In the small town where this legend was born, fishing was the only source of income most people had. Tired of the siren killing their men and their chances of survival, the townspeople decided to get together and do something about it. Thus, they turned off all the lights in the town and went out to sea playing their horns loud enough to drown out the siren’s song—back then, they would use horns to find their way in the darkness. Since that made her unable to fight back, they were able to capture her, and they brought her back with them so they could take her to trial.
Remember when I mentioned that there was a celebration dedicated to A Maruxaina? In this celebration, people recreate the trial that decided the siren’s fate—which the legend does not reveal. In this act, people pretend to be against the siren, but there are also some who play the part of those townsmen who thought that she was not to blame—according to the legend, some people actually believed that she was using her voice to warn the seamen about the upcoming storm.
A Maruxaina, as seen in San Ciprian, Lugo.
I am very passionate about oral tradition. It allows us to understand so many things about the many different people of the places that you visit, as well as the infinite power of imagination. Perhaps this is the literature graduate in me, but I always get way too excited when I have the excuse to do some research of sorts. So I hope you enjoyed these very brief stories and that they made you curious enough about the hidden culture I am so proud of.
I am still very much afraid of the ocean, though.
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