The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen - Delia Sherman [83]
Kirin(Japan): A kind of dragon/deer/lion hybrid. Kirin are gentle and pure-hearted and only appear in places ruled by kind and just rulers.
Kouros(Greece): “Kouros” is Greek for “young man.” There are many, many ancient statues of young men in the Metropolitan Museum, and each of them is called “Kouros.” They have long, stony curls and mysterious little smiles, and they’ll never tell you what the joke is.
Moss Women(Germany): Tiny nature nymphs. They’re all about moss: making it, decorating trees with it, taking care of it. They wear moss. Their hair looks like moss. They can also grant small wishes and reorient mortals lost in the woods, but don’t step on any moss, or you’ll be sorry.
Naiad/Nixie/Undine(Europe): Different kinds of freshwater nymphs. Naiads (Greece) and undines (Germany) have legs. Nixies (Germany and Switzerland) have fish tails. Like mermaids, nixies enjoy drowning mortals for fun. Naiads and undines are more likely to fall in love with them.
Nymph(Everywhere): Essentially, any female nature spirit is a nymph, no matter what she was called in the Old Country. Moss women are forest nymphs; nixies are water nymphs. The marsh goblin’s nymph could have been a helead (nymph of the marshes). Or she could have been visiting.
Ogres(France and Italy): Big, ugly Folk with a taste for mortal flesh and really bad manners. There aren’t many in New York Between, luckily, but you never know when one might show up.
Rusalka(Russia): A water nymph of the “come and be drowned” variety. Unlike nixies, she leaves the water to look for victims, carrying a magic comb to keep her hair from drying out, which would kill her. The rusalkas in Central Park mostly live in Harlem Meer with the vodyanoi.
Selkie(British Isles): A mortal on the land; a seal in the sea. They are strong, gentle, and patient and make excellent fairy godparents.
Shinseën(China): Nature spirits, oddly enough. There might be a few lurking up in Inwood or somewhere, but most of them seem to be down in Chinatown, selling spices and vegetables. New York is like that.
Tanuki(Japan): Badger/man shapeshifter. They like rice wine, good food, and simple practical jokes, and are usually almost as wide as they are tall.
Troll(Scandinavia): Big, ugly, hairy, and short-tempered. Trolls like treasure and solitude and biting people’s heads off. They turn to stone in the sun.
Viz-Leany(Hungary): A kind of water maiden. Descended from a goddess, back in the Old Country.
Vodyanoi(Russia): Nasty, mean, dangerous water spirits who hate mortals (except to eat . . . raw). They can shift shape—old men with scales and/or green beards, big fish, frogs. Green is a theme. Also horns and big teeth.
Wild Hunt(Northern Europe): In the Old Country, a host of evil spirits who hunt souls on windy, stormy nights. In New York Between, a loose alliance of nasty, carnivorous Folk who are always petitioning the Green Lady to up their quota of fresh meat.
Will-o’-the-wisps/feux follet/ignis fatuus:Different names for nature spirits who exist to mislead travelers. They look like little lights, twinkling off in the trees (or down a side street). If you follow them, thinking you’ve found somebody with a flashlight or a restaurant or an off-duty taxi, you’ll get a lot more lost than you were to begin with, probably in a really bad section of town.
Acknowledgments
As always, I have many people to thank.
The Fabulous Genrettes—Laurie J. Marks, Rosemary Kirstein, and Didi Stewart—for helping me make it all make sense.
Ellen Klages, for Friday pages and inexhaustible patience with my early-draft experiments.
Sarah Smith, Elizabeth Bear, Eve Sweetser, Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, Holly Black, Chiara Azzaretti, Shweta Narayan,