MUH-rukh
An Irish mermaid or merman, said to wear a magical cap that lets them pass between sea and land.
| Cycle | Entries here | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Mythological Cycle | 17 | The oldest of the four cycles, telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the successive invasions of Ireland. |
| The Fenian Cycle | 6 | Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, set generations after the Ulster Cycle in a world of hunting, romance, and roaming adventure. |
| The Ulster Cycle | 12 | The heroic tales of Conchobar mac Nessa's court at Emain Macha, centered on Cú Chulainn and the great cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. |
| The Historical Cycle | 1 | Also the Cycle of the Kings — legendary and semi-legendary tales of Ireland's High Kings, treated by medieval scribes as genuine national history. |
The Merrow (Murúch) is the Irish version of a mermaid or merman, said to wear a special cap (a cohuleen druith) that allows passage between the sea and human world, and which must be kept safe if the merrow is to return to the water.
Female merrows are generally described as beautiful and gentle, sometimes marrying human men after their cap is hidden away, while male merrows are traditionally depicted as far more grotesque and are associated with storms and shipwrecks.
According to the folklore, a merrow cannot return to the sea without her cohuleen druith, which is the basis for stories in which a fisherman hides a merrow wife's cap to keep her on land — until she eventually finds it and returns to the water, sometimes after years.