Merfolk (Spiderwick Chronicles)

Merfolk are water faeries who appear in Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles.

Description
As stunningly gorgeous as they are dangerous, merfolk live in loosely structured kingdoms deep in the sea, but occasionally their natural curiosity causes them to near the shore.

Although usually seen at night out on the jetties or even sometimes on the soft sand of the beaches, they have been spotted in daylight, resting on rocky outcroppings. They have also been found trapped in tidal pools when the sea changes.

Merfolk are at their most helpless out of water. Even though their dual-function lungs can breath air, their silvery scales dry out with overexposure to the sun.

Although merfolk are very beautiful, it is not safe to approach them. Land people and sea people have been at odds since earliest recorded memory. With pollution increasing and more aquatic species hunted to extinction, merfolk are even less likely to consider a land dweller as a potential friend.

Merfolk differ widely in coloration, sharing the distinctive characteristics of fish of their region. Male merfolk, known as mermen, are rare and solitary creatures except during the mating season. They can easily be distinguished from the mermaids by their larger size.

As with any culture, merfolk leave behind a significant amount of artifacts that can be found around their habitats. Small piles of discarded shellfish may well be evidence of a merperson coming ashore to dine. Sea people are unused to cooking, so there will be no sign of a fire and there may be some sharp object nearby that was used to pry the food open.

You may come upon sheets of seaweed drying along the shoreline. Merfolk weave a crude kind of fabric from it, called seaweed cloth, that is used for garments, rope, and even baskets.

Merfolk tools are made from bone, discarded land glass, or the sharp teeth of sharks, but never iron. These tools are often bound at one end with eel skin.

You may find shells or pieces of coral with small holes in them. These are from necklaces merpeople wear around their necks and sometimes loop along their tails.

The evidence of merfolk is especially strong if the shell is not native to your beaches. Merfolk have been known to travel great distances and often lose or discard things along the way.

A Giant Problem
When Nick, Laurie, Jules, Cindy and Sandspur went to the beach in the middle of the night to make the merfolk help them with luring the Giants out to the sea with song, the Mermaids kidnapped Jules and threatened to hold him imprisoned under the water forever if his friends didn't gave them a new fish that had never swim in their sea before, before the sun rise. At first they had no idea how to get a new fish, but then Nick remembered that there was some seas completely surrounded by land, and that the Merfolk couldn't have seen the fish that lived there. It showed up that Cindy's dad had a large saltwater aquarium. They went there, and while Nick distracted Cindy's dad by saying that he wanted to get a saltwater aquarium, Laurie took a fish called George from the Red Sea. But Sandspur escaped from his leash, made some noise, and forced the kids to run. When they gave the fish to the Merfolk, they returned Jules and sang, but only for a short time. Then they disappeared into the water. Nick had been recording the song on a microcassette recorder, and by rigging some equipment on the top of Jules' car, they could lure the Giants out to sea.

The Wyrm King
When the Hydras started to form sinkholes everywhere, and Nick, Laurie, Jules, Jared, Simon, Mallory and Sandspur went back to the beach to lure the Giants back to land with Nixie song, they decided to try to surf out with the Nixies in the water, because saltwater burns Nixie skin. Julian couldn't, as he had been imprisoned by the Merpeople and thus had gotten a fear for the sea. Nicholas decided to go out with Ibi, but because he'd never surfed before, he needed to practice first. It didn't go so well, he almost drowned under the water, but a Mermaid filled his lungs with air and then gave him a cap of woven sea grass which allows humans to breath underwater. The Mermaids told Nicholas that they were not going to help, because apparently they have to protect everything that lives in their ocean, including Giants, and that they wanted the land to burn. Nick was swept up to the surface again and was rescued by his stepsister.

Abilities
Mermaids possess beautiful voices. Even when they talk their speech sounds like music. Like the sirens of Greek mythology and their cousins, the nixies, when mermaids truly sing they can cast a spell over listeners. They can enchant mortals and even other faeries like giants. Listeners are drawn to them and will follow the singing mermaid anywhere, even into the depths of the sea. A mermaid's enchantment is stronger than a nixie's and are better at luring people.

Merfolk can weave seaweed caps. These caps have a charm that allows others to breathe where they shouldn't, specifically underwater. However, the spell works in any situation. When Nick was couldn't breathe the poisonous breath of the Hydra, the mermaid cap enabled him to breathe.

Trivia

 * Their family name, Sirenidae, comes from the word siren. Sirens were creatures from Greek mythology with the head of a woman and the wings and bodies of birds. They used their beautiful singing voices to enchant mortals and lure them to their doom. They later became depicted as mermaids. In most languages "sirena" or "sirene" or another variation of these is how mermaids are still called.
 * The seaweed caps mermaids make are similar to the ones merrows use in Irish mythology.

Links

 * https://spiderwick.fandom.com/wiki/Merfolk