Emily and the Mermaid: a novelized fairy tale

  .       Mermaids, their homes and their habitats are explained and described, including how mermaids and dolphins sense the approach of a hurricane and fend for themselves.   Mermaids praise their King Wayan II for doing little or nothing as a ruler, which perfectly suits them.   Mermaid doctors are rewarded for keeping their patience well, and mermaids pay them nothing when they fall ill.      Mermaid Queen Iridescence is killed by a tiger shark, which causes her eldest daughter to fear going to the surface by herself.   The three major settings of the novel are the mermaid kingdom Marbella, the royal palace of Beauteous Kingdom, and Emily McAllister’s farm home on Sawyer Island.  Mermaid and dolphin relationships are described.      Prince Arthur, heir to the throne of Beauteous Kingdom, is an impractical dreamer who’d rather spend time communing with nature and woodland fairies than l...

     The reader is introduced to each of the six mermaid princesses. Mermaid palace life, with little fish and each mermaid sister’s personal garden, is described.        We learn of the twelve powerful magicians who boast the power to create gold and silver by putting magic words on slips of paper.   The magicians are uninterested in who makes official decrees as long as the magicians are free to create the kingdom’s wealth.      We also learn of lesser magicians known as happiness counters.   By means of such magic words as kurtosis, standard deviation , and granger , they’re able to divine that almost everyone in Beauteous Kingdom is deliriously happy—after excluding the “outliars” (people who lie more than anyone else), of course.      Prince Arthur has private tutors who teach him such things as how to influence people by learning a store of talking points that seem to address ...

  In the mermaid kingdom of Marbella, education is usually an interactive experience, like a continuous field trip.   Among other things, merchildren learn about other sea life, how to weave baskets from eelgrass, and of other aquatic cultures, such as undines (seen at left), melusines, naiads, ama divers, Moken, and bayou shanty-boat dwellers. Merchildren also learn of fairies, sylphs, sasquatches, and Gullah humans.      Mermaid Grandmother Glynis unintentionally gives Triza (the youngest mermaid princess) the wrong impression when she repeats tales she had heard from fairies. Triza comes to believe that among humans every challenge has a happy ending.      On Sawyer Island, Emily learns from such books as the McGuffey Readers and An Improved Grammar of the English Language (suggesting some deficiency in the previous version of the textbook.)   Although logic was commonly taught in Western kingdoms of the early ninetee...

      N’Shal, the oldest mermaid princess, comes of age to go to the surface alone, and she’s still fearful, due to her mother’s death years earlier.   She notices dolphins following her as far as the bay outside the city of Royalton.   In the bay, she meets and is befriended by an undine named Cachina.   Cachina guides her to the nearby Isle of Lucy, where they observe the city by night and listen to the night sounds.      They also look at the stars Altar and Vega, facing each other across the Milky Way; and they recall the beloved legend of the cow herder and the fairy princess of heaven.      As N’Shal is leaving, Cachina invites her to come for a visit some other time, as there’s an undine community at the western end of the bay.   As N’Shal leaves the bay for the open sea, dolphins accompany her back to the mermaid kingdom.   Her grandmother Glynis had made sure that on her maiden voyage, N’Sh...

     In the middle of June 1843, the second mermaid sister Eeba came of age, and it was her turn to rise to the surface without supervision and explore the world above.      Eeba journeyed to Sawyer Island.  Swimming into Gull Inlet between Sawyer Island and Palm Island, she discovered a creek and decided to explore it.  Along the way, Eeba met some fairies who encouraged her to swim as far as Garner's Millpond so she could watch the children swim.      The fairies unwisely advised her to conceal herself behind the millpond impoundment behind the spillway and watch the children from that position.      Eeba watched the children for a long time, not noticing that the tide had gone out, making it impossible for her to dive from the spillway to the millpond.       Emily's black Cairn terrier Hero caught sight of Eeba and began barking.  All the children looked and saw Eeba. Fright...

    This chapter tells the story of a girl who, three decades after the events of this novel, was befriended by mermaids, learned their ways, and shared their culture with the world of humans.  The girl's grandfather Glenn Kellerman, is a minor character in Emily and the Mermaid: a novelized fairy tale.      The girl's name was Annette Kellerman.      Annette Kellerman was an Australian girl who, at a very young age, developed a case of rickets, which severely weakened her legs.  Annette's father, remembering Glenn Kellerman's tales of meeting mermaids in Beauteous Kingdom over three decades earlier, felt that swimming mermaid style would strengthen her legs.      After making a few contacts in Beauteous Kingdom, Mr. Kellerman placed Annette in the care of mermaids for a few months.  After a few more contacts that were supplied by mermaids and fairies, Annette continued her lessons in her native Au...