[8] In the 16th century, Triton was referred to as the "trumpeter of Neptune (Neptuni tubicen)" in Marius Nizolius's Thesaurus (1551),[9][b] and this phrase has been used in modern commentary.

[13][15] An early settler in Iceland (c. 11th century)[c] allegedly caught a merman while fishing, and the creature prophesied one thing: the man's son will gain possession of the piece of land where the mare Skálm chooses to "lie down under her load".

[18][19] In actuality, it may have been just a sea-mammal (hooded seal, Cystophora cristata),[20][21] or the phenomenon of some sea creature appearing magnified in size, caused by mid-range mirage.

[18] Medieval Norsemen may have regarded the hafstrambr as the largest sorts of mermen, which would explain why the word for marmennill ('little mer-man') would be given in the diminutive.

[27] Konrad Gesner in his chapter on Triton in Historia animalium IV (1558) gave the name of "sea-Pan" or "sea-satyr" (Latin: Pan- vel satyrus marinus) to an artist's image he obtained, which he said was that of an "ichthyocentaur" or "sea-devil".

[34][h] It has been remarked in connection to this by one ichthyologist that mermen created by joining the monkey's upper body with a fish's lower extremity have been manufactured in China for centuries;[33] and such merchandise may have been imported into Europe by the likes of the Dutch East India Company by this time[37] (cf.

[48] Jón Árnasson, building on this classification, divided the water-elves into two groups: the male marbendill vs. the female known variously as hafgýgur, haffrú, margýgur, or meyfiskur.

According to Norwegian folklore dating back to the 18th century, havmand [no] takes the mermaid (havfrue) as wife, and the offspring or young they produce are called marmæler (sing.

[51][52] Norwegian mermen (havmænd) were later ascribed the general characteristic that they are of "a dusky hue, with a long beard, black hair, and from the waist upwards resemble a man, but downwards are like a fish.

In the story "The Merman", a captured marbendill laughs thrice, and when pressed, reveals to the peasant his insight (buried gold, wife's infidelity, dog's fidelity) on promise of release.

The peasant finds wonderful gray milk-cows next to his property, which he presumes were the merman's gift; the unruly cows were made obedient by bursting the strange bladder or sac on their muzzle (with the stick he carried).

[61] English folklorist Jacqueline Simpson surmises that as in Nordic (Scandinavian) countries, the original man-like water-dwellers of England probably lacked fish-like tails.

[62] A "wildman" caught in a fishnet, described by Ralph of Coggeshall (c. 1210) was entirely man-like though he liked to eat raw fish and eventually returned to the sea.

[65] The Irish fakelore story of "The Soul Cages" features a male merrow named Coomara, a hideous creature with green hair, teeth and skin, narrow eyes and a red nose.

[64] In Cornish folklore into early modern times, the Bucca, described as a lonely, mournful character with the skin of a conger eel and hair of seaweed, was still placated with votive offerings of fish left on the beach by fishermen.

In China and in Japan, there are various accounts of "human-fish" (人魚, Chinese: renyu, Japanese: ningyo), and these presumably occurred in male forms also.

[n][74][75] Later, a Japanese source (Nagasaki bunkenroku) gave description of the kaijin encompassing features of both types: it had chin hair[o] as well as a skin flap around the waist similar to a hakama.

An older (though perhaps lesser known) account of hairen occurs in Shaozi or Shao Yong's work called Caomuzi (草木子), which describes the creature as having the shape of a (Buddhist) priest, though diminutive in stature.

[79] In Finnish mythology, a vetehinen [fi], a type of neck, is sometimes portrayed as a magical, powerful, bearded man with the tail of a fish.

[89] DNA testing was inconclusive as to species (and nothing on gender was disclosed), but despite being catalogued as a "Japanese Monkey-fish", it was determined to contain no monkey parts, but only the teeth, scales, etc.

[92] Such fake mermaids handcrafted from monkeys and fish were being made in China and the Malay Archipelago, and imported by the Dutch since the mid-16th century, according to ichthyologist E. W.

Science fiction writer Joe Haldeman wrote two books on Attar the Merman in which genetically enhanced mermen can communicate telepathically with dolphins.

Samuel R. Delany wrote the short story Driftglass in which mermen are deliberately created surgically as amphibious human beings with gills,[97] while in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, a race of merpeople live in a lake outside Hogwarts.

Although they were once depicted largely as being unattractive in some traditions as described in previous sections, in some modern works, mermen are portrayed as handsome, strong and brave.

[97] In the DC Comics mythology, mermen are a common fixture of the Aquaman mythos, often showing a parochialistic rivalry with humanoid water-breathers.

[100] The Australian TV series Mako: Island of Secrets (2013–2016), a spin-off of H2O: Just Add Water, includes a teenage boy named Zac (played by Chai Hansen) who turns into a merman.