Mermaid of Zennor

The legend tells the story of a mysterious woman who occasionally attended the parish church of Zennor; a young man followed her home one day, and neither were seen again.

One Sunday, a mermaid appeared to a group of local sailors, asking that they raise their anchor to let her enter her home, and the villagers concluded that she was the same woman who had attended their church.

In his retelling, a beautiful and richly-dressed woman occasionally attended services at St Senara's Church in Zennor, and sometimes at Morvah.

When the villagers heard of this, they concluded that the mermaid was the same lady who had long visited their church, and that she had enticed Mathey Trewella to come and live with her.

The mermaid had come to church every Sunday to hear the choir, and her own voice was so sweet that she enticed Mathey Trewella, son of the churchwarden, to come away with her; neither was seen again on dry land.

The ending of the story, where the mermaid asks for the anchor to be lifted, resembles another legend designated as Removing a Building Situated over the House of the Fairies;[iii] Ronald James suggests the Mermaid of Zennor is a mutation of this story, and that the final part may have also formed a separate legend.

[13] The legend is linked to Saint Senara in Sue Monk Kidd's The Mermaid Chair,[14] which was adapted into a movie for Lifetime in 2006.

[17] British writer Helen Dunmore was inspired in part by the Mermaid of Zennor when writing her Ingo Chronicles.