奇怪的故事：十九世紀早期蘇格蘭對美人魚的蒐集、翻譯與想像

Strange Stories : Collecting, Translating, and Imagining Mermaids in Early Nineteenth-Century Scotland

在十九世紀早期蘇格蘭書寫中，美人魚角色所不斷形變與幻化不定的形象，經常成為眾作家的文學素材。歸結起來，美人魚主題主要是以三種方法表現在科學性、神話性、民俗性、美學性等不同性質的作品裡。首先，美人魚都被「收集」在擬科學的旅行文學裡，用以圖示蘇格蘭北方未知水域的地理和文化；其次，在古文物研究與收藏者當中，她們經常被「翻譯」而出現在蘇格蘭民間故事、民謠、傳奇故事，以尋求蘇格蘭之歌謠傳說，與其他日耳曼族及斯堪地那維亞等文化之同質性；其三，在蘇格蘭作家詩歌小說中，她們則被作者「創造」為一個受歡迎的、具有強烈藝術性的女性神話人物。本文主張，在蘇格蘭和歐洲其他地區，「美人魚崇拜」部分是受到「文化國族主義」的啟發，由於被加添在美人魚身上的傳說與傳奇，具有獨特的民俗及地域性，使得它成為民間故事與民謠採集者的重要題材。如John Leyden在《詩意的殘留》中所稱的「北方傳說中的美人魚」，具有考古與復興民俗文化運動的普世價值。本文探究有關人魚，以及如奧克尼、設德蘭等封閉民族所特有富含神祕性與民俗性的蘇格蘭美人魚，是如何回應傳統中古世紀與浪漫文學裡有關美人魚與普通人的情色邂逅、以及描繪美人魚／封閉少女被移情而突顯出的脆弱形象。欲探討「北方美人魚」的新文化親屬關係，認識浪漫主義晚期及十九世紀早期民俗復興運動所抱持跨文化或國際主義態度是很重要的。本文討論了不同文本與作者的關聯性，女性本質相關之議題，以及使美人魚形象具體化的特定流行與神話概念。本文為美人魚一再作為一種創造力本質提供有趣的例證。

This essay pursues the different ways in which the mermaid is represented in early nineteenth-century Scottish writing, exploring how and why, as an intrinsically metamorphic and protean figure, she becomes a source of literary and cultural fascination for a variety of writers. It suggests that there are three principal ways in which the subject of mermaids draws together different discourses (scientific, mythic, folkloric, and aesthetic). Firstly, mermaids are”collected”in quasi-scientific,”travel”writing which charts the unknown northern waters of Scotland, both geographically and culturally; secondly, they are”translated”in the work of antiquaries and collectors which seeks to discover affinities between Scottish folklore, ballads, and legends and those of other cultures, principally Germanic and Scandinavian; and, thirdly, they are”invented”in new poetic fictions by Scottish writers which demonstrate their power to embody a popular, and artistically compelling, feminine mythology. The essay argues that in Scotland, as in Europe, the Romantic”cult of the mermaid”is partly inspired by what might be termed”cultural nationalism”; because the lore and legend attached to the mermaid has particular folkloric and regional specificity, it becomes a significant strand of the material gathered by folk and ballad collectors. The”mermaid of the northern legends,”to use John Leyden's phrase (Poetical Remains), becomes valuable to the allied antiquarian and folk revival movements. The essay examines how the distinctive Scottish association of the mermaid with a larger mythic and folkloric body of material relating to mer-people and seal-folk (in Orkney and Shetland) produces narratives which echo traditional medieval and Romantic literary accounts of erotic encounters between mermaid and mortal, and yet strikingly portray the mermaid/seal-maiden as a figure of empathic fragility. Accordingly, the essay argues how the”northern mermaid”finds new cultural kinship, important to the cross-cultural, or internationalist dimension, of the late Romantic and early nineteenth-century folk movement. Collectively, the different texts and writers which the essay newly considers in relation to one another offer an interesting illustration of the ways in which the figure of the mermaid embodies certain popular, mythic ideas about the nature of the feminine, and licenses the telling of various stories which renews her significance as a figure of, and about, the nature of creativity itself.