The Icelandic Merman in Jón lærði’s Natural History

Record summary

The writings of Jón lærði Guðmundsson, an Icelandic naturalist and folklorist, contain material on Icelandic animals, marvels, and marine beings, including traditions later associated with the merman or “marmennill.” This lead can illuminate how local knowledge, learned natural history, and supernatural taxonomy coexisted in early modern Iceland. The textual transmission is difficult: manuscripts, later editions, and translated summaries do not always preserve the same wording. It should be investigated as an early modern textual tradition rather than assumed to document a biological humanoid.