Forget the beautiful, singing mermaids of popular culture. In Asian folklore, mermaids can look like human-faced fish and may have flesh capable of granting centuries of life.
Which, frankly, is much more interesting.
I’ve always loved mythology, strange creatures, and the idea that there might be bits of magic hiding just out of sight in the real world. It’s a fascination that eventually became the basis for my Mythical Menagerie series, where all those creatures from myths and legends really do exist alongside us.
So, with Hunter’s Calling releasing on 28 August – and a mermaid playing a rather important role in the story – I thought it was time to take a closer look at some of the folklore that inspired it.
Prefer watching to reading?
In this week’s Creature Inspiration video, I’m talking about these strange mermaid legends – including some wonderfully weird historical depictions of the Japanese ningyo.
Mermaids Aren’t Just a Western Legend
When we hear the word mermaid, most of us probably picture roughly the same thing: a beautiful woman from the waist up and a fish from the waist down.
But human-like water creatures appear in folklore all over the world, and they’re definitely not all singing on rocks and dreaming about handsome princes.
Depending on where you encounter one, a mermaid might be beautiful or monstrous, benevolent or dangerous. They have been associated with storms, shipwrecks, death, magical gifts and extraordinary longevity.
And some of my favourite mermaid stories come from Thailand and Japan.
Suvannamaccha: Thailand’s Golden Mermaid
Thailand has its own famous mermaid princess: Suvannamaccha, whose name means “Golden Fish”.
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She appears in the Ramakien, Thailand’s national epic, which was derived from the Indian Ramayana.
In the story, Hanuman and his army are attempting to build a causeway across the sea. Unfortunately, the construction isn’t going terribly well.
Every time they place rocks into the water, the rocks mysteriously disappear.
It turns out that Suvannamaccha has ordered her underwater followers to steal them.
Hanuman eventually follows them beneath the water and discovers the mermaid princess responsible for sabotaging his causeway.
And because this is mythology, naturally the two of them fall in love.
Suvannamaccha is generally depicted much more like the mermaid we’re familiar with today: a beautiful woman with a long fish tail, often shown in gold.
Japanese mermaids, on the other hand…
Well.
They’re a little different.
Japan’s Very Strange Ningyo
Japan has records of strange, human-like aquatic creatures going all the way back to the seventh century. One was reportedly seen in a river in 619 CE, although those early accounts didn’t yet use the word ningyo.
The Japanese word ningyo literally combines the characters for “person” and “fish”.
And if you’re picturing another beautiful woman with flowing hair and a glittering tail, you might want to adjust that mental image.
Traditional descriptions of ningyo could be considerably stranger.
One early description essentially gives us a fish with a human face. A medieval account describes creatures with human-like heads, protruding mouths, fine teeth and faces resembling monkeys.
Not quite the little mermaid, then.
But their appearance isn’t even the weirdest thing about them.
Because according to Japanese folklore, eating the flesh of a ningyo could give you an extraordinarily long life.
Would You Eat a Mermaid to Live for 800 Years?
One of Japan’s best-known mermaid legends is the story of Yao Bikuni.
There are many different versions of the tale, but the basic premise remains the same: Yao Bikuni eats the flesh of a ningyo and afterwards stops ageing.
She remains young while the years – and eventually the centuries – pass around her.
Yao Bikuni ultimately becomes a Buddhist nun and travels the country. According to the best-known version of the legend, she finally dies at the age of eight hundred.
On the surface, immortality – or at least an extraordinarily long life – sounds like a wonderful magical gift.
But eight hundred years is a very long time to watch the world change around you.
Which raises the obvious question:
If eating mermaid flesh meant you could live for eight hundred years, would you do it?
I’m not sure I would.
When Humans Want the Magic for Themselves
This is one of the things I find fascinating about mythology.
Again and again, mythical creatures possess something humans desperately want.
Wealth. Beauty. Knowledge. Immortality. A wish.
And, inevitably, someone decides that the best way to obtain that magic is to capture – or kill – the creature that possesses it.
That idea became an important part of the world I created for my Mythical Menagerie series.
In my books, mythical creatures are real. They exist alongside the human population, mostly hidden from us, and different species possess their own traits and magical abilities.
Unfortunately for them, humans have discovered this too.
There are people willing to hunt these creatures, capture them, sell them and exploit their magic.
Which brings me to Hunter’s Calling.
The Mermaid Behind Hunter’s Calling
When Hunter’s Calling begins, Ben Miller is backpacking through Thailand and running from a future he doesn’t want.
His holiday is almost over. In a few days, he’s supposed to fly home to London, begin a prestigious career in law, and settle into the life his family has planned for him.
Then he meets a young man hunting a mermaid.
According to the story this stranger has heard, anyone who manages to capture her will be granted a wish.
And Ben desperately wants his own life to change.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well…
This is the Mythical Menagerie universe.
And the creature Ben eventually encounters might not be the beautiful, golden-haired mermaid princess he’s expecting.
Discover Hunter’s Calling
Sometimes, finding your calling means discovering a world you never knew existed.
HUNTER’S CALLING releases 28 August 2026.
The book tells the origin story of one of the hunters from my Mythical Menagerie series, but it can be read completely independently, so you don’t need to have read any of the other books first.
If you enjoy contemporary fantasy, dangerous mythical creatures, hidden magical worlds, and stories where myth and the mundane collide, this is a great place to start.
Hunter’s Calling will be available as an ebook and paperback from 28 August 2026.
And now I want to know: would you eat mermaid flesh if it meant living for 800 years?
