Characters
The young Fisherman
Love above all
A bronze-limbed young man who fishes the bay every evening. Falling in love with the Mermaid's singing, he casts away his soul because he cannot see or touch it, and lives with her beneath the sea. He refuses Wisdom and Riches but is lured back to land by the thought of a dancing girl's feet, is led into sin by his heartless Soul, and dies of love beside the Mermaid's body.
The Soul
The heartless wanderer
The Fisherman's soul, which rises from his cut-away shadow looking exactly like him. Sent into the world without a heart, it travels east and south, cows a priest and an Emperor, and returns each year with tempting tales. Once taken back, it drives the Fisherman to steal and to strike. It tempts him with evil, then with good, and can enter his heart again only when that heart breaks.
The little Mermaid
The beloved of the sea
The only daughter of the Sea-King, with hair like a wet fleece of gold and a tail of silver and pearl. Caught in the Fisherman's net, she promises to sing to him, and her songs of the sea-world win his love. She can love him only if he sends away his soul, since the Sea-folk have none. After he leaves her she never answers his call, and at last her body is washed ashore.
The Priest
Harsh faith softened
The churchman who tells the Fisherman that the soul is the noblest part of man and that the Sea-folk are lost, and drives him from his door without a blessing. He refuses to bless the sea over the drowned lovers and buries them in unmarked ground. Three years later, troubled by strange flowers on his altar, he preaches of the God whose name is Love and blesses all the wild things in God's world.
The young Witch
Keeper of the secret
A red-haired witch who lives in a cave at the head of the bay and offers storms, love charms and poisons, all at a price. Her price for the secret of the soul is a dance at the witches' Sabbath. Jealous of the Mermaid, she tries to keep the Fisherman for herself, but when he threatens to slay her she gives him the knife and tells him how to cut away his shadow.
The man in black velvet
Master of the Sabbath
A pale, weary figure in a suit of black velvet cut in the Spanish fashion, with lips like a proud red flower, who appears under a rock at the witches' Sabbath. The dancers kneel and kiss his hands, and he keeps his eyes on the Fisherman throughout. When the Fisherman makes the sign of the Cross, his face twitches with pain, and he rides away on a jennet with silver trappings, looking back sadly.
The merchants
Price without value
The traders in the marketplace to whom the Fisherman offers to sell his soul. They mock him, saying that a man's soul is not worth a clipped piece of silver, and offer instead to buy his body as a slave, clothe him in sea-purple and make him the minion of the great Queen. Their view is the exact opposite of the Priest's.
The young Emperor
Power made helpless
The ruler of the city of Ashter, whose hair and beard are dyed with rose-leaves and whose cheeks are powdered with gold. When the Soul refuses to bow to him, he has it brought to his pavilion and tries to kill it with scimitar, lance and arrow, then stabs his own slave to hide his dishonour. He offers half his treasure, but the Soul takes only his leaden Ring of Riches.
The hooded merchant
Kindness repaid with violence
A merchant in the third city who finds the Fisherman sitting alone in the marketplace at night and, saying that all men are kinsmen made by one God, takes him home, feeds him and gives him a guest-chamber. At the Soul's urging the Fisherman creeps to his room, strikes him senseless and flees with his nine purses of gold.