Page 87 - Unit 6 - Exercise 1A

Page 87 - Unit 6 - Exercise 1A

The Mermaid

Zennor is a small village on Cornwall’s rocky northern coast. Long ago, a handsome young man called Matthew lived there. Like most of the local men, he was a fisherman.

It was a hard and dangerous job. At the end of each day, the villagers walked to their little old church to pray for good weather and good fishing the next day. The people sang, too, and everyone agreed that Matthew had the most beautiful voice in the world.

The church was very close to the shore, and out in the cold, dark sea someone else heard Matthew singing. Her name was Morveren, but she wasn’t one of the villagers. She was a mermaid, the daughter of Llyr, King of the Ocean. ‘What is that beautiful sound?’ she wondered, as she sat upon a rock and combed her long blonde hair. Every night after that, she came a little closer to the shore and listened.

One night, when she returned to her home at the bottom of the sea, she asked her father if she could go and see who the singer with the wonderful voice was. Llyr replied that it was too dangerous for a mermaid to go onto the land, but Morveren refused to listen. She asked again and again.

So finally the old king agreed. He gave her a net to cover her hair and a long dress to hide her fishtail. The dress was decorated with shells and jewels from the bottom of the ocean.

The next night, the mermaid dragged herself and the heavy dress out of the water and up the path to the old church. She looked through the half-open door at all the people inside.

When she saw Matthew, she fell instantly in love with him.

She watched and listened, but when the people finished singing, Morveren dragged herself back to the shore. Night after night she came, but she always left before anyone noticed her.

By this time, the villagers were chasing after them.

Matthew picked the mermaid up in his strong arms and ran down to the shore. The villagers were getting closer, so Morveren pulled some of the jewels from her dress and threw them on the ground. When they saw the precious stones, the people stopped to pick them up, and the two young lovers reached the sea. Only Matthew’s mother, Ruth, continued to run after them. ‘Stop, Matthew!

Stop!’ she cried, but she was too late. She could only watch sadly from the shore, as Matthew and Morveren disappeared into the dark waves. They were never seen again.

Time passed, but the people of Zennor didn’t forget Matthew. They often said that they could still hear his beautiful voice, as he sang to Morveren deep below the waves. He was singing to them, too, they said. Sometimes his songs told the fishermen that it was all right to go out in their boats, and at other times the songs warned them that it was too dangerous. On those occasions the fishermen said, ‘Thank you, Matthew.’ Then they tied up their boats and stayed safely on the shore.