Lesson 1: Merpeople

Merpeople are sentient beings who live underwater in lakes and seas, although they can breathe air for short periods of time. Merpeople are intelligent folk who have developed their own culture and social structures and have a great love of music. Merpeople are found all over the world, including the Lake near Hogwarts. The voices of merpeople sound like screeching above water but are understandable beneath the waves, where they sound croaky. Their own language is called Mermish.
 Merpeople around the world vary in appearance just as humans do. The sirens of Greece are the oldest recorded merpeople, who match the descriptions of Muggle legend (and the painting in the Prefects’ bathroom), while the selkies of Scotland and the merrows of Ireland differ in appearance.

The merpeople of Hogwarts - who are selkies - have greyish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes are yellow, as are their broken teeth, and they wear thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. Their powerful, silver fish tails allow them to swim expertly, while the upper parts of their bodies resemble those of humans. Merpeople are very tall. Harry Potterencountered one in the lake near Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament of 1995 who was seven feet tall with a long green beard and a choker of shark fangs, carrying a spear.


The merpeople’s village is located in the center of the lake, a quarter of a mile from Hogwarts castle. The edge of the village is marked by a large rock with paintings of merpeople on it; they are carrying spears and chasing the giant squid. The village consists of clusters of crude stone dwellings stained with algae. In the center of the village, the houses line a village square in which rises a crude sort of statue of a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder.
Some houses have gardens of weed around some of them, and a few merpeople keep a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside their homes.
The merfolk who live in the lake near Hogwarts are led by Merchieftainess Murcus.