Dinny Mara
Also called Dinny-Mara, Doinney Marrey, Dooinney Marrey.
The Dinny Mara, the Man of the Sea, is the Isle of Man's benevolent merman — a bringer of full nets and storm warnings, never to be summoned by whistling aboard.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Manx folklore
- Region
- Isle of Man (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Water-Beckoners
Near this figure
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Utility powers
- Controls marine game abundance
why
The crew of the Baatey ny Guillyn, the Boys' Boat, seven single young men, made him an offering of herring each time they sailed, and each time took a full net.
- Danger forewarning call
why
Pressed by the curious fleet to share their grounds, they told them honestly where they had fished; that night, off the Calf of Man, the crew heard the dinny mara speak from the water, in Manx: "It is calm and fine now but a storm is coming shortly." The Boys' Boat drew her nets and made harbor as the storm broke; the rest of the fleet was lost, and the fleet's controller afterward decreed that no crew should again be all single men.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Water carries
4 citations
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Dinny Mara."
- Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins, s.v. "Dinny Mara."
- Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "Dinny Mara."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Dinny Mara."
- Wise Old Man carries both readings
4 citations
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Dinny Mara."
- Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins, s.v. "Dinny Mara."
- Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "Dinny Mara."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Dinny Mara."