Is It True That The Legend Of Mermaids May Have Been Unwittingly Caused By Lapps From Finland And Norway?

Certainly that is one theory that has been proposed to explain the legends of mermaids and "seal people" from around the northern and western seaboards of Scotland.
The tradition is thought to have arisen because of the nomadic wanderings of a little known tribe of coastal Lapps called the Sjo-Same who lived most of their lives at sea in kayaks. The Sjo-Same splintered away from the main body of inland reindeer Lapps to live a nomadic sea-going life, favouring lonely offshore rocks or islets to haul ashore.

It is thought their wanderings took them all the way across the North Sea to Scotland where tales of 'seal folk' being captured, and even inter-marrying with the local populations, abound round the north of Scotland, from Shetland and Orkney to the north east coast and as far down the west coast as the Mull of Kintyre.

The reason the mermaid myth grew was because the Sjo-Same avoided contact with the locals as far as possible. The rare sightings of them were usually while they were sitting in their kayaks, which from the shore may have been mistaken for them sitting on rocks.

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