Legends of cities settled by fishpeople?

Helsinki?

Are you sure? I'm obviously having trouble Googling this, but I can't find anything about it.

You need to talk to GungaSnake. This sounds like something he'd be heavily into.

I don't know about settled but here in Cornwall (England) theres hundreds of stories of people taken by mermaids and such.

I think all the cornish people are on LSD all the time.... thats the only way i can explain the things we come up with.

...Must be something in the water...

Copenhagen has the statue of a female mermaid and there is a small town in
Israel who claims to get sightings of a mermaid
mermaid

The Mermaid is the official symbol of Warsaw and sculptures of mermaids can be seen throughout the city. I think the legend goes that a group of fisherman were traveling down a river (can't remember the name) looking to establish a new village. A mermaid heard them talking and came up from the river and directed them to the spot that is now Warsaw. That's the only city/fish people story I know of.

When I went to find a picture I found a picture and a story:




http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2009/11/15/warsaw-impressions.html

from Wiki:

Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.
She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down (much like a mermaid). She is also sometimes illustrated with wings, two tails or both, and sometimes referred to as a nixie.

Melusine legends are especially connected with the northern, most Celtic areas of Gaul, and the Low Countries.

Melusine is one of the pre-Christian water-faeries who were sometimes responsible for changelings. The "Lady of the Lake", who spirited away the infant Lancelot and raised the child, was such a water nymph. For other European water sprites dangerous to humans, especially men, see Lorelei, Nixie.

Melusine is particularly thought of as part of the founding legend of Brittany, although she is known of in Germany and Scotland.

i remember something sinister about Polish mermaids but am not certain what it is.

In both christian as arabic legends there is a "fishking" protecting a holy secret; the grail and a sacred temple...

Mélusine is said to have founded the cities of:
Lusignan, Parthenay, Tiffauges and Talmont (France)
The legend also says she built the walls of La Rochelle, and several churches (St-Paul-en-Gâtine, Partenay, Niort...).
According to the legend, she founded the Lusignan family (a powerful mansion of the middle ages). She is also known as "La mère Lusigne" (mother Lusigne), founder of Lusignan.
Her story (roughly, from memory):
Her legend starts in Scotland. Daughter of Persine and Elinas, king of Scotland, she is in exile in the island of Avalon when she decides to lock her father in a mountain (with the help of her two younger sisters), as a revenge for their exile. Her mother, fairy Persine punishes her three daughters, and especially Mélusine, since she's the oldest. She condemns her to look like a normal woman from head to waist, and a snake from waist to feet on Saturdays. If she finds a man who'd accept not to see her on Saturdays, she would live a normal woman life, and have a long beautiful lineage. If not, she'd be tormented forever.
She meets Raymondin (of Lusignan) who accepts to marry her. They have 10 children, each who would accomplish great things later. She builds castles, churches and Raymondin becomes very powerful. But his brother, who's jealous, convinces him to go and see his wife on a saturday. She leaves (flies off the window). Sometimes at night, she came to visit her children. The legend says that each time a descendant of the Lusignans dies, people can hear Mélusine cry.

The statue of the mermaid in Copenhagen has nothing to do with fishpeople, but the fairy tale by H.C.Andersen.
The Little Mermaid statue was a present from brewer Carl Jacobsen (The Carlsberg Breweries) to the city of Copenhagen, made by a then little known sculptor called Edvard Erichsen. The Little Mermaid was unveiled at Langelinje in 1913, as part of a general trend in Copenhagen in those days, selecting classical and historical figures to be used as decorations in the city's parks and public areas.

It might stem from or be connected to some of H.P.Lovecrafts work. His mythos has a lot of oceanic themes which help to emphasise fear of vast unknowns and cosmic horror as such one of his stories is about the fishing town of insmouth which is a town populated by half men half fish people which were given such a ‘gift’ as a reward for their worship of the old ones (gods essentially) though this seems to be a work of fiction and was written by an American who fancied himself to be an Englishman and was written in 1931

I've just seen some cod science 'documentary' which discusses a Millennium Falcon type vessel on the bottom of the Baltic. Did you just watch that, because this is a very old thread?

The Cornish lady made an interesting point about mermaids. Lyonesse is a fabled sunken land off the coast of Cornwall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonesse

Btw, I never got the impression Lovecraft fancied himself as English. His stories have always sounded very American to me. Now TS Eliot is a different matter entirely.