Mermonk

mermonk • Nordic creature that is mentioned by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner in his chapter on merpeople1. Apparently, a mermonk was captured by herring fishers in the Baltic Sea near Copenhagen. Gesner also mentions a merbishop that was captured near Poland in 1531.

English
Mermonk

Portuguese
Monge marinho

Norwegian
Havmunk (literal translation; not known in Norwegian mythology)

Dutch
Zeemonnik (literal translation; not known in Dutch mythology)

German
Seemönch

French
Moine de mer; Poisson-moine

Spanish
Monje marino (literal translation)

Catalan
Monjo marí (literal translation)

Italian
Pesce monaco; Monaco marino (literal translation)

Greek
Μοναχός της θάλασσας


A mermonk (François Desprez, Paris, 1562). Rijksmuseum.
A mermonk (Conrad Gesner, 1604: Historiae animalium, p. 439).

References

  1. Conrad Gesner, 1604: Historiae animalium, p. 439. ↩︎