MERMAN • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Merman

... giant, and although the existing versions show but faint traces of a supernatural element, it is probable that the original character of the story has been changed by the accidents of tradition, and that the Etin was at the outset in line with such personages as Arnold's Forsaken Merman. In the beautiful kindred ballads which abound in the Norse and German literatures, the Etin is sometimes represented by a merman, though usually by an elf-king, dwarf-king, or hill-king. Hind chiel, young stripling. Spier, ...

— Ballad Book • Katherine Lee Bates (ed.)