The Tail of Emily Windsnap revolves around mermaids, presented as half-human, half-fish creatures who live in the sea and function like humans do on land. The term merfolk is derived from the old English “mere,” meaning “sea”—thus, folk of the sea. Kessler’s depictions of mermaids come close to ideas made popular by such modern retellings as the Walt Disney Studios adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” published in 1872 as part of The Complete Fairy Tales. In the Disney film, the main character (Ariel) longs for a life away from the sea and the restrictive life she knows. Though Emily Windsnap and the popular Disney movie share similarities, these depictions are far from the first cultural representations of merfolk. Going back hundreds of years, merfolk or similar creatures can be found in myths from around the globe, many of which focus specifically on mermaids. Mermaids were often associated with fertility or destruction (hence tales of sirens leading ships to their ruin), both of which called upon a mermaid’s beauty as a powerful force.

Mermaid mythology is as rich and varied as the cultures of the world. One of the earliest mermaid tales comes from Syria, circa 1000 BCE.