Hello Bookish Buddies! If you don’t know me, I am Bella over at Bella Blogs Because Books and I’m super excited to be a guest on Melanie’s blog! Today I’ll be talking about some siren lore and books (of course). Let’s get into it!

I chose sirens because I think they’re super epic. Like what’s cooler than luring men to their deaths, am I right? But in all seriousness, I find sirens super intriguing and awesome. Plus they’re scarier than sea monsters, to me at least, because you wouldn’t have the common sense to get away from them due to their magic.

Although the first records of them are in Greek mythology, such creatures have a Pre Greek origin. Originally sirens were said to have the appearance of women combined with birds. Honestly, I picture killer angels, because a woman-bird sounds scary and not at all attractive. However, later their appearance evolved into regular women. So yeah, if you’re a woman and you can sing, congratulations! You’re a siren.

Since both Melanie and I are book bloggers, what would this post be with out some siren related book stuff? I have three books to talk about: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling, The Odyssey by Homer, This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab.

My first exposure to the idea of sirens was in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when I was in third grade, before my mom made me stop reading the books because they were “too scary.” Although the sirens in Harry Potter aren’t technically sirens (they’re mermaids, sue me), they have a lot of similarities, ie having a weird sort of song, living in water, being really creepy, etc. Honestly, they scared the crap out of me as an eight year old.

Later, in tenth grade, my English class read The Odyssey, in which I thought it was pretty self explanatory not to mess with sirens. Apparently not. Odysseus asked his men to tie him to a post while he listened to the siren song, and thus ended up torturing himself. I don’t know why. Sometimes men don’t make sense. Sometimes fictional characters don’t make sense. Sometimes male fictional characters don’t make sense.

The next one, This Savage Song, is a more recent read of mine, and although it has no sirens, it has siren-like creatures called Sunai. Sunai are pretty much land sirens, who lure people to their deaths with music and eat their souls. I strongly recommend reading this book if you haven’t already. Even though sirens in mythology were actually thought to be cannibals.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. There is so much more out there about sirens if you’re interested, and there are so many more books that feature sirens or siren-like characters as well. I’d like to thank Melanie for letting me be a guest on her blog! She’s totally bomb.

Happy Halloween!

Hello Bookish Buddy, my name is Bella and I run a little book blog over at BellaBlogsBecauseBooks.wordpress.com instead of doing the homework I should be doing. If you’re looking for some (not so) quality bookish content overloaded with sarcasm and sass, check me out. If not, you should still check me out because please. I love making new friends in the book blogosphere, so come say hi!

4 thoughts on “Sirens”

Thanks for sharing this! I like sirens. 😀
My first exposure to sirens weren’t a story about them putting sailors into a trance to kill them; it was about a siren and a human’s forbidden love. Granted, it’s from a game called Legend of Mana (not a book!) and it was a side plot (main character is just there to help), but it brought me a beautiful image of sirens, of their angelic faces, their beautiful songs, their floral-and-feathers character design, their beautiful wings that signify freedom. 🕊✨

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You know, after reading this post I had a very interesting idea. Most versions of the sirens that I’ve seen have been ones where the sound of their voice lulls a person into a drug like trance, where they feel no fear, but what if someone created a version where the person’s body was compelled, but their mind remained unaffected. Just imagine seeing someone slowly walk towards a siren, a look of pure horror on their face as they watch, helpless, as their own body betrays them.

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