(). He also knowingly employed Old Norwegian/Old Norse maryge [sic.] and hafstrambe [sic.] as the Norwegian names of the mermaid and merman respectively. Havfrue cognates The Icelandic cognate form is with several synonyms, though instead of these the commonly used term today is . The Faroese forms are (). The Swedish form is , with other synonyms such as , or ('sea-fairy', the maritime counterpart of the forest ). Other aliases The terms margýgur or havgýgur as aliases for mermaid were apparently current among the populace in modern-age Iceland, according to Jón Árnason alongside the marbendill (modern Icelandic for ON marmennill) Benjamin Thorpe (1851) writing on Norwegian folklore gave margygr for mermaid (and marmennill for merman) as Norwegian folk terms, but these are interpolations, which the source, Andreas Faye's Norske sagn (1833), only side-noted as occurrences of old terms in medieval literature. General characteristics The beautiful havfrue of Scandinavia may be benevolent or malicious, and legends about her abducting maidens (cf. infra) is given as a case of point for her malice. It is said the havfrue will avenge harm done to it, as in the Norwegian anecdote of one who was lured near the ship, and had her hand cruelly lopped off on the gunwale. She caused a storm that nearly drowned the wicked sailor. Omen, prophecy and wisdom The appearance/sighting alone betides an impending storm. Norwegians do not wish to see the havfrue, as she heralds storm or bad weather (Norway). The appearance of the sjörå forebodes a storm or poor catch in Swedish tradition, much as the appearance of the skogsrå (wood-nymph) presages poor catch for the hunter. According to the superstitions of Swedish fishermen, if one saw a sjörå who was harbinger of tempest and bad catch, one should not tell his comrades but stike flint against steel to light a spark. In other cases the Scandinavian mermaid is considered to be prophetic. The tale type "The Mermaid's Message" (, ML 4060) is recognized as a , i.e., a group of tales found in Scandinavia with parallels found elsewhere, according to the scheme devised by Reidar Thoralf Christiansen. This may not necessarily involve the mermaid's spaeing, and in the following example of this ML type tale, she merely imparts wisdom: A fisherman who performs favors and earns the privilege to pose three questions to a mermaid. He inquires about the most suitable material for a flail,