TY for post Gooding text Mrrzy. What is her source? I don't know if it's traditional from someone else (cover song), or a ballad re-creation of a traditional song. This is case with many American folk singer (Summers, Baez, Mike Seeger, etc.)-- without the source I can't use the material.

Richard Mellish- you have a gift for explaining your points- ty.

If "Johnny Collins" (or Hampshire George Collins) is the link between Child 42 and Child 85, then when she started out a mermaid, she is still a mermaid. I assume she has the power to invite him to become a fish (Child 42C) and also the power to kill him when he refuses.

The mermaid in Johnny Collins as a result of the folk process has become a "pretty fair maid" (fair maid=mermaid) who is "washing a marble stone," the sark, symbolizing her wish to create a permanent union, has disappeared.

I. As Collins was walking the fields one day
All dressed in white linen so fine,
He spied a maiden, a pretty [mer]maid,
A-washing [on] a marble-white stone.

My changes in paranthesis.

At this point, because he left her and returned to his mortal love, she has already cast a spell on him and he is going to die. She still loves him:

2. She wrung her hands and tore her hair,
She waved with a lily-white hand,
Saying, Collins, dear Collins, come quickly here-
Your life is soon to an end!

She seduces him and takes him into the water:

3. She threw both arms around his neck,
She kissed both his cheeks and his chin,
Till the stars from heaven come twinkling down
On the banks where Collins jumped in.

This is why he must swim home:

4. He swam, he swam, he swam once more,
He swam to his own father's door,
Crying, Father, dear father, please let me in,
Please let me in once more!

The ballad then proceeds to the George Collins (Child 85) ballad.

Richie