Undines are a category of elemental beings associated with water, stemming from the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Later writers developed the undine into a water nymph in its own right, and it continues to live in modern literature and art through such adaptations as Danish Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 "The Little Mermaid" and the 1811 novella Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué.

Paracelsus believed that each of the four classical elements—earth, water, air and fire—is inhabited by different categories of elemental spirits, liminal creatures that share our world: gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders respectively. He describes these elementals as the "invisible, spiritual counterparts of visible nature many resembling human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their own, unknown to man because his undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning beyond the limitations of the grosser elements.

Undines are almost invariably depicted as being female, which is consistent with the ancient Greek idea that water is a female element. They are usually found in forest pools and waterfalls, and their beautiful singing voices are sometimes heard over the sound of water. The group contains many species, including nereides, limnads, naiades, mermaids and potamides.

What undines lack, compared to humans, is a soul. Marriage with a human shortens their lives on Earth, but earns them an immortal human soul. The offspring of a union between an undine and a man are humans with a soul, but also with some kind of aquatic characteristic, called a watermark.

*A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits (1566)
*Undine, by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1811)
*The Little Mermaid (1837)
*Gaspard de la Nuit (1842)

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undine Wikipedia]
*[https://comicvine.gamespot.com/undines/4060-65650/ ComicVine]
*Myths in Media Wiki
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