The reading this week of “Legend of Melusina” from The Penguin Book of Mermaids was most intriguing to me because it required me to focus on close reading. After reading the story for the first time, I was slightly confused. After reading the story again and taking a closer look, I was able to understand it more.

Melusina is half snake and half woman and is still depicted as beautiful and powerful, similar to mermaids and sirens. I was able to relate Melusina’s story to those that we have covered previously in class, specifically the stories of the sirens. Where Melusina’s story differs is how Raymondin did not flee immediately when he found out about Melusina’s second form. The story of the sirens tells us how men did not want to hear their song out of fear that it would kill them. Raymondin sees Melusina in her second form and only fears that he will be losing his wife. “But it was not a horror that seized him at the sight, it was infinite anguish at the reflection that through his breach of faith he might lose his lovely wife forever” (88). This quote explains how Raymondin was feeling and further allows me to compare and contrast this story to the story of the sirens. The sirens would make men flee from them if said men were aware of the power of their song and did not want to face a possible death. In this story, Melusina is the one who is fleeing from her husband. Melusina’s fear of her husband finding out about this second form had come true, forcing her to depart from her life. I believe that Melusina faced the most fear in this story. This is a very interesting point to me because typically these half-beings are the ones inflicting more fear onto others.