Category Archives: Week 5: Medieval Melusine

Week 5: Legend of Melusina

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“The Legend of Melusina” seems to be the first tale we have studied this far where a hybrid only takes its shape one a week, in this case on Saturday’s. Not only did that surprise me, but so did Raymond’s reaction when uncovered Melusina’s secret. I honestly expected a more negative reaction because of her ability to shape shift into various forms. It is said that “It was not horror that seized him at the sight, it as infinite anguish at the reflection that through his breach of faith he might lose his lovely wife forever”(p. 88). This story is the first time a mermaid has been seen for her true self by a man, and it seems as if the relationship between them is more genuine than in what we have studied in the past. I bring this up based on my original curiosity surrounding the idea of gender roles and femininity. I am interested to see how dynamics change through different works of literature and what this has to do with the type of hybrid creature, or the fact that she is mostly human? By that I mean if it was more than just Saturday that she became hybrid, would that change the way the story goes?

Melusine and the Importance of Privacy and Personal Boundaries

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In this weeks story, Melusine and her relationship with Raymondin highlight the importance of respecting someones personal boundaries and their privacy. When Melusine and Raymondin first meet, the two outline certain expectations and objectives for their relationship. This includes never seeing each other on a Saturday. In this scene, Melusine explicitly says, “You must swear by all holy sacraments as  a christian that on each Saturday, from sundown till the following day, never – and I will say it again so there is no doubt about it – never must you try to see me in any way whatever, nor seek to know where I am” (pg. 27). This isn’t a simple request or suggestion. Instead there’s a heavy weight of responsibility to Melusine’s words, especially through using the term ‘holy sacraments’. This implies that to break this oath is akin to breaking a promise to God, which usually carry severe punishments. She didn’t say this once, but twice in order to further emphasize this clause in their agreement. This statement is unbreakable and leaves no wiggle room for potential change in the future. With all this laid out, Raymondin agrees to marry her. The two share a prosperous life together and are deeply committed to each other which makes Raymondin’s betrayal of their promise and Melusine’s privacy all the more heart breaking. When Raymondin uncovered this secret, he didn’t bear it alone, but instead revealed it to all those who were in the castle. Because of this public spectacle and exposing of her secret, she would never again get to be with Raymondin as husband and wife. This reveal captures the nature of secrets: once revealed, the circumstances surrounding the secret will forever be altered. Had Raymondin kept the discovery to himself, Melusine would have been able to die as a mortal Christian woman besides him. By violating these boundaries, these actions lead to the downfall of both their happiness and contentment, which shows the importance of treating boundaries in relationships with respect and continued acknowledgement. 

Knight, G. The Romance of the Faerie Melusine. Skylight Press, 2011.

Week 5: Melusin(e/a)

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What I found most interesting this week was the difference between the Melusine origin story in the Penguin book versus the story told in the Romance of the Faery Melusine. In the Penguin Book of Mermaids, it states that Melusine (called Melusina in this book), has a serpent tale and does not appear as a mermaid. However, as we see in the Romance of the Faery Melusine, she is represented as a mermaid. In fact, the entire room that she hides in on Saturdays is made up for a mermaid–containing sand, water, shells, and coral. I think that this is because of the Christian Church. As we learned in the first chapter of the Merpeople book, the Christian Church chose the image of the mermaid for their own deviant needs (to belittle women and bring more followers to the church). This book, at least from the chapters we read, seems to have big Christian themes and God/Jesus is constantly mentioned. For instance, on page 12: “In those days men identified with things that could lead them further into the unknown; they sought in all directions the extension of their physical and spiritual power. So they believed and so they lived, sure of themselves and strong at one moment, at the next deflated and weak, falling to their knees for restoration from another source, the Lord Jesus Christ. And things, animals or people, trees or weapons, were more themselves… And the law of God prevailed over all.” These not so subtle mentions of Christian ideology are important because they give us context to who may have written this text, and where this text may have originated from. Clearly, it was written during a time where many were religious and believed in God. These men mentioned in this quote rely on Jesus Christ, and believe God is almighty. There are many mentions of God in this text–I will not list them all as it would be boring and extended–-but some important ones are “I am as faithful a Christian as you are” (p. 25), “before God and in the face of ourselves, and will marry you as soon as you wish in a church” (p. 26), “Could it be the Devil?” (p. 121), and “Pray devotedly to Our Lord to relieve my sufferings and shorten the time of my ordeal” (p. 144). These quotes further reveal the Christian beliefs of the time. In addition, Melusine is depicted combing her hair and using a mirror–which are associated with vanity (which I believe came from the Christian Church). She is also sexualized, as the Christian Church did with their mermaids: “flawless figure of a woman, forever young… her bent back magnificent in profile, her breasts raised… the exquisite flesh” (p.125). While the Penguin Book says that Christian framework makes her a more positive character aligned with water, I am not sure this is so true. I feel like this story was adopted to further demonize women, as liars and deceivers (as she was not truthful about what happened on Saturdays). Not only this, but Raymondin accuses Melusine of having damned children, and that she is a phantom and her children are as well, which could maybe imply that women can bear devilish fruit (but it could not be the man’s fault).

Melsuina and Shrek Crossover?

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When reading this story I saw different themes tied to the environment, religion, power, and women as demonic and as beautiful. I may be wrong or childish to interpret such a deep story with such deep meaning in an immature way but I see correlations to Dreamworks Shrek and “The Legend of Melusina” story.

To summarize, Shrek is a story of an ogre who rescues a supposed damsel in distress due to the command of a wretched king who desires the prince. However, the most beautiful princess Fiona, possessed a secret that no one knew and no one could figure out, for the sake of her safety. The story goes on and it is revealed that when the sun sets, the beautiful princess turns into an ogre from dusk to dawn. The curse followed that once Fiona found true love and received a true love’s kiss she would be able to take the form of her true love. The story goes on but those details are not as relevant as the ones I have previously discussed.

When reading this summary I hope that you also make the connections that I made to the Melusina story. After researching I was not able to find a definite explanation for these connections but I believe it is important to understand, that there is a possibility for adaptations and interpretations. Here are the connections I found:

  1. Like Fiona, Melusina was cursed to possess “monster-like” qualities. These qualities earn them titles of fearful, horrific, etc.
  2. Melusina is cursed to reveal a half-snake and half-human body every Saturday and Fiona is cursed to transform into an ogre after every sundown.
  3. Both females struggle with their curses and fail to conceal them from their lovers.
  4. The revelation of their bodies of duality stunts the relationship between Melusina and her love as well as Fiona and her lover. This is due to both of the woman’s concealment of their curse.
  5. Both females derive from places of power, as Fiona is a princess and Melusina derives her power from her faery ties.
  6. The story of Melusina can go two ways, with her husband being sad by her appearance or being disgusted by it. In the Shrek story, Shrek accepts Fiona for her appearance yet is saddened that she concealed the truth, and Lord Farquad ( her other possible husband) is disgusted by her and her appearance.

This may seem like a far reach but I found it interesting to investigate both of these stories and attempt to find their connections to one another.

Week 5: Legend of Melusina

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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.

Week 5: The Faery

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This week, “The Faery at the Fountain” reading really caught my interest. I say this because I was fascinated by the way that mermaids are the center of the story, but the terms “mermaid” nor “merpeople” are never ever used, simply alluded to. I am not quite sure what it was, but I felt myself on the edge of my seat waiting for the “Merpeople” word to be dropped, but the author just kept indirectly hinting away bit by bit. Two questions from this story remained unanswered for me with the first being who the other ladies were. Were they other mermaids? Were they spirits, or were any of the ladies even real? Are they, as a group of three celestial beings in a christian story, supposed to resemble the holy trinity? Being a Christian story, it doesn’t seem to possess the typical ‘forgiveness’ or ‘repent your sins’ type of theme (especially considering the main character murdered his family members), but instead takes the theme of deception and not owning up to one’s wrongdoings. The second question I had after reading this story is why Raymondin? He is quite-literally fleeing home after killing his family members… has he done something of more importance in the past? Why does he get away with murder and still receive the riches of the world? In my opinion it seems like a strange character to be involved with merpeople and I wonder if there is another layer/reasoning behind it that I am missing. 

In comparing this story to other readings we have had so far, something that immediately clicked for me was the way that Melusine will disappear every Saturday without explanation. This reminds me of Oannes, who also disappeared into the horizon/water every evening. You know they are going somewhere but neither story directly addresses where. Are they off to a place of higher existence? A place where all of this ‘hidden’ and ‘undisclosed’ knowledge unbeknownst to mankind is? I’m not sure what is happening, but I sure am curious to know more about this mystical place that merpeople seem to be running towards when they disappear. 

Week 5: Medieval Melusine

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For this week’s reading I found it fairly interesting in regards to” mermaids” finally being incorporated into the lives of individuals. As well as finally having that sense of a fairytale story and falling in love. In past week’s readings it has been more based on individual stories about mermaids and their own individual stories but not really intertwined with the lives of regular people and their connection. I particularly liked the sense of romance in this week’s reading with the legend of Melusina. I think this will now open the door for how we see, “Mermaid stories that focus on a water being’s life in the human social world” (Bacchilega, page 85). Although the story of Melusina and Raymond was not lengthy, their interaction can still be discussed, I particularly thought that their love for one another was almost superficial. For one, Raymond didn’t even know Melusina’s name after their interaction; as well during their interaction Raymond was paying fairly close attention, “From her beautiful breasts his gaze descended” (Knight, page 26) conveying him focusing more on her exterior and not paying attention to her and what she’s saying. Their love and eventually their marriage seemed very transactional, since Raymond was going to be able to hide his crime of murdering his uncle and Melusina would be able to get married, so their whole interaction seemed very fictitious and occurred very quickly. But I am excited to finally get into reading with individuals’ direct interactions with mermaids. Also, I did not see the deeper understanding or themes in this story so I hope to come more enlightened and be able to see the deeper meaning.  

Week 5: Melusine

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Understanding this week’s European folklore was honestly rather difficult to me. In the last couple of weeks, when we have read about other folklores or sirens, I could make up a certain pattern: the half human being was either presented as beautiful, dangerous, or sinful, or as knowledgeable, meaning that it can teach the humans something deeper. While reading the stories about Melusine, I was confronted with other themes where it took me a longer time to think about it. In the last weeks we have never actually read something about crossing the line between the mythical and real world. What I mean by that is that never in the stories, the merperson was actually in a relationship with a mortable human. With Melusine, it is different. Even though it is depicted that Melusine’s husband Raymond does not know about her transforming into a serpent as she hides when it happens, they still fell in love with each other. This shows to me, that love can transcend the boundaries of both the real and the divine world. I had to think about the romantic idea, that love can overcome any obstacle.

Even though this sounds great at a first glance, I am still more than confused to put the folklore into its historic context. The people in the Middle Ages were highly religious. How can it be, that a human has fallen in love with a serpent? How can it be, that Raymond has never doubted about her being “different”? Does this story want to teach humans about the power of love, of acceptance, or of understanding?

I honestly did not found answers to my questions above. First I thought that Raymond must have been blinded by Melusine’s beauty, which could mean that his attraction to her was rather superficial (he did not see her true personality). An evidence in the text could be: “In a long and wide pool set within the dark blue mosaic, decorated here and there with the green leaves of violet and black irises, was the flawless figure of a woman, forever young, whom he knew well. Her bent back magnificent in profile, her breasts raised, as she combed her long golden hair, and the exquisite flesh, more pale than usual, pearled almost to transparency” (p.125). But then I started to think about this Christian image of a forbidden desire. Did the story maybe want to warn the people about pursuing relationships which are unaccepted by society? Or is it rather about the image of forgiveness I have mentioned earlier??

I am eager to hear about your opinions in class. Maybe we can find answers together!

week 5 Melusine

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I read over the story of Melusine, as per our reading today, and I noticed some things that felt very similar to the Sirens we were talking about last week.

For one, we see the sort of not-quite fish but close to fish hybridity (Melusina is a snake lady but only one day a week?). But then we see more similarities. There’s sky elements in this folklore too: “He hid himself; and then saw how the lovely form of Melusina ended below in a snake, gray and sky-blue, mixed with white.” (Page 88, penguin) So this supposedly demonic and unnatural woman creature with ties to water has ties to the skies? Not only that, but then further down when she’s giving her epic speech, she says “…shall know that whenever I am seen to hover over the fair castle of Lusignan, then it will be certain in that very year the castle will get a new lord; and though people may not perceive me in the aid, yet they will see me by the Fountain of Thirst…” (88)

So she’s able to hover/fly as a snake woman creature. She also has a connection to nature but why exactly do we keep seeing the creature that’s tied to water being also tied to the air? This is giving binary oppositions but in a much more confusing way. I hope we can figure this out more later because my head is starting to turn into scrambled eggs. My guess is that she represents a sort of human tie to nature, because she didn’t quite start out as the creature, but rather she went from civilization into nature. And since nature doesn’t stop at the ocean, or water, or the skies above, she embodies them all?

Week 5

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I particularly thought this week’s reading of the chapter: The Faery and the Fountain was the most intriguing. The chapter highlighted the theme of enchantment and entrancement of a woman’s beauty which has been a recurring topic in our readings. I love talking about this theme because there’s so many different angles to go about it. In this story, the enchantment serves as the catalyst for their “romantic” relationship where the Raymondin has the intoxicating effect comparable to love at first sight. This further dives into the complexities of desire, infatuation, and the irrationality of love.

These two characters in the story, Melusine and Raymondin, are essentially love bombing each other. They are telling each other they love one another, but Raymondin realizes that he doesn’t even know her name. Love bombing is used to overwhelm another person with emotion and affection to gain control or influence over them, which is what Melusine was doing. She asked him to marry her after a short period of even meeting each other. This is another common theme in our readings where one, usually a man, is manipulated or seducted by another who is usually a beautiful woman. Although, “love bombing” was obviously not a word used in those times, comparing it to its meaning today, it describes this situation very well. Sirens and mermaids used their ability to seduce these men with their beauty and angelic voices. I think the contrast between inner beauty and outer beauty is also a recurring theme we have read through. External beauty is what captures the men initially and they are blind to all else. This is why they are so easily manipulated by these sirens or mermaids because they take their beauty as trust and believe every word they say. Beauty is often associated with trust and even moral character, but these stories are trying to put these beautiful women in a bad light.