Tag Archives: readingresponse

Week 5 – The Faery at the Fountain

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Chapter 3 of The Romance of the Faery Melusine (Gareth Knight, translated by Andre Lebey, 19th C) I thought was interesting to read about since in the back of my head all I was thinking about was that they were hinting about mermaids or sirens the entire time. Reading the Legend of Melusina (The Penguin Book of Mermaids, 85-87) and it stating that her mother “condemned Melusina to become every Saturday a serpent, from the waist downwards” (page 86), which stuck with me because as I read Chapter 3 of The Romance of the Faery Melusine I unnoticed how stories were worded differently. In summary on page 25 it was almost as if Melusina was mind reading Raymondin which to me gives the idea off that she might be a siren, since in last weeks class one of the main discussions of a siren was that they have been somewhat presented as mystical beings that hold all the knowledge in the world which can include the thoughts of others. It was interesting that no where in this chapter it was clearly stated what mythical being Melusina could’ve been, but they made it a point to mention the beauty and knowledge she held that left Raymondin wondering “if he were still alive” (24). 

One of the biggest points I found interesting that was made within chapter 3 is the idea of blinded trust due to feminine beauty. Before even knowing Melusina’s name, Raymondin was able to fully confide in Melusina and the contract of marriage she has set up for the both of them which made me wonder how beautiful Melusina could have been that it left Raymondin unable to comprehend what is being said and the contract he is signing himself up for. It isn’t such a surprise that he was able to trust Melusina because of how differently things were done and said in the past, but it’s strange that Raymondin himself didn’t stop to question if she was even a mythical being since sirens were existent in that period of time. The idea of feminine beauty through this story has had an emphasis on me in that now I can only imagine the power that mermaids, sirens and so many other feminine mythical beings would have over the male population.

Week 5: Medieval Melusine

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When looking over the reading from this week, the ‘Legend of Melusina’ chapter was quite interesting to read. The depiction of the relationship in between Elinas and Fay was quite interesting. When Elinas first sees her at the fountain, he is dealing with the grief of losing his wife. He is taken by her beauty and she had made him promise to never never see her at the time of her “lying-in”. When he did she left and took her three daughters will her, to a high mountain in Albania. I found it so interesting that when her daughter Melunisa came of age, she asked what her father had did, and then he pledged vengeance against him, which is where the story really begins. Melunisa then proceeds to get her sisters to join her in vengeance and they go to his castle to take him and all of his wealth, and inclose him with a charm. When her mother discovers this, she sentences Melunisa to become a serpent every Saturday for the rest of her being, and could find a husband who wouldn’t see her on Saturdays. In my head, I would have thought that the mother might be glad that Melunisa had done this to the King, but instead she is punished. I feel as this really shows the character of the mother, as she did not want revenge, unlike her daughter Melunisa. When she finds Raymond, he is so taken with her he agrees to these terms, until he breaks them. On page 88 when it says “But it was not the horror that seized him at the sight, it was the infinite anguish at the reflection that through his breach of faith he might lose his lovely wife for ever.” I found this quote to be specially sad and contribute to the story line. Raymond was not disturbed by the sight of his wife with a tail, but he was in pain over the fact that he knew he was going to lose her. This took me by surprise, because so far in all the readings, people have only ever been disturbed by the sight of something like this, something un-human. Raymond was different, he loved his wife so much that even though he might’ve been “un-human” at times, it didn’t matter to him. He knew he breached the trust and the oath between them on Saturdays, and he died. He would’ve rather been dead than without her, and call me crazy but I thought this story was beautifully romantic.

Week 5: Melusina

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In this weeks reading of “The Penguin: Book of Mermaids” by Cristina Bacchilega and “The Romance of Faery Melusine”, we read the tragic story about Melusina. Although I did not fully understand it during my first read through, I couldn’t help but notice that this was essentially a cautionary tale about Karma. When her step-father broke his promise to Melusina’s mother and laid eyes on her when he was not supposed to, Melusina opted for revenge. She took her step-fathers money and charm and imprisoned him. This made her mother angry, resulting in Melusina being cursed in a similar way to how Melusina’s mother was originally cursed. Melusina went out, got married to a charming man named Raymond (or Raymondin), but was eventually met with a terrible fate when Raymond saw her in her serpent form when he wasn’t supposed to.

I found a lot of symbolism in the story of Melusina. The most obvious one was the fact that Melusina becomes a serpent from the waist down on Saturdays. I am not sure if this is relevant, but Saturday is the holy day for a lot of religions. In a lot of religions also, serpents are great symbols of evil, deception, and demonic creatures. The idea of Melusina being half serpent is also interesting because she claims she is “as faithful a Christian” (25) as Raymond. Turning into a serpent as a result of her wrongdoings is an excellent example of karma. She eventually had a happy life with the exception of her curse, which ultimately ruined her life in the same way the curse ruined her mothers marriage.

There seemed to be a strong theme regarding beauty and chivalry/masculinity as well. The story of the hunter shows a connection to chivalry and masculinity, which is interesting to read after the story of Melusina. Noble men are drawn to “things that lead them further into unknown… [seeking] in all directions the extension of their physical and spiritual power” (12). It is chivalrous to seek knowledge of the unknown, similar to how Odysseus longed to hear the siren song. Raymond was a chivalrous man who unintentionally committed a horrible act. Karma got him for his actions the same way karma got Melusina. He had a mostly happy life with a beautiful woman after his wrongdoing, but his wife ended up being cursed.

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 4 – Oannes (The Penguin Book of Mermaids)

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Now beginning all the stories that have to do with mermaids, I felt the one of Oannes left me with the most questions. I thought it was interesting how Oannes was a figure of both human and non-human who came to give guidance to the people of Babylon since they were “like beast” (page 3). The specific part that stood out and left me with so many questions was “he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and humanise mankind” (page 3). It was intriguing to read about how through one “thing” who was considered both human and non-human that many humans were able to believe in what he said, guided them through impactful things from life, and essentially gave them the basics to everyday living without any sort of questioning, so why overtime did this stop? Oannes was both fish and human, and yet humans were able to confide and trust every word he said without hesitation. The story of Oannes shows that at some point in the history of humanity, us humans were able to trust the unknown and fully believe in hybrid and mythical creatures as a guide to our living, what during our history did we stop believing in this? It’s a bit surreal to see the change in how at some point in life humans were very open to new things, and now the history of hybrid and mythical creatures are all being taught as a myth to generations now and making life a bit more sheltered to life outside of human kind.

After searching up Oannes and seeing how he was depicted, I thought it was interesting to see how they made it known he was both fish and man. In some pictures he was presented more as a merman but in others they make a clear distinction between a man almost looking like he was wearing a fish coat. The picture below shows Oannes as a mixtures of the two most common pictures, he is shown as a mermaid with a fish head like coat, walking up from the ocean and almost showing himself as a friend to men so they wouldn’t be alarmed with his physical being.

Week 2: Merpeople

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Reading chapter one of Merpeople by Vaughn Scribner was eye opening. I would’ve never thought how much mermaids were associated with religion during the Medieval period. I can’t seem to understand how “denigrating the feminine” (Scribner 29) brought more people to Christianity and why it worked. Chapter one continues by explaining the first depiction of mermen around 5000 BCE. Acadians worshipped a mermen named Ea, who was adopted by Babylonians as a god of light, wisdom and civilization by the name Oannes. How and why did Oannes become a deity of wisdom? As mentioned in page thirty, Oannes “gave men an insight into letters and sciences, and every kind of art…” (Scribner 30) In opposition to the well intended wise mermen, mermaids were seen as creatures that emerged from ugly forms “seeking to bring human men to agonizing deaths”. (Scribner 31) It’s no secret that with the help of these ancient myths of mermen being good hearted leaders and mermaids/sirens being wicked beings looking for men’s demise helped the Christian church to belittle the feminine as “females symbolized a carnality linked to vice”. (Scribner 35).

As I mentioned to my peers in past class discussions I believe that even thought the image of mermaids has changed, unfortunately, the meaning behind it has not. Mermaids are still to this day seen as a symbol of lust and demise or straight up vile monsters (as seen in Hollywood movies). This image of fault and evil is sadly not limited to mermaids, for example, in Christianity, Eve is seen as the one at fault for the expulsion of the Garden of Eden by commiting the act of sin. In the Greek pantheon, if not all, most feminine deities are depicted as extremely jealous and evil towards humans if crossed. On the bright side, in today’s world the mermaid aesthetic has been claimed by women all over the world, giving mermaids a new and empowering meaning which I’m looking forward to learning how the evolution to today’s modern world came to be.

Week 2/3 Reading Anaylsis

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When I walked out of the first day of class I was left wondering how I got myself signed up for a college course centered on mermaids and thought to myself I was either going to love it or hate it. After our initial discussion on Thursday and reading through the first few chapters of Vaughn Scribner’s “Merpeople” I have already begun to take an increased interest in the variety of lenses with which we can approach the subject of mermaids to explore what they symbolize and the importance of their persistence throughout generations of many different human societies and cultures. The in-class analysis of the etymology of certain words such as environment, nature, and monster sparked some ideas in my head about the way humans have defined themselves in relation to the “natural world.” I found it incredibly interesting that nature was first defined in terms of human nature as a description of people and later amended the definition to what is commonly known today. This sequencing of these definitions leads me to believe that people initially considered themselves to be separate from the natural world and later realized that the relationship is much more complex.

The word that has stuck in my head the most throughout our first classes and readings, as it pertains to mermaids, is hybrid. The mermaid, being a hybrid mix of human and animal is the perfect symbol to represent how human beings are a part of nature while also separate. The fact the upper half of the mermaid is human is also symbolic in a sense that the familiar human characteristics that supposedly set humans apart from animals such as the potential for conscience thoughts and the ability to use our hands in contrast with the lower half which binds the mermaid to the ocean and natural world. The way humans defined nature creates a hybrid situation similar to that of the mermaid, as much as our human qualities separate us and make us different there is no way to separate ourselves from nature, we are a part of it regardless of our greater potential to alter the natural world.

My parting question for the week pertaining to etymology that I am interested to explore more throughout the semester is: “How we define what it means to be human?” People have mimicked animals in their creations, and we have witnessed certain animals mimicking human behaviors. For example, we designed airplanes with birds flight as a model and we have taught chimpanzees and gorillas to communicate in human sign language, which in my mind leaves a lot of grey areas for defining how we could possibly be 100% separate from nature. A final note in regard to my “man-made” comment in class on Thursday, I thought a lot about this since that class and one thing that initially I thought of as a defining difference was the way we build structures and homes, however this is evident for animals as well in bird nests, beaver dams, burrowing communities, etc.

Week 2 or 3: Noah as a Merperson

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I had a very Catholic/Christian upbringing, so the name Noah and terms like “the Great Deluge” ring a bell or two. I know the gist; God gets angry and wants to essentially factory reset the world. He makes an exception for Noah and his family. He bestows upon him the responsibility of gathering two of every living animal and putting them on a big boat to survive the flood. I’ve seen movies and countless illustrations showing that big boat and the grumpy old man of God who built it – but I’ve never seen or witnessed Noah portrayed as a Merperson.

In Chapter 1 of Merpeople: A Human History, Scribner mentions Noah being depicted as half-man, half-fish. He also mentions that Early Christians saw Noah as “The second father of the human race, and the preserver and teacher of the arts and sciences as they existed before the Great Deluge” (third page of Chapter One). This is super interesting because while mermen symbolize knowledge and religion, Mermaids weren’t held in such high regard by Early Christian leaders. According to Scribner’s book, women were symbols of “lust, weakness, and man’s fall from grace.” But with Mother Mary being a symbol of purity and faith, they had to get creative – and thus, they borrowed the mermaid to make it clear that there’s no correlation between Mary and all the other evil women in the world. While this drastic generalization of women is, on all accounts, silly – nobody can deny that both the mermaid and the merman share a trait -power. Mermens’ power inspires Early Christian men. It almost seems like they are a representation of what man should strive to be—master of men and sea. The power mermaids hold is meant to be interpreted as something to be cautious of. Women tempt men on land; mermaids tempt men at sea? I don’t want to speak too confidently about this, as I am still learning, but I find this line of thought fascinating.

Luckily, my Catholic/Christian upbringing was very loose, and I’m able to freely think for myself. That being said, I read the first chapter out loud to myself and thought the Early Christian interpretations of women and mermaids were wild.

Week 3: The Penguin Book of Mermaids Introduction

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After reading “The Penguin Book of Mermaids” introduction, I got a deeper understanding of the topics we spoke about in class on Thursday. The introduction dives into the idea of mermaids being monsters and what that really means. The introduction also speaks on the feminity of mermaids and how that was perceived differently by different groups throughout time.

This reading intrigued me greatly because it explains beauty as a dangerous or even monstrous trait. Mermaids are typically depicted as gorgeous women on the top half of their bodies. This beauty is something that has been said to allow them to lure men in and take power over them, which in return makes them dangerous. The reading refers to the definition of a monster as “a portent or prodigious being that defies what is commonly found in nature and thus elicits both fear and awe” (Bacchilega and Brown, xii). This definition derives from the Latin language and sparked a personal interest for me. Monsters are typically thought of as something that is only scary and insights fear. This definition helps explain that a monster, such as a mermaid, can also be looked at in awe.

The reading elaborated on the idea of the fear of mermaids through their environment. Mermaids are creatures of the ocean, an environment humans don’t know much about. While one might think we know a lot about the ocean, only 5% of it has been discovered. Humans tend to fear the unknown, making a creature who is part human and inhabits an environment we don’t know much about scary. I find this extremely interesting and it is a topic I hope to dive deeper into. It intrigues me how we do not know if these creatures are real or what is real about them because we truly know so little about where they reside.

Week 2 or three reading: Mermaids in different cultures

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After this weeks reading, in the Penguin Book of mermaids, I noticed the different types of representation of Mermaids in different cultures. I noticed this when reading about sirens versus mermaids, and how they used to be two different distinct creatures that now are sometimes meshed as one. Specifically I can see this difference when they were talking about how the British saw mermaids, and were compared sometimes to prostitutes and sexual symbols instead of monsters. Mermaids had anew definition of what it was to be feminine or sexual, instead of a monster, which what other cultures had seen them as. We can see this with the Greek, who saw them more as Sirens and monsters, who lured men to their death and demise with their song. When contrasting how these two different cultures saw Mermaids/Sirens, I can clearly see the distinction between monsters and humans. Mermaids innately are human-like, human upper body and fish tail, which is why they are seen as creatures. A lot of different cultures have different representations, but most of them are sexualized and objectified in some way. This was quite interesting to read about, and how Mermaids/Sirens are the same and different all at once. There are stories about Mermaids being tamed, mainly in British culture, where they have been more objectified as sex symbols than other cultures. They have been seen as monstrous and sexual at the same time. I found these different cultural representations of the Mermaid to be quite interesting, since I had only really seen the girlish version of the Mermaid, like in Emily Windsnap, which I read as a child, so seeing these more monstrous and sexual representations was quite a different perspective. This view on mermaids and how gender and sexuality comes into the perspective also was an interesting take, and how in different cultures some tired to “tame” mermaids, while some could not. Humans have always had a fascination with mermaids, but different cultures have different takes on this.

Kiersten Brown