Tag Archives: Week 5

Week 5: Melusine

Posted on by
1

After going over the scheduled story for this week, Melusine, even though an intriguing tale of Raymond discovering his wife’s secret it also came to me as a representation of how women restrain from being their true selves out of fear of their spouse’s thoughts. Raymond’s reaction to the sensitive secret that his wife has been hiding away from him, to me, is though shocking, also filled with fear not of her but for her. “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” (Lebey 88) I’ve read my peers responses to this, and I appreciate how we agree and take notice of how much Raymond cares about his wife in comparison to the lack of care for the nautical women in other folk tales. Melusina identifies herself as a woman of God, “I am as faithful a Christian as you are.” (Lebey 25) I will assume that though Melusina practiced Christianity, she’s aware of what her true nature meant to those that aren’t like her, which is why she keeps it out of light. This to me represents the darkest desires of women that need to be tied up and put away due to the danger of being categorized as a “monster.” .

Week 5 – Legend of Melusina

Posted on by
2

What piqued my interest at a first glance was the description of Melusina’s ability to travel between all planes of existence that I can think of. She can slither and exist in the horizontal plane, she can swim, she can exist on the ground, and she can fly. In my eyes, this gives her some form of omnipotence that seems significant to the story.

As I continued to read the version of the story, I realized that maybe she does have some sort of all-powerfulness. With the line, “and though people may not perceive me in the air, yet they will see me by the Fountain of Thirst” (Keightley 85) it is suggested that Melusina will always have some presence and influence over the castle.

In many of these stories, the knowledge or power possessed by female characters seems somewhat contrary to the culture at the time and place of the story. Why is it that the mermaids are powerful characters when the stories are being written and re-written in times of intense female degradation? I wonder if maybe the power that is alluded to is the power of female sexuality. This power that women have is displayed appears similar to what was depicted in Macbeth by Lady Macbeth. I’m not sure if that is a message of this particular story, but I imagine that many of the texts interpreted by the Catholic church were manipulated to paint women in a way that warns men of there sexuality.

On the other hand, I’m excited to open this up in class because I sense there are many things that went entirely over my head. The dialect from the time is somewhat confusing to me. The change over time of these stories is interesting and I would like to see a side-by-side of the progression of a story over the years. It would be cool to see the different biases that a particular interpreter might have compared to others depending on the time frame and cultural norms at the time.

Week 5: Melusina, the Ghost Mermaid

Posted on by
2

One thing I absolutely love about this course is the fact that we are learning so much about other cultures’ core values and beliefs through these stories. This week, we took a look at France through the story Legend of Melusina. Count Raymond is married to a beautiful woman named Melusina in the story. She promises their love will be long and plentiful as long as he never tries to see her on Saturdays. Greed (a recurring sentiment we should all be familiar with by now) takes over Raymond’s heart, and he makes a point of seeing her on a Saturday – but he is shocked to see that she has transformed into a snake. After this, she curses him and his lineage and turns into a spectral entity that – when seen – is the precursor for the current crown’s death. This feels like a campfire story, and that’s awesome. It’s got clear morals like don’t give in to greed and respect your partner’s boundaries – the combination of the two makes this piece genuinely progressive and timeless.

What’s more is the fact that, even though she put a hex on Raymond and his bloodline, she isn’t necessarily portrayed as a malignant entity. She’s simply the victim of a broken promise. This isn’t a cautionary tale of vicious monsters or women who are up to no good. This isn’t a story about a righteous man who can do no wrong. Melusina is the victim – and the man, Raymond, is a fool. This is a story about appreciating what you are given, especially if you didn’t ‘earn’ or create it. I am excited to hear other students’ interpretations of the piece, its message, and its literary value compared to some of the other stories we’ve covered. It’s cool to see a story that wants its audience to treat each other respectfully.

Also, I wasn’t sure where to fit this in, but Melusina is doomed to spend eternity in pain and suffering as a ghost – which hammers in the idea that she isn’t the ‘monster’ here. I am a little worried about the detail of Raymond and Melusina’s children being born with deformities – it almost makes me feel like the intended moral of the story is something more along the lines of “don’t be so blinded by desire that you don’t recognize the monster in your home.” However, as we saw with the Oxford English Dictionary definitions of day one, words can stay the same and change meanings. No matter an author’s intent, it is what you take away from it that really makes a difference in anything.

Week 5: Melusina

Posted on by
3

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 and the Environment

Posted on by
1

The reading this week was very interesting in the way that it talked about human’s connection with nature. There were multiple times throughout the first chapters where the story described a mutually beneficial relationship between the environment and people. The first instance I noticed of it was in “The Great Old Hunter” where the author mentions that: “Man developed without dissociating or abstracting himself from the world. In short, he knew how to love it, to give and to take in many ways, as he needed” (Lebey, p.12). Humans, men specifically, at this time were able to peacefully coexist with the world. They were not taking excessively from the land but living in harmony with it. This quote explains that this was a process because men “developed” into learning their position and did not just automatically know how to respect the environment. While humans are benefiting from the resources that the environment provides, the environment is benefiting from the love and care of humans. I found this interesting because there is not often any mention of love or giving when discussing the environment. Many modern stories do not acknowledge the respect that the environment is owed and there is hardly any reference to giving back to it in any sort of way. Another moment that stood out to me that revealed a lot about the relationship with the environment was in the description of the wands that Melusine gave to her husband. The wands were made from the elements and contained stones that would help whoever had them with living and battles. These wands were a literal manifestation of what the foundations of the world can help men with. Melusine explains that the core of the stones “is also influenced by what we imagine, and the stones do the rest” (Lebey, p. 28). My understanding of this is that the stones worked depending on the intention of the person using them, so to want to do something that is out of line with nature, in general, would end with not the best results. While the Earth is giving these gifts to someone, they are not meant to be used in a way that would be detrimental to the environment. The environment provides for people but in return requires respect, care, and honesty. 

Melusina, The Christian Siren

Posted on by
1

In this week’s reading of The Romance of The Faery Melusine, I found myself surprised by the empathy and warmth the story showed towards the female belonging to the natural world. In the stories of sirens/mermaids we’ve examined that were told through a Christian lens, not only the creatures, but women as a species, have been scorned and made to be seen as inherently wicked or “the world’s most imperfect creature(s)…” (Merpeople, a Human History, Scribner). The female visage was exposed and warped by the church into a symbol for debauchery and sin, and the stories they peddled of feminine monsters were anything but kind.

However, Melusine’s story is the first exception we’ve come across in this course.

Melusine is a holy woman, asserting multiple times in the text that she “is as faithful a Christian as you are” (25), that she “will conduct [herself] honestly and in a Christian manner.” (26), and even claims that she, “next to God,” (25), can help Raymondin best out of his precarious situation.

In this way, Melusine goes from a wicked woman to be wary of, to a lady who acts under the watchful gaze of God, deserving of empathy and love. The story makes emphasis of this piety to fashion a bridge between mythical scaly women and Christianity; once made to be the antithesis of one another, now taken into acceptance—conditionally.

Melusine’s heed of God’s will is what makes her acceptable, otherwise, she would be just another siren.

But this begs the question: Why did the author seek to design a derivative of a mermaid that is now deserving of reverence and sympathy?

Week 5: Melusin(e/a)

Posted on by
Reply

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?

Posted on by
3

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

Posted on by
1

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

Posted on by
1

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.