MERFOLK MYTHOLOGY (5/6): Melusine/ Melusina
The story of Melusine appears in Celtic Ireland, Wales, England, Brittany and rural Germany, where she was revered as an unofficial patron saint of the poor and outcasts in the 15th century and is still today believed to be the matriarch of the royal houses of Luxemburg and Lusignan.
Melusine is the daughter of the Celtic Water Faerie Pressyna to King Elynas of Scotland, who married on the condition that he’d never see her while she was giving birth. By hearing Pressina was birthing triplets, the King rushed in excitement into her chambers, thus breaking the geis (taboo) and forcing a sorrowful Pressina to leave the castle. As the King mourned for the loss of his family, Pressyna took the girls to the Isle of Avalon where they grew up.
But when they were 15, Melusine asks about their origins, and when Pressyna tells them her story, Melusine wants to avenge the disrespect done to her mother. At twilight, Melusine and her sisters Melior and Palatyne kidnap King Elynas and lock him away in a mountain. Enraged, Pressyna curses each of the girls, and although she can’t take away Melusine's otherworldly beauty, she curses her to become a “monstrous” sea-serpent-like mermaid every Saturday and banishes her from Avalon.
Leaving food for the poor in her wake, Melusine flees to Brocéliande Forest, where she falls in love with Count Raymond of the house of Lusignan, and when he proposes, she accepts on the condition that he never sees her on Saturdays. She brings great wealth and happiness to Raymond and the land, but as the years passed, he grew ever more suspicious of her activities One Saturday, he shockingly spied as Melusine bathed in her mermaid form, thus breaking the geis. Expelled by Raymond, she vowed that she’d fly over the castle 3 days before the death of any member of the House of Lusignan.
She goes to the Black Forest where a traveling Knight witnesses her shapeshifting and wishes to marry her regardless of her “monstrosity”. They do so, but unable to trust him and believing herself to be too horrible to look at, she abandons the lovesick Knight who begs for her to return, but never sees her again. As the years pass, the Knight needs an heir and decides to remarry. As he and his bride are about to wed, he sees a tail through the church glass and rushes out to find an angry Melusine on the rooftop. He tells her how much he loved her and asked if she’d kill him and his bride. Melusine realizes how much like her mother she’s become and leaves. With nowhere else to go, she joins the merpeople of the court of the sea God Manannan Mac Lir, who like her, can both live in the water or on land for at least 6 days a week.
Today, Melusine is not only seen in the Starbucks logo, but is also the prototype of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, where she becomes the symbol of the outsider who does everything to be accepted.
