Join us at the campfire for tales from around the world, told by storytellers of all backgrounds and creeds. From the heros and heroines of old, let us relearn and rediscover the wisdom of our ancestors. Shhh..the story begins..
Melusine was a water-sprite who so fascinated the people of the Middle Ages, that several noble families ... including Emperor Henry VII and the Royal House of Luxembourg ... claimed her as an ancestor. This half-serpent, half-woman is one of the most enduring of all fabled French characters, and tales of her life formed the basis for dozens of variants which spread throughout Europe.
Melusine was one of three beautiful maidens who guarded a fountain deep in a forest. One day, the Count of Poitiers and his adopted son, Raymond, were tracking a boar in the woods when they became separated from their entourage. They stopped to make a fire and were suddenly attacked by the boar, which burst through the bushes and rushed straight toward them. Raymond hewed at it with his sword, but the blade bounced from the beast's thick hide and struck the Count instead, killing him instantly. Raymond was horrified at what he had done and, panic-stricken, leapt upon his horse and made off into the depths of the forest. Galloping blindly for some hours, he finally rode into a glade where he spied a bubbling fountain and three women so beautiful that Raymond thought they surely must be angels.
One of the women asked why Raymond appeared to be so frightened and, when he relayed his tragic story, advised him to return to Poitiers as if nothing had happened. Since the hunters had all been separated, nobody would know that Raymond had been accompanying the Count. Reassured by the words, Raymond also found himself drawn to the woman's beauty. He continued to talk with her until dawn and, before he left, begged her to be his wife. She agreed, informing him that she was Melusine, a water-sprite, and that, near the fountain, she would build a palace for them both to live in after the wedding. The palace would be called Lusiana, a variation of Melusine's own name. (Such a castle actually once stood in Poitou, reportedly built by a powerful family known as Lusiana.) The only condition of the water-sprite was that Raymond must never see her on a Saturday (which for some is the Sabbath day), or they would forever be kept apart from each other.
The couple lived very happily for many years, their only sadness being that all their children were disfigured in some way. Their eldest son had ears that drooped and eyes of different colors...one being red and the other green. The second boy had a scarlet face, and the third had one eye set higher than the other. The next child had claws upon his fingers and a body covered with hair. The fifth son had just one eye while the youngest was given the name of Geoffrey-with-the-Tooth, because of a boar-like tusk in his lower jaw.
Despite these setbacks, the children nevertheless grew up to be heroic and virtuous, and Raymond never stopped loving Melusine. Furthermore, he always respected her wish to be alone on Saturdays, constantly repressing his curiosity about the reason for her requested solitude. But then, one Saturday morning, one of Raymond's brothers told him that the people of the town were gossiping. They were asking what unholy reason Melusine might have for never allowing herself to be seen on the Sabbath. Raymond hurried to his wife's chambers, but found them to be empty. When he discovered that the door to one of the anterooms was locked, he knelt to peer through the keyhole. What he saw shocked him. Melusine was in a bath, but the lower half of her body had been transformed into a serpent's tail.
Because he still loved his wife very deeply, Raymond decided to keep his discovery a secret. This he did until one day when news arrived that Geoffrey-with-the-Tooth had burned down the monastery of Malliers, killing the abbot and a hundred monks, one of whom was an earlier child of Raymond and Melusine and Geoffrey-with-the-Tooth's very own brother. When Melusine received news of the lamentable deed, she rushed to her husband's side, so that they might comfort each other. Lost in his grief, however, Raymond pushed her away, calling her an odious serpent who had contaminated his race.
Melusine fainted. When she recovered, she cried bitter tears before telling Raymond goodbye forever. She then ran to the window and flew off, leaving her two youngest children behind. Each night, after that, the nurses would see a ghostly figure with a serpent's tail appear by the children's side, suckling them like an attentive mother but, by the morning, the specter would be gone. For hundreds of years afterward, it was said that Melusine would materialize on the ramparts of Lusiana whenever an old Count was about to die, or a new one due to be born. After the castle was destroyed in the sixteenth century, Melusine was reported to have appeared for many centuries, wailing, to announce the death of each French King.
Novareinna welcomes all tale-travelers to Penumbra, her newly-established and beautiful site/sight of stories and poetry and design (some elements are still under construction).
