'Mélusine'

‘Mélusine’, French legend that has inspired numerous literary works. The essential elements of the plot are laid out in two medieval versions of Le Roman de Mélusine (The Romance of Mélusine), one in prose by Jean d'Arras (1392–3), and one in verse by Coudrette (c.1402). Mélusine, the daughter of a fairy, marries Raymondin on the condition that he never look at her on Saturdays. She bears him ten sons, who pursue chivalric adventures all over Europe and constitute the Lusignan dynasty. Eventually Raymondin breaks his promise and sees Mélusine transformed into a serpent, who then disappears. The story holds that she keeps a watchful eye over her descendants from her château at Lusignan. While these medieval versions are more genealogical myths than wonder tales, later rewritings place greater emphasis on the marvellous. After a German version by Thüring von Ringoltingen (Die Geschichte von der schönen Melusine (The Story of the Beautiful Melusine, 1456)), Paul‐François Nodot was the next writer to rework the legend in his pseudo‐historical novels Histoire de Mélusine (Story of Mélusine, 1698) and Histoire de Geofroy (Story of Geoffroy, 1700). Later versions tend to take greater liberties with the story, often setting the interdiction‐transgression and metamorphosis motifs in less magical and more contemporary contexts (e.g. Arnim, Goethe, La Roche). The composers Mendelssohn and Hoffmann each wrote pieces inspired by Ringoltingen's version of the legend. More recently, A. S. Byatt used the Melusine story as a subtext in Possession (1990), and both historians and literary critics have turned their attention to the meanings and uses of the legend in medieval and early modern culture.

Bibliography

• Maddox, Donald, and Sturm‐Maddox, Sara (eds.), Melusine of Lusignan: Founding Fiction in Late Medieval France (1996).

— Lewis C. Seifert