One stop away from Poitiers on the train to La Rochelle lies Lusignan, a town with a magical history. According to legend, the town was created by a Mélusine, a mythical fey creature. Half serpent and half human, or half fish and half human in some versions, the Mélusine is to be found in fresh water rivers and lakes, much like the ones that encircle the town of Lusignan. Even today, speeding past on the SNCF train, you can catch a glimpse of local swimmers taking a cooling dip in the calm bodies of water that spring up around this region. Are there any Mélusines among them?

I am a big fan of fairy tales, not so much the Cinderalla type but the ones in which the human world and the fey world intertwine. The myth of changelings, for example, or the Seelie and Unseelie court coinciding with the changing of the seasons. These folk tales speak to the concerns and traditions of the societies from which they come, and it is always interesting to learn more about how different cultures processed the world throughout time. Creation myths are particularly interesting to me. But in this case we are not dealing with a creation myth on the level of the world, or the universe, just on the level of a small town in Western France. Let’s dive deeper into the story…

According to legend (and the British Library’s European Studies Blog), Mélusine began life as a normal girl, but was cursed to turn into a serpernt from the waist down every Saturday as a punishment for entombing her father. I don’t quite see how the punishment fits the crime here, but fair enough. A few years later, Mélusine is encountered sitting next to a fountain by Raymond, Lord of Forez in Poitou (the area surrounding Poitiers) as he is out hunting. The two fell in love and married, and Mélusine began developing the Poitou area into a region of prosperity, erecting buildings and whole cities, including the town of Lusignan. This part of the story reminds me very much of Dido building Carthage’s prosperity in the Aeneid. She is said to have carried stones in her apron at night and fly over the region, and she would drop these stones like seeds, which would then grow into a tower or a battlement. Of course, this being a fairy story, there was one condition upon their marriage: Raymond was never to see Mélusine bathe on Saturday nights.

The two had ten sons together, though due to being half fey and half human each had an unusual feature or marking. Despite the prosperity of their marriage and region, Raymond grew curious and one day spied upon Mélusine as she bathed on Saturday night. He saw her true form and was repulsed (think that scene in Shrek where Fiona’s form is revealed to Donkey, but a lot less accepting). During an argument, Raymond calls her a serpent, which reveals to Mélusine that he has spied upon her, and so she turns into a dragon and flies away, never to be seen again. I don’t think no-fault divorce had been invented yet, so this was probably the best way for her to go.

It feels rare, at least in the UK, for a town to have such a strong connection with its mythical past. It’s true that we have Stonehenge, and I’m sure there are parts in which the fey tradition is very strong, but I have never really felt such a connection between the tales of old and the modern day (and I grew up in a town with an 11th century castle, so there was definitely a lot of history to be found there). It is refreshing in the technological age to hear of somewhere which still looks back to its medieval myths with fondness rather than scepticism, that embraces rather than scorns its creation myth. I’m very much looking forward to taking a dip in those pools myself when I get the chance this August. I shall let you know if I spot the Mélusine.

À bientôt,
Iona xx

Further Reading:

• https://artsandculture.google.com/story/melusine-the-builder-fairy-fondation-du-patrimoine/lgWhVziAoVApKA?hl=en (more information on the buildings she constructed)
• https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/10/the-tale-of-m%C3%A9lusine.html (more information on the myth and what it tells us about, and contributes to, European folklore)
• https://mythicalcreatures.edwardworthlibrary.ie/melusine/ (more information on the Le Roman de Mélusine by Jean d’Arras from which this myth originates)