Mélusine de Lusignan

Mélusine de Lusignan is a well-known figure of French folklore. According to the legends, Mélusine was the daughter of the fairy Persine and her husband, the king of Albanie (or Scotland, according to Jean d’Arras) Elinas. Persine asked her husband to swear he wouldn’t try to see her during or soon after she gave birth. But Elinas’ first son, jealous of his stepmother’s happiness, lured him into breaking his promise. Persine flew the country and her three daughters (Mélusine, Mélior and Palestine) grew up on the isle of Avalon. Persine eventually revealed the truth to her daughters, who decided to punish their father by keeping him locked inside the mountain of Northumberland. But their mother, furious at them, cursed all three. From that day on, each Satursday, the bottom half of Mélusine’s body would turn into a snake’s. The curse could only be broken if Mélusine married a man who would never try to see her on Satursdays. So Mélusine wandered, alone and desperate, until she reached the region of Poitou. There, she saw a young aristocrat hunting with his men; but the man, Raymond of Lusignan, accidentally killed his uncle, Count Aymar of Poitiers. Touched by his distress, Mélusine offered to help him hide the truth and to make him a powerful lord, if only he would marry her and never try to see her on Satursday. Raymond gratefully accepted. Their marriage was happy: Mélusine kept her promise and soon the Lusignans became one of the most powerful French families. Mélusine gave Raymond ten beautiful and strong sons, most of whom would grow up to become kings and dukes. According to the legend, she even built the château de Lusignan in one night by using her powers. But Raymond’s brother, the Count of Forez, jealous of his brother’s success, told him tales of his wife meeting secret lovers on Satursdays. Consumed by doubt, Raymond decided to see by himself what Mélusine was actually doing. He went to her tower and drilled a hole in her bathroom’s door. But the woman he saw through the hole was the cursed Mélusine: only her upper half was human, the bottom was that of a giant snake. Horrified and sorry to have betrayed his wife’s trust, Raymond pretended not to have seen anything. But years later, during an outburst, he called her a “vile snake”. Mélusine understood he had disobeyed her; blinded by distress, she threw herself out of the tower and disappaered. The legend of Mélusine is still well-known in the region of Poitou, especially in the city of Lusignan