Melusina and the Duke

Long ago, there lived a royal French family, the Bellerose family. Their lineage extended hundreds of years, and they had vast amounts of wealth, living most of their lives in extreme luxury. A prominent member of this royal family, Jean-Luc Bellerose, Duke of Normandy, lived in a castle many kilometers inland of the Atlantic Ocean.

One evening while hunting, Jean-Luc found himself lost in the lush greens of the forest. Near the end of this night, while searching for a way to get back, he heard the crashing of the waves in the distance and made his way toward the noise. He stepped out of the green and was greeted with a view of the White Chalk Cliffs of Étretat.

The view of the cliffs was accompanied by the lovely sound of a woman singing. The voice was intoxicating to Jean-Luc. He was determined to find the source of this melody. He followed the sound and found himself in a cove, where he discovered a woman. So captivated by her beauty, Jean-Luc came to a complete stop, staring at the woman in awe. It was Melusina, the siren of the cliffs.

The woman, startled by the sudden appearance of the handsome Duke, abruptly ended her song and retreated into the cliffs with a quickness.

The Duke was overcome with fatigue after spending the day navigating through the forest alone and did not have the energy to chase after this mysterious woman. He decided he would spend the night there and wait for sunrise before making his journey back to the castle. He lay down to rest, and sleep overcame him in no time.

The next morning, he was awoken by a birdsong. Disappointed that it was not the same sweet sound he heard the night prior, the Duke reluctantly made his way home.

In the following weeks, Jean-Luc was restless. His thoughts were constantly occupied by the vision of the beautiful woman and the sweet sound of her song. He longed to see her again, making his way back to the cliffs hoping to catch sight of her. The woman soon started appearing when he came around, beginning to take pleasure in his visits, and her shyness faded. She sang for him willingly, and she eventually fell in love with him.

On one of his visits, the Duke proposed to the woman, declaring his love for her and begging her to come home with him. She agreed to this marriage under two conditions.

"Jean-Luc, I will be your wife. But I will not leave the cliffs, and you must never see me on Saturdays. On those days, I wish to be alone," said the woman.

Jean-Luc agreed, and he decided he would need to build a castle on the cliffs in order to be with his wife.

Due to the copious amounts of time and work that go into building a castle, where he was to make a home with Melusina, Jean-Luc accepted the assistance of Satan. Jean-Luc agreed to surrender himself in thirty years in exchange for Satan building the castle and making him obscenely wealthy. Thus, the castle was built overnight.

Duke Bellerose and the Melusina married and began their life, where they lived happily together in the castle on the cliffs.

Time went on and the couple had many children, all boys, and one girl. They lived happily, and every Saturday, the Duke and Melusina spent the day apart, as requested by Melusina. She locked herself in her room for the entire day. This went on for many years without the Duke asking what she was doing on those Saturdays.

However, as time went on, his friends began to speak ill of his wife, planting seeds of doubt into his mind about her Saturday activities. Over time this seed sprouted, eventually reaching full bloom. The Duke had to know what Melusina did in her room on Saturdays. He became obsessive, trying to catch her in the act.

On one Saturday, Melusina retreated to her room, where she locked the door and began her day alone. The Duke secretly approached her door, where he could hear water running and splashing around. He looked through the keyhole, only to see his wife in the tub combing her hair, except... her legs were replaced by the tail of a fish. She was splashing the water with her tail, making all sorts of noise.

Jean-Luc was horrified, and he cried out in disgust. At that moment, Melusina knew she had been found out and she made her escape to the cliffs, but not before cursing Jean-Luc and the Bellerose family.

"Jean-Luc, Duke of Normandy, you have broken your promise to me. You have intruded upon my privacy, witnessing me in my true form without my consent. For this, you and your family will pay. Because of your atrocious behavior, all of the Bellerose men that are a direct descendent of you, Jean-Luc Bellerose, shall never be able to resist the temptations of the women of the sea. Mermaids will forever be kryptonite to the Bellerose men, and you will never see me again!" she declared before fleeing.

Melusina was used as a decoy by Satan to get Jean-Luc to agree to surrender himself, and Satan knew he would eventually break his promise of leaving her be on Saturdays. He would have made sure of it if his friends were not already so quick to doubt. Thus, Jean-Luc had this castle built for less than a decade before he eventually broke his promise to Melusina, cursing his entire bloodline in doing so. He returned home and spent his last twenty years in his original castle. After the remaining twenty years were up, Satan collected Jean-Luc, and his lineage was left with an unbreakable curse, one that eventually tore down the Bellerose empire of wealth and luxury.

Author's Note:

I chose to make the first story about Melusinas because they have the ability to change from human form to mermaid form, thus giving them the ability to trick Jean-Luc. Another reason I chose to make this first story about Melusinas is that they are central to French folklore, explaining the French roots of the Bellerose family. This first story serves as the origin story of the Bellerose family's obsession with mermaids. My retelling was based on "The Legend of Beautiful Melusina," which is very similar to my retelling, except I changed the protagonist to be a member of this family. All of the same things that happened in my retelling happen in the original, except for the curse put on the Bellerose family by the Melusina, and in my version, they have children. These changes serve my storybook narrative of all of the Bellerose men being captivated by mermaids and gives an explanation to the lengths that future Bellerose men will go to in order to win the affections of a mermaid. While this Melusina was a willing participant in the marriage, it was only to trick Jean-Luc into making a deal with the devil. The curse she put on this family will lead to the Bellerose men doing whatever necessary to wed mermaids, whether they consent or not, and it is through those stories that we will be getting into the themes of my storybook. I chose the header image because it perfectly represents what happens in my story, and I chose the image of the White Chalk Cliffs of Étretat because they are existing cliffs, and I did my best to make the geography of this story be as accurate as possible.

Picture Information:

"Melusine" by Julius Hübner Source: Web Source.

"Etretat-aiguille" by Jean-Luc Faisans, Web Source.

Bibliography:

"The Legend of Beautiful Melusina, the Ancestress of Luxembourg Counts" by N. Gredt, translated by D. L. Ashliman. Web Source: Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts.