The Mermaids' Revenge

While Nicolas Bellerose distanced himself from his family and remained oblivious to the curse that was cast upon his bloodline by his own mother, this was not the case for his children and siblings. The women in the Bellerose did not share their fathers and brothers' weaknesses.

After his wife left him, misery overcame Nicolas. He was no longer fit to raise his seven children. His eldest daughter, Florence, recognized this. She confronted her father at the ripe age of fifteen. "Dad, you haven't been the same since Mom left. We are still a family and we need you to be here for us. I can't raise my brothers and sisters alone!" she shouted as she began to break down in tears. Nicolas broke down with his daughter and began to hold her and cry with her, at a loss for what to do.

Following this confrontation, Nicolas recognized his ineptness at raising a family alone and made a trip back to Normandy to seek out the help of his older sister, Zoé Bellerose. He explained to her what had happened and she agreed to help him raise his children. They returned back to Brittany and Zoé was eager for the opportunity to bond with her new family. After all, Nicolas had fled the family, so she never knew he created a family of his own, until now.

Zoé did a fine job of helping to raise her nieces and nephews. She bonded with all of them and while she couldn't replace their mother, she did what she could to help ease the pain of her absence.

One day, while the boys were out doing some fishing and their father couldn't get out of bed, Zoé was baking with her three nieces: Florence, Adelle, and Lucy. She was teaching them how to make brioche when Lucy asked her, "Aunt Zoé, why did our mom leave us?"

Stunned by her directness, Zoé was not sure what to do but tell her the truth. After all, Lucy was the last one to see their mother before she left. She watched as she put her selkie skin on and ran towards the sea. Although she wasn't old enough to comprehend what her mother was or why she left at the time, she still bore witness to it. And like Lucy, Zoé saw her own mother run toward the sea, and she observed many tragedies that her other brothers suffered through due to this curse. She was perceptive enough to make the connection between these ill fates and the recurring element that accompanied them, mermaids.

"You see, Lucy, your mother was never meant to meet your father. Your father met her when she was on land temporarily and was instantly taken with her. He did a bad thing and trapped her on land to make her your mother," Zoé explained to her niece.

"Is that why she went back to the sea? When she left that day I saw her transform into something else completely after putting the skin on, she told me she was never meant to be my mother..." said Lucy, struggling to withhold her tears with the discussion of this topic.

"Yes Lucy, your mother was a selkie," Zoé said. "The men in our family have always had a particular weakness when it comes to the women of the sea. Many of your uncles suffered due to this vulnerability." And so she began telling the girls of her experience watching her brothers fall victim to mermaids' charms.

Author's Note:

This story is a combination of the previous stories in the first half and a retelling of some shorter stories in the second half. We now enter the lives of Nicolas Bellerose's children and siblings. The women of the Bellerose family are not affected by this curse, so I wanted to use women as the storyteller and audience to bring the stories of their male family members into focus. This is why I told these stories through the format of Nicolas's older sister, Zoé Bellerose, explaining what she has witnessed about the curse to her nieces.

Zoé Bellerose is the only daughter of Jean-Luc Bellerose and Melusina, so she has watched many of her brothers suffer due to this curse. While she isn't aware of the specifics of the curse, she watched her own mother return to the sea and she's been able to pick up on some sort of connection between her brothers and their obsession with mermaids. When confronted by her nieces about the departure of their mother, she has no idea what to do besides tell them the truth. This is where I began to incorporate some of the shorter mermaid stories, but I wanted to use the first half of this story to incorporate these smaller-scale stories into the Bellerose family storyline I have created through the other two stories.

I retold two actual stories here, "The Mermaid's Rock" and "The Mermaid of Seaton." These stories originated as explanations for the bad things that happen in towns. Folklore is often used to explain tragedies or unfortunate events, and mermaids are no exception. When the ports filled with sand and were no longer useable for commercial use, people started saying mermaids cursed the port. When people swim out too far and drown in a specific area, suddenly a mermaid is out on a rock luring people out to her. This is very similar to many of the selkie wife tales. When a mother abandoned her children, oftentimes fathers found it easier to tell their children tales of them returning to the ocean rather than dealing with the harsh reality of their mother abandoning them. These explanations are the origin of a lot of folklore, especially mermaids.

The main changes I made to these short stories were taking a very vague story, more of a legend, and giving it specifics by incorporating characters I created. The same general plot happens in both of these stories, but it is a little easier to paint a picture and imagine the full scenario in my retelling of them. I also changed the point of view to the first person since these stories are being told from the perspective of Zoé Bellerose speaking to her nieces.

Picture Information:

"Ulysses and the Sirens" by John William Waterhouse (1891), Web Source.

"The Siren" by John William Waterhouse(1990), Web Source.

"A Mermaid" by John William Waterhouse(1900), Web Source.

Bibliography:

"The Mermaid's Rock," collected and edited by Robert Hunt. Web Source.

"The Mermaid of Seaton," collected and edited by Robert Hunt. Web Source.