Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: Mélusine

Mélusine

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Mélusine

The mermaid-like figure from medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.

Mermaids, water sprites, fairies and forest nymphs. Shahidha Bari explores the history and myth behind the medieval tale of Mélusine.

The legend of Mélusine emerges in French literature of the late 14th and early 15th centuries in the texts of Jean d’Arras and Coudrette. A beautiful young woman, the progeny of the union between a king and a fairy, is condemned to spend every Saturday with her body below the waist transformed into the tail of a serpent. She agrees to marry only on the condition that her husband should never seek to see her on that day every week. Shahidha Bari explores the emergence of the hybrid mermaid-woman, her historical significance and the legacy of the medieval myth of Mélusine.

Olivia Colquitt is an AHRC funded doctoral candidate at the University of Liverpool whose research focuses upon the socio-cultural significance of the late Middle English translations of the French prose romance Mélusine and its verse counterpart, Le Roman de Parthenay.

Hetta Howes is Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at City, University of London and is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. She is the author of Transformative Waters in Medieval Literature.

Lydia Zeldenrust is an Associate Lecturer in Medieval Literature, where she currently holds a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. She is the author of The Melusine Romance in Medieval Europe.  

The Royal Opera House is staging a version of Rusalka opening February 21st 2023. This folk-tale is a Slavic version of the water sprite figure seen in the Melusine story.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Image: colourised illustration of Melusine (after a woodcut).
Image credit: Science Source/Photo Researchers history/Getty Images

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