Melusina - A Witch?

Melusina was considered by the people as a witch. They knew nothing about her, or why she was never seen on a saturday. She was a complete mystery to them. So did some research into witchcraft. Most of the information I found is not not relevant to the time, but was interesting to know for helping me writting my screenplay.

In French the word for a witch is sorcière, which gave us the English “sorcerer” and “sorceress”. Enchantress is also a French word, the female form of “enchanteur” which means magician. The French word comes from the latin “incantantre” (to sing), and implies the use of songs or chants for magic. Bordeaux is well known for its infamous judge Pierre de Lancre who conducted a massive witch hunt in Labourd in 1609. He turned Labourd upside down and in less than a year some 70 people were burnt at the stake. De Lancre wasn’t satisfied: he estimated that some 3,000 witches were still at large (10% of the population of Labourd in that time). However he was eventually dismissed him from office – much to the relief of the French countryside. France has had its fair share of witch hunts and in 1643-1645, the largest witch hunts in French history occurred. During those two years there were at least 650 arrests in Languedoc alone.

Around Halloween you will find various Festivals of the Witch in France (La Fête de la Sorcière) which hark back to the pagan festivals. Bonnu in Indre (Berry) holds a Fête de la Sorcière at the end of October and witchcraft is still practiced in Berry in the form of healing and Tarot reading. La Fête de la Sorcière in Chalindrey has been held for for nearly a century in remembrance of a 16th century witch hunt there.

Vestiges of witchcraft still hold on in the rural south of France where black cats are referred to as matagots, “magician cats” that bring good luck to owners who feed them well and treat them with the respect they deserve. The earliest known image of a witch flying on a broomstick comes from France and is in a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Martin Le Franc’s Le Champion de Dames dates to 1440, and shows two witches, one on a white stick (apparently a common mode of transport for French witches), and the other on the familiar broomstick.

One notorious witch trial in France implicated none other than the Madame de Montespan, one of the most celebrated mistresses of Louis XIV. She had 7 children with the King and is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe such as Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Portugal.

When Louis’s affections showed signs of cooling, Madame de Montespan is alleged to have resorted to Black Magic in order to get him back. The incident is known as the Affaire des Poisons and Madame de Montespan was accused of using poison and witchcraft to dispose of her rivals. She visited the so-called witch Catherine Monvoisin, known as La Voisin, in 1665. Initially, La Voisin reportedly just gave Madame de Montespan love potions concocted of repulsive ingredients for Louis XIV to take but in 1666, Madame de Montespan supposedly went so far as to allow a priest, Etienne Guibourg, to perform a black mass in a blood-soaked ceremony. La Voisin was executed and Madame de Montespan ended her days in a convent.

There is also a legend of a French Enchantress named Melusine and in legends from Brittany several notable families claim that Melusine is their ancestor. She is credited with the building of castles and monuments in Brittany that still exist today. Melusine is also credited as being an ancestor of the Luxembourg royal family, as she married Prince Siegfroid in 963 A.D. One story says that Melusine married Raymond of Lusignan in Poitou. Melusine’s father, Elynas, was a King of Scotland and he had broken his word to her fairy mother. When Melusine learned this story, she and her sisters locked their father up in a mountain. Her mother was so furious upon learning this that she cursed the girls. Melusine’s curse was that once a week, she would transform into a monster. The only way to ease the agony of this transformation was to spend the entire day in a bathtub, keeping wet. Worse, if ever she married, and if ever her husband saw her in her monster form, she would be cursed to remain that way forever.

In the Poitou version of the story Melusine told Raymond that they could be married on one condition: he must leave her alone in her tower every Saturday night, and never, never spy on her. Raymond was so enchanted by this beautiful woman that he willingly agreed and she built the Chateau Lusignan in a single night for him. Inevitably Raymond broke his promise and spied on his wife on the forbidden Saturday. When he saw the creature she became, he made a sound of horror, giving himself away. With an unearthly scream, Melusine flew out the tower window, cursed to remain in her monstrous form forever more.

Legend has it that ever after that moment, whenever a Lord of Lusignan was going to die, Melusine would fly in circles around the tower, wailing her unearthly scream in grief. Supposedly the banshee-like cries of Melusine only stopped after the Chateau was torn down. The famous medieval painting from the Duc de Berry’s Book of Hours (Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry), from the entry for March, shows the Chateau Lusignan in the background. If you look closely, you can see what looks like a dragon flying over the tower on the right – this is supposedly Melusine.