Melusina is a mythological Water Goddess as well as the founder of the House of Luxembourg. Her tragic love story and her magical legacy had a dramatic impact on her female descendants, particularly Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Elizabeth Woodville.
Story[]
"The tragedy of Melusina, whatever language tells it, whatever tune it sings, is that a man will always promise more than he can do to a woman he cannot understand."
Once upon a time, a knight was riding through a dark forest, having lost his way. He then heard the sound of water and went towards it, only to see a splashing fountain made of white marble in the moonlight. Just when he was about to step forward and drink some of the fountain water, he saw a greenish-dark shadow that seemed like a mixture of a great fish and a drowned body moving deep in the fountain bowl.
When it stood upright, the knight saw that it was a breathtakingly beautiful woman who was bathing in the fountain. The woman was Melusina, a Goddess of Water/River. It was love at first sight for the two of them, and they were married, but Melusina imposed one condition: every month, he must leave her alone to bathe, and under no circumstances was he to disturb or spy on her when she took her monthly bath.
In the beginning, the couple's marriage was an exceptionally successful one: they were happier than any in the world, their castle was so famous for its wealth and grace that people came from far and wide to visit them, they had children together - beautiful daughters and strange wild sons, and Melusina's husband kept his promise of never intruding or spying upon his wife when she took her monthly bath.
However, Melusina's husband could not help but become increasingly curious of his wife, for her beauty never faded with the passage of time, and she always had an aura of mystery about her that made him increasingly discontent. One day, he could not bear the mystery of her secret bathing any longer and, spurred on by the persuasion of a guest, he crept down to her bathhouse and spied upon her, only to see Melusina as her true supernatural self as she swam beneath the waters of her bath - from the waist down, she had a large scaled tail like that of a fish's. It was then that he realised the horrible truth: though he and his wife truly loved each other, there was still an eternal unchangeable world of difference between them, for she was not only of a different sex, but also an otherworldly Goddess, one who often found it difficult and even painful to walk in his path, and was unable to fit exactly with his views.
Unable to forgive her husband for breaking his promise, Melusina left him, taking their daughters with her. Her husband was forced to live alone with his sons, a heartbroken man, and regretted to the end of his days the weakness that led him to betray her trust. However, their tragic separation did not prevent their children from coming into great destinies: their sons later became the Dukes of Burgundy (the House of Luxembourg), and their daughters inherited their mother's "Sight and her knowledge of things unknown".
Though Melusina never saw her husband again in his lifetime, she never stopped loving or missing him, and at the hour of his death, he heard her singing for him. At that moment, he realised that it did not matter if a wife was half-fish and a husband was all-mortal, for if there was enough love, then nothing - not nature, not even death itself - could come between two who love each other. Ever since then, whenever a child of the House of Luxembourg was dying, the other members of the family - especially the women who believed in and practiced Melusina's magic - would hear her singing a warning of familial loss.
An optimistic look would suggest that when her husband died, he was reunited with Melusina in her otherworldly realm, never to be parted again. Besides this, though Melusina's singing always heralded familial loss, it also acted as a comforting guide of sorts to her descendants to lead them into her afterlife domains. As seen in The White Queen, when Anthony Woodville heard her singing for him, he was still comforted despite knowing that it heralded his very own death, for Melusina's song gave him hope that she would watch over his surviving family, and her voice was that of his mother, Jacquetta.
Otherworld Domain[]
As a Water Goddess, Melusina was also the ruler of an afterlife realm that she would guide her descendants and even their loved ones to after their mortal deaths. As seen in The Lady of the Rivers, a month after the death of her oldest son, Lewis, Jacquetta had a strange yet wonderful dream: a deep cool river studded with yellow water lilies, flowing over a bed of gold and bronze stones, and golden king-cups growing on the green reedy banks. She saw Lewis on the far side of the river, pulling on his clothes, and he smiled at her and waved to show he was going to run ahead. It was only then that Jacquetta, who had until then been heartbroken and frightened by her son's death, learned to release her grief, for she knew for sure that Lewis was at peace in Melusina's afterlife realm, and she would see him again when her time came.
Physical Appearance[]
"...he saw that she was a woman of cool and complete beauty to the waist, and below that she was scaled, like a fish."
In The White Queen and The Lady of the Rivers, Melusina was described to have skin paler than white marble, and hair that is either as dark as a shadow or darker than the night skies. She was so beautiful that her husband-to-be fell in love with her at first sight. In fact, her extraordinary beauty was viewed as one of the primary famous attractions of the estate where she and her husband lived in. However, when she took her monthly bath alone, she would assume her true form as an otherworldly creature, and her feet would therefore be replaced by a large scaled tail like that of a fish's.
Powers and Abilities[]
As a Water Goddess, Melusina possessed strong supernatural powers that were passed down through her female descendants, though it appeared that only those descendants who truly believed in her story and were trained in the ways of magic are able to effectively utilise those powers.
Examples of powers Melusina possessed were:
- Immortality: As a Goddess, Melusina is immune to aging and possessed an infinite lifespan. As observed by her mortal husband, even after she took a full human form to become his wife, she never lost her youth and beauty with the passage of time.
- Beauty: Even in her true half-human half-fish form as a Water Goddess, Melusina was an extraordinarily beautiful female, so much so that her husband-to-be fell in love with her at first sight. After she took a full human form to become his wife, one of the primary famous attractions of their estate was her beauty itself. Though it was not truly a magical ability, her beauty was still a powerful gift to her female descendants, given how some of them - Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Elizabeth Woodville, and Elizabeth of York - were actually able to utilise their beauty as a weapon to take their destinies into their own hands.
- Magic: As a Goddess, Melusina had the ability to manipulate supernatural or mystical energy to alter the fabric of reality and defy the laws of nature. Examples of abilities she derived from her magic were:
- Aquatic Respiration: Melusina had the ability to breathe in both water and air, and was capable of staying underwater for as long as she desired. This ability is also most probably attributed to her being a Water Goddess whose true form is half-human and half-fish - as observed by her husband during their first meeting and subsequently when she took her monthly bath, Melusina was able to breathe underwater through the gills of her fishy tail.
- Shapeshifting: Melusina had the ability to change her physical form or shape into another - she changed from a mermaid-like creature into a human being so she could marry her husband, and when she took her private monthly baths, she would change from a human wife back into a Water Goddess with a fishy tail from below the waist.
- Premonition: Melusina had the ability to see and experience events from the past, present, and future. This was one of the primary powers that her female descendants inherited, which manifested itself in the form of dreams, visions, and omens. It was also this very ability that enabled her to act as an Oracle of sorts - whenever her descendants needed to know something of extreme importance, they only had choose two or three charms that signify the thing that might be, tie each one to a string, put them into the river that was nearest to their home, and leave them until the next full moon. All they had to do then would be to cut all the strings but one, and pull that one out to see their future - the answer from Melusina herself regarding what they should do.
- Knowledge of the Otherworld: As a Goddess, Melusina is knowledgeable in the magical arts, the supernatural world, and the mysteries of nature. This was also one of the primary talents that her female descendants inherited, given that the knowledge and skills of "the realms of the unknown" was all that was left to the female sex in the then-patriarchal world.
- Wish Granting: Melusina had the ability to grant the wishes of those who appeal to her, manifesting their desires into reality and make even their wildest dreams come true. As seen throughout the novels of the Cousin's War series, her female descendants were able to make their wishes come true by appealing to her - whenever they wanted something, they only needed to whisper it like a prayer to the river that was nearest to their home, and when they wanted to curse an enemy, they only had to write it on a piece of paper and it into the river, floating it like a little paper boat.
- Death Sense: Melusina had the ability to sense when one of her descendants were either near death or literally dying. As seen throughout the novels of the Cousin's War series, whenever a member of the House of Luxembourg was dying, Melusina's descendants (especially those who believed in and practiced her magic) would always hear her singing a warning of familial loss to them.
- Divination: Melusina was skilled in the practice of predicting the future through mystical or supernatural means - her descendants (such as Jehanne, Jacquetta, and Elizabeth) were able to gain insight into future events through tarot-reading.
- Hypnosis/Persuasion: Melusina had the ability to affect or directly influence other people's minds to her commands, which her descendants only utilised in times of utter urgency. Jacquetta once used this power to erase King Henry VI's memory of a scandalous sight that would ruin her dearest friend, and later on Elizabeth used it consistently to dramatically reduce her daughter's childbirth pains and ensure that she always made a safe successful delivery.
- Atmokinesis: Melusina had the ability to control and manipulate the weather to various effects, which was easily the strongest offensive magical power that her descendants possessed. Jacquetta and the Elizabeths had utilised this power numerous times to help guarantee victories for their family's armies - whistling up winds and storms, breathing out mists, and even calling up flood-inducing rains through verbal commands.