The Gospel

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Serpent Women

On the other side of the globe, our sea maidens look somewhat different.  However, (I know it’s bad to generalize, but…) they are very similar to our Northern European maidens.  They are beautiful water deities who can bring both good and ill.  Some of them are major deities, who are associated with beauty and lust/love, just as Aphrodite/Venus were (who also is said to have come from the sea).

This should not surprise us.  After all, the oceans and seas are all relatively the same.  They are beautiful, and can bring both good and ill to those who travel upon her.  There is a musical quality to the sea, and those who love the sea seem “called” as if by a voice to keep returning.  Thus, it would make sense that aquatic deities across cultures have similar powers.

But as I said, their look changes.  And the look makes all the difference in the world…

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Our Lessons in the Fisherman and His Soul

It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned the mermaid lessons inherent in every story so far.  This is because it’s easier to discuss them after you know the story. For the lessons make up a vital part of the overarching theme of the story…

Worldly vs. Godly Mermaids

In my first few posts, I talked about how everyone has the opportunity to be free and wild like the mermaids.  Either you are free and wild in a worldly way, or you are free and wild in Christ.

But there is another category: those who are not wild, either in the world, or in Christ.  I’d say we deal with those types of people throughout the story.

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The Fisherman’s Priest

Ah, the Priest.  I made a huge deal about him in my first blog on The Fisherman and His Soul.  I went so far as to say that the entire story was about how Christians refuse to get near the lost.  Frankly, you can’t get that from what we’ve read so far.  Or you could…it would just be stretching the material.  A lot.

But there is one last portion of the story – one that completely changes everything about it.  And it has to do with the Priest…

The Self-Righteous Priest

The next morning, the priest comes to bless the sea, since it had been troubled in the night.  There he finds the bodies of the Fisherman and the little Mermaid.  He gets angry, cursing the Seafolk and all who have dealings with them.  He had them buried in the Fuller’s Field, with no mark over their graves.[1]

“For accursed were they in their lives, and accursed shall they be in their deaths also.”[2]

I think there is a great deal of truth in his reaction.  For don’t we – the holy believers who have dedicated our lives to serving Christ! – often think the same of non-believers?  Or if we do not outright think it…don’t our actions, like the priest’s, say it just as loudly?

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The Fisherman and His Soul

“For her body I would give my soul, and for her love I would surrender heaven”[1] ~ The Fisherman to the Priest

That quote sums up the story (almost) perfectly.  It seems the antithesis of the other two “modern” mermaid tales we’ve looked at.  Using Undine and The Little Mermaid as a springboard, it twists them in an entirely unforeseen fashion.  At first, it is cause for indignation. But you’ll soon see the mournful need of it.   

The story begins with a young Fisherman catching a mermaid and falling in love with her.  She tells him “If only thou would’st send away thy soul, then could I love thee.”[2]   So, the Young Fisherman goes on a quest to rid himself of his soul.  

When I first read this, I was outraged at Oscar Wilde.  I felt he was purposefully belittling the previous stories.  Where Undine and the Little Mermaid desperately want souls, the fisherman desperately wishes to derive himself of his.  It was like a slap in the face to all those poor, lovely sea maidens who longed for salvation.

But it’s not.  It does deliver a slap in the face, but not to mermaids.  

Where Undine and The Little Mermaid say even mermaids can be saved, this story says they cannot – but only because Christians will not stoop to bring the Gospel to the forsaken.

Yes, it is a slap in the face to Christians.  And honestly, we need it…

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The End of Undine’s Tale

When the news of Huldbrand’s death breaks, Father Heilmann returns to the castle and comforts Bertalda.  However, it has almost no effect “upon her worldly thoughtless mind.”  She slanders and “[abuses] Undine as a murderess and sorceress.”  But the old fisherman “calmly said: ‘It could not be otherwise after all; Read more…

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Sorrowful Justice

I almost missed today’s “lesson.”  But Andrew pointed it out, and when he did, it was so poignant!  I just hope I can do it justice…

The Warning

Before his wedding to Bertalda, Hudlbrand has a lucid dream.  Swan-like creatures carry him to the Mediterranean, and he sees Undine under the waves.[1]

He sees Kuhleborn approach Undine.  They have an argument, and Kuhleborn reminds Undine that she is still “subject to the laws of” their “element.”  Just in case anyone had any doubt, he is explicit: if Huldbrand is “unfaithful” and marries Bertalda, then Undine is “duty bound to take away his life.”[2]

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The “Grief” of Huldbrand

“Leave her, Huldbrand!  Leave him, Bertalda!  He yet belongs to another; and do you not see grief for his lost wife still written on his pale cheek?  No bridegroom looks thus, and a voice tells me that if you do not leave him, you will never be happy.’ The three listeners felt in their innermost heart that Father Heilmann spoke the truth, but they would not believe it…”[1]

We all saw this coming: Huldbrand would take this opporuntity to marry Bertalda.  But, to be fair, at first Huldbrand “could do nothing but weep, and that as bitterly as the poor gentle Undine had wept when he had torn” the coral necklace from her hand.  Bertalda wept, too, “and they lived a long while quietly together at Castle Ringstetten, cherishing Undine’s memory, and almost wholly forgetful of their former attachment to each other.”[2]

Undine visited Huldbrand in his dreams, “caressing him tenderly and kindly, and then going away, weeping silently, so that when he awoke he often scarcely knew why his cheeks were so wet; whether they had been bathed with her tears, or merely his own?”[3]

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Undine’s Sorrows, God’s Sorrows

“Huldbrand’s heart began to turn from Undine to Bertalda” and “Bertalda more and more responded with ardent affection to the young knight….how Undine wept…”[1]

This sums up the state of Undine’s marriage.  It’s all the more tragic because Undine is so innocent and pure.  She would never have expected the cruelty of her friend and husband – indeed, it’s as if they had no souls.

To make matters worse, Uncle Kuhleborn repeatedly pays terrifying visits to them – especially Bertalda, who “had already several times been made ill with terror.”[2]  

The Last Straw

One day while Huldbrand is out, Undine gets her servants to place a large stone over the fountain in their courtyard.  This causes a tiff between her and Bertalda, for Bertalda claims she needs the water for her “complexion;”  but Undine “although gentle as usual, was more than usually firm.”[3]

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“Have you a Soul?”

“‘Have you a soul? Have you really a soul, Bertalda?’” ~ Undine to Bertalda[1]

The three reach the imperial city, and all are overjoyed to see them.  All except Bertalda, who “could feel nothing but grief.”  She had truly loved Huldbrand.  What’s more, it was evident to everyone (except Undine) that she had loved him…and he’d humiliated her by marrying another woman.[2]

But Bertalda “[reconciled] herself to circumstances, and lived on the most friendly terms with Undine.”[3]  Interestingly, there is genuine affection between them.  So great is their friendship that Undine suggests Bertalda come with them to Ringstetten, Huldbrand’s castle.  As they discuss this one evening, Kuhleborn comes out of the courtyard fountain and speaks with Undine privately.  This time, Undine does not spurn him.

Whatever he tells her makes her clap her hands with joy.  But she refuses to tell anyone – she wishes to reveal it at Bertalda’s “name-day” party in several days time…[4]

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Trading Kleos Aphthiton for Kharis Aphthiton

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses.  You are saved by grace [kharis]!  ~ Ephesians 2:4-5

I let a week lapse between this and my last post, and I thought about not posting this at all and calling it a season.  But it wouldn’t stay quiet, and I knew I would get nothing done if I failed to heed the call.  Also, it fits quite nicely after my last post.

In my last post, I talked about how the reason for the manger was the cross and resurrection of the Messiah.

But the reason for the Cross was to give us kharis aphthiton – undying grace.

This is not a phrase you’ll find anywhere, but I liked the word play with kleos, and  kleos aphthiton – undying glory – IS a phrase, and a very important one to the ancient Greeks…

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