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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 Sad Flight of the Fisherman’s Soul

The Fisherman follows the young Witch’s instructions and ends up entering into a gathering of witches in a clearing.  He fulfills his promise to the Witch – dancing with her wildly.

And then a man in black comes, whom the witches begin to worship.  The man is about to kneel before him, but “without knowing why he did it, he made on his breast the sign of the Cross, and called upon the holy name.”[1]  At that, the man and witches flee.

Funny how the man does not believe in Christ, and yet seeks protection from Him.

Anyway, the man catches the Witch before she flees and forces her to tell him how to separate his soul from his body.  She tells him that “what the men call the shadow of the body is not the shadow of the body, but is the body of the soul.  Stand on the seashore with thy back to the moon, and cut away from around thy feet thy shadow, which is thy soul’s body, and bid thy soul leave thee, and it will do so.’”[2]

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The Little Mermaid’s Idol

I know in my last post I said I was going to do The Fisherman and His Soul.  However, when I started re-reading it to refresh my memory, I changed my mind and have decided to do it in chronological order.

The Little Mermaid was written in 1837, a little over 25 years after Undine; The Fisherman and His Soul was written in 1891, over 50 years after The Little Mermaid. The reason I had wanted to do The Fisherman and His Soul first was because I didn’t want anyone to forget noble Undine’s quest for a soul, as well as the kindly priest, which are so at odds with the characters in Oscar Wilde’s The Fisherman and His Soul.

But more importantly, I didn’t want to write about The Little Mermaid because everyone knows the story.

Well, parts of it.  I’d bet most don’t know the nobility of our Little Mermaid, nor the tragic twist at the end.  But the beginning is also full of “lessons” to explore about mermaids…and ourselves…

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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 Soul

‘There must be something beautiful, but at the same time extremely awful, about a soul….The soul must be a heavy burden…’”[1]

Last week we left Undine wild and lovely, and Huldbrand smitten.  Cut off from the rest of the world, the two soon fall in love, and the fisherman and his wife see them “as already united in marriage.”[2] And yet, they need a priest to make it official.  A priest showing up on their island seems impossible…and yet a priest unexpectedly knocks at their door one evening.[3]

Father Heilmann had set out toward the bishop to tell him of the “distress” of his monastery and surrounding villages because of the floods.  However, when trying to cross the raging river, the boat was capsized and he wound up on their newly formed island.[4]

Huldbrand doesn’t wait.  He suggests the priest marry himself and Undine.  And since everyone agrees, there’s no reason to delay!

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The Lovely (and Wild) Undine – Part 2

“She threw her arms round his neck, and drew him down beside her.”  Huldbrand let her, “embracing the beautiful girl and kissing her fervently.”[1]

“I will celebrate before the Lord.  I will become even more undignified than this” ~ 2 Samuel 6:21b-22a

Huldbrand rushes out to find Undine in the midst of the storm.  Undine calls out to him, and coyly reveals herself on “a little island formed by the flood.”  Huldbrand makes his way to her…and the quote above says it all.  

But the fisherman finds them, rebukes them, and begs them to come to the “mainland” – which is now an island itself, cut off from the world.[3]  Undine refuses, and sings of the stream going to the ocean. The old fisherman “wept bitterly at her song, but this did not seem to affect her.”  It touches Huldbrand’s heart though, and he carries her back.[4]

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The Lovely (and Wild) Undine – Part 1

She “knew she was created for God’s praise and glory….She was therefore baptized ‘Undine,’ and during the sacred ceremony she behaved with great propriety and sweetness, wild and restless as she invariably was at other times.”[1] 

This is my favorite “mermaid” story!  It was written in 1811 by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, a French ex-patriot who lived in Germany.  Interestingly, it came before many other mermaid tales, including Hans Christian Anderson’s famous Little Mermaid.

Even though I’ll give a thorough outline, I highly encourage you to read it yourself – it is lovely…and wild.  Just like Undine…

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Historical Mermaids: Priestesses

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God ~ 1 Corinthians 3:19a

The story of Svané got wrapped up in something bigger than her: an ancient religion.  It’s unclear what this religion was, and frankly it doesn’t matter for our purposes.  What does matter is how it shaped the women we know today as “mermaids.”

I originally got the idea of these mermaids – or sea maidens – being priestesses from an offhand comment in Norma Lorre Goodrich’s King Arthur.  While speaking of the Lady of the Lake, she describes her as a queen, “or, as the Irish say about their ancient kings, she was a priestess.”[1] I don’t know for certain that my supposition is correct; however, I’m fairly confident that it is a viable theory.  How else can we explain the traits of our mermaids?

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