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From: "Erols" <>
Subject: Re: Melusine legends
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 13:02:24 -0500


I've always thought Melusine sounded like your standard Celtic faery
sacred well/pond spirit. Certainly, Ireland and other parts of the British
Isles had legends of spooky ladies from "under the hill" consorting with
handsome young knights, the Belle Dame sans merci theme. Perhaps also
echoes of Cupid and Psyche. It might prove interesting to try to udentify
the locale first associated with the Melusine story, and then try to
determine what sorts of cults were current there at the end of the
Gallo-Roman period. Even in Charlemagne's day, Christianity did not have
complete dominion in some parts of France. Has Robert Graves ever written
anything on this topic?
cheers, Judith Sanders
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