14 h 44 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A fairy builds a powerful family’s future, but her marriage rests on one promise: leave her secret untouched.
After a hunting accident kills his uncle, Raymondin wanders through the forest and meets Mélusine beside a fountain. The fairy offers help, and their marriage brings wealth and power. But she asks for privacy every Saturday. In Jean d’Arras’s prose romance, the rise of the house of Lusignan depends on a husband’s willingness to keep his word.
Mélusine builds castles, founds towns and bears ten sons, several with strange marks. Around her, a family chronicle opens into knightly adventure and stories of crusades, reaching from Poitou to Cyprus and Armenia. Behind her own marriage lies another broken promise: the vow her father, King Elinas, makes to her mother, Pressine. Trust carries a heavy burden in this fairy tale.
What you’ll discover
- A fairy who builds Meet a heroine whose castles, towns and children shape the fortunes of Lusignan.
- The promise of privacy Follow a marriage in which love and prosperity depend on respecting one hidden secret.
- A fountain in moonlight Enter the forest where a lost Raymondin encounters three ladies and an unexpected future.
- Sons marked by wonder Meet Urian and Geoffroy Great-Tooth, brothers whose unusual bodies belong to a strange family history.
- Legend woven into history Discover how Jean d’Arras joins fairy enchantment with the chronicle of a noble house.
Is it for you?
This summary suits anyone who likes fairy tales, medieval legends, or stories of marriage, trust and secrets. It also helps students of French history and folklore. If you want a fast-moving modern novel with deep psychology, the old romance style may feel less suited.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A king breaks a fairy's promise
- Three sisters and a mother's curse
- A hunting accident in Poitou
- A fairy waits at the fountain
- The wedding and the Saturday rule
- Mélusine builds a kingdom
- Ten sons, each with a mark
- What the legend is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- MélusineA fairy, daughter of Pressine, who marries Raymondin, builds Lusignan and bears ten sons, while hiding the curse that changes her every Saturday.
- RaymondinA young nobleman of Forez who accidentally kills his uncle, wins Mélusine's help and sets out to build a great house, bound by an oath.
- PressineA fairy and mother of three daughters, who marries King Elinas on one condition and leaves him when he breaks it.
- ElinasThe king of Albany who falls in love with Pressine, swears an oath of privacy, and fails to keep it.
- Count Aymeri of PoitiersRaymondin's uncle and lord, whose death in a boar hunt sets the whole story moving.
- UrianThe eldest son of Mélusine and Raymondin, marked by two eyes of different colors, who goes abroad to win a kingdom.
- Geoffroy Great-ToothA giant and fierce son with a tusk-like tooth, proud and quick to anger, and the best known of the brothers.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Mélusine
by Jean d'Arras· 1393
A fairy’s marriage depends on a promise to respect her secret.
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Language: English
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A king breaks a fairy's promise
The story opens in the kingdom of Albany, which is the old name for Scotland. King Elinas has lost his wife and grieves for her. One day he rides out hunting and gets separated from his men. Beside a fountain in the forest he hears a woman singing, and he finds her so beautiful that he falls in love at once.
The woman is Pressine, and she is a fairy. She does not refuse him, but she sets a condition. If he wants to marry her, he must never come to see her while she is giving birth, and he must never look at her or her children at that time. Elinas swears an oath and the wedding takes place. This is the first of the story's bargains, and it shows the pattern. A fairy gives love, and in return she asks for trust.
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What is Mélusine about?
It tells of a fairy who marries a mortal nobleman, Raymondin, on condition that he never sees her on Saturdays. She helps him found the house of Lusignan and bears ten sons, while her secret hangs over the marriage.
Who was Mélusine in legend?
Mélusine is a fairy woman of French folklore who becomes a serpent from the waist down once a week. Medieval families, above all the Lusignans of Poitou, claimed her as an ancestor.
When was Mélusine written and by whom?
Jean d'Arras wrote the prose romance around 1393, for Jean, Duke of Berry. It is presented as a history of the Lusignan family, but it draws on folklore and fantasy, so it is not a true story.
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