Source: Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
The Fairy Melusine
The legend of Melusine is a reflection of the Lohengrin, because in both stories there is a secret that must remain hidden.
Melusine was the daughter of Elinus, king of Scotland, and the fairy Pressina. When she grows up, Melusine discovers that her father had witnessed her birth, against her mother’s wishes. She then decides to imprison him inside a mountain. Her mother, the fairy Pressina, reproaches her for her audacity and condemns her daughter to turn into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday.
One day, Melusine was walking through the forest when Raymon de Potiers of Lusignan sees her bathing and falls in love with her. Melusine marries him, but sets as her condition that he must never visit her on Saturdays. Raymond’s brothers convince him that she is being unfaithful: on Saturdays she might be meeting a lover.
Thus, believing himself deceived, he spies on her and sees her serpent’s tail. She then disappears forever.