374: European Fairy Tales: Mermaider (part 2 of 2)

This week on Myths and Legends, we're finishing the story of Undine, the water elemental who married so she could get a soul.

And you'll see why you don't want to berate your spouse in public.

Mainly because that's not a kind or respectful thing to do, but also because you could have a whole ocean of water monsters come after you.

The creature this week is Sorghus, a shimmering, glowing African ram with a secret.

This is Myths and Legends, episode 374, Mermaider.

This is a podcast where we tell stories from mythology and folklore.

Some are incredibly popular stories you might think you know, and others are tales that might be new to you, but are definitely worth a listen.

Last week on the podcast, we started the story of Undine.

Undine is a water elemental who, adopted by a fisher couple so she could meet a human man, marry, and obtain a human soul.

Well, she did that last week with Holdbrand, a knight who went to the haunted forest, where Undine lived with her family, so he could win the favor of Bertalda, the daughter of the nobles back in town.

Leaving the haunted forest, Holdbrand and Undine traveled with the priest, Father Heilman, when they ran into someone on the road before them, Undine's magical water elemental uncle, Kuliborn.

Kuliborn shook his fists and made faces at Undine

until she cried.

I'm not sure how scary these faces were or if Undine had just a very low threshold for shaking fists and scary faces, but Holdbrand had to step in.

He had taken a while because, you know,

different families are different.

He didn't know if this was like a greeting or something that they did.

Oh, wow.

Different families are different.

Great wisdom, Mr.

Knight.

Kuliborn rolled his eyes.

At this, Holdebrand raised his sword, but Father Heilman stepped in between.

It had all begun when Kuliborn, revealing his role in the plot to get his niece a soul, when he caused the river to rage for days and gave them time to get to know each other.

His role of water wingman aside, Undine cried out that she no longer wanted anything to do with her uncle.

She didn't need him to help her in her marriage, she didn't need him to look after her, she didn't even need his help through the haunted forest.

They could see the end of it already.

And that's what led to his barrage of mean faces and exaggerated fist-shaking.

When the priest stepped in the middle, Couliborn sneered and seemed to melt into the ground.

Just then a waterfall opened up overhead, drenching the trio and their horse before stopping as quickly as it appeared, as waterfalls so so frequently do in nature.

The priest thought all that was a bit strange, but both Undine and Holdebrand heard a voice in the water that said, You were foolish, sir knight, to draw your sword, yet I will not be angry with you, nor will I quarrel with you so long as you guard well your beautiful wife.

Yet not be again thus hasty, sir knight.

Hey, he called me sir.

Holdebrand sheathed the sword.

He implicitly agreed to what Culiborn had asked, so that was no issue, guarding his beautiful wife.

A little shaken and a little more wet than they would have liked to be, the trio made their way from the haunted forest and back to the city.

Servants!

Holdbrand cried, setting his bags down and going in for a group hug.

Master!

they cried back and obliged him with that hug.

Undine and Holdebrand had separated with the priest on the outskirts of the town and made their way to Holdebrand's lodgings, where all of his servants were still waiting for him to return.

Why didn't they go with you?

Don't they have to do whatever you say?

Undine waited on the outskirts of the hug.

Yeah, but they were scared, Holdebrand said, mussing the hair on one of their heads until they smiled.

And I thought it would be cooler if I went into the dark forest by myself.

I knew they wouldn't leave town without me, even if they feared me dead and Holdebrand stopped talking and the hug.

Hey Wait a second.

There was someone else here.

He didn't recognize one servant.

Oh, he's been by a lot, one of the guys who worked for Holdebrand said, of the hug interloper.

He works for a w what was her name again?

Bertalda?

The servant nodded yes.

Sorry, he couldn't resist a good servant group hug, but yeah, he was here on behalf of Bertalda for Holdebrand's return.

Holdebrand cut him off and drew Undine to himself.

Before he finished that thought, Holdebrand's dating situation and relationship status had changed, in that he was no longer dating and he was in a relationship.

This was his wife, Undine.

Oh, she knows, yes, the servant clarified.

Bertalda thought Undine was so beautiful that she had to be a princess, and Lady Bertalda would be remiss if she neglected to invite them both to dine at the castle that evening.

So he rescued you from a wizard?

Bertalda asked Undine over dinner, which is something she actually asked in the original.

Holdebrand laughed.

Um, more like, he was stuck at her parents' house for a few weeks by a raging Uncle River and dot, dot, dot.

Holdebrand didn't really know what to expect.

It wasn't like he and Bertalda even had a history.

They didn't really even know each other.

But she was being really nice to him and Undine.

And while Holdebrand worried that Undine would get jealous and it would be that type of story, Undine didn't.

That she actually actually loved Bertalda.

The two got on like sisters, sisters who like each other.

And Undine not only took Bertalda up on her invitation to come by the castle every day, but invited Bertalda to Haldibrand's family estate when they left in the coming weeks.

In fact, in the most wholesome way possible, the three hung out constantly, and it wasn't weird or awkward, you know, props to them.

All the more because the situation was right for drama, given that it was a love triangle with three people in their late teens.

It was like every young adult novel.

Still, they made it work.

Undine almost let Bertalda in on her secret, or at least she didn't guard it all that closely.

One afternoon, while they were walking by the fountain in the middle of town, an old man in a hood stood nearby.

Undine excused herself and rushed to Cooliborn, who whispered some words to her, and she laughed, saying,

no way.

She said goodbye to the man as Haldebrand nodded to him, with narrowed eyes and his hand on the sword at his side.

What did the master of the fountain say to you to make you laugh so much?

Bertalda asked, the master of the fountain being the person who tended to the fountain.

Undine, smiling, said the day after tomorrow was Bertalda's birthday, right?

She would tell Bertalda the surprise then.

But just then, the fountain malfunctioned and a torrent opened up, soaking Holdebrand and only Holdebrand.

who grumbled as the people of the square told him that that was so weird.

In all the years that it had been running, no one had ever seen it do that.

So, I know we were invited to Bertalda's party, but why are all these other people here?

Undine asked as she and her husband, Sir Holdebrand, strolled into the ducal palace alongside the rest of the city.

city.

Holdebrand said it was a tradition they had.

Sometimes they opened up the palace for the common peasants to see how their masters fared.

Undine nodded.

That seems like a way to highlight class disparities.

And if there was to be, say, an industrial revolution and there was a wider gap between the rich and the poor, that sort of showy ostentation on behalf of the rulers

could lead to some problems.

Holdebrand laughed.

Industry, revolution, her made-up mermaid words words were adorable.

In this story, people love their rulers.

They're all just going to stand here and watch us eat.

And they did.

Holdebrand, Undine, who was still thought to be a princess based on how beautiful she was and not that she was an actual princess, and the rest of the who's who of the city sat down for a banquet in a room that was roped off from the commoners.

The commoners were not discontent, or, if you ask them, feeling disenfranchised.

They loved their rulers and were so happy the rulers got to enjoy all those nice things bought with their money.

After the first course, Undine rose.

It was time to give her new best friend, Bertalda, her gift.

But what do you give to the woman who has everything?

She waved for a loot, and the prepared servant brought one over to her.

Undine smiled.

You write a song, and you sing her the truth.

Bertalda looked left and right to her parents parents sitting on either side of her.

This was really exciting.

All right, let's go.

Undine started strumming and, alongside the music, she told a story, a story of a baby loved by her parents who wanted more for her, but who feared they would never be able to give it to her.

Of another's parents, a king and queen of the ocean who wanted their girl to have a soul, of the water elementals who saved one girl after she slipped in and the waves nearly took her, drawing her along the rivers and brooks until, setting her to rest in a field full of flowers, she was found by a duke and duchess, who had been unable to conceive.

The fisher couple had their child, and their biological child not only lived, but would one day be heir to the duchy.

The daughter of the ocean king would one day have a soul.

When the song ended, Bertalda started to slow clap,

but then she nearly jumped out of her seat when her parents stood to their feet, clapping and crying.

Bertalda asked how that

how was any of that relevant to her?

There was a daughter of a duke in the story, but that couldn't be her because she

turned with horror to her parents, who smiled.

They said that was the truth.

She wasn't their biological daughter, but that never mattered.

She was their miracle, miracle, found in a field.

And now they knew that she really was a miracle, brought by the water elementals, for whom their theology was not an issue to accept as real and not evil.

Undine might have been able to tell this revelation was not going over the way she thought, but things were set in motion that could not be stopped, or even really slowed, because

at the end of the banquet hall, the rope was lifted, and two peasants were admitted into the room.

They were people that that Sir Holdibrand and Undine knew well because they were Undine's adoptive parents.

The Fisher Couple.

The fisherman stood awkwardly by the door, rotating his hat in his hands.

The fisher woman shook, looking at the child she thought long dead and claimed by the lake.

Both had rivulets of tears finding the wrinkles in their cheeks.

The Duke and Duchess rushed to embrace their counterparts, the biological parents of the girl, the one they had raised as their daughter.

The people were happy for the couple, even if it did cause them to look at Bertalda, one who was so regal and proud on account of her noble blood, with a little bit of suspicion that there wasn't anything fundamentally all that different about the nobles and the commoners.

But still, they were happy, and the four parents embracing, all was well, smiling at their daughter, took her into an embrace that they all thought was heartwarming and beautiful for about 10 seconds until Bertalda tore herself away in disgust.

She looked at them.

They.

They were her parents.

Them.

For so long, she thought of the possibility that she could have been adopted, seeing as she looked nothing like the Duke and Duchess.

She always guessed that she was the long-lost daughter of a deposed king.

But a fisherman?

And a fishwife?

The mom said that fishwife was more of a woman who sold fish and it was also kind of derogatory.

It's a term for a coarse-mannered woman.

Not really a nice thing to say to anyone,

least of all your mother.

I did not misspeak, Bertalda sneered.

She was not merely disappointed that they were her biological parents.

She was disgusted.

They should crawl back to whatever fish-stinking hut they came from because they weren't wanted here.

The Fisher couple was shocked to silence.

So were the Duke and Duchess.

Undine rose, but Bertalda pointed.

These lies were from her.

She couldn't handle that Holdebrand loved her first and always,

so she had to try to bring Bertalda low with these falsehoods.

Undine said that she was only trying to help.

She had wanted to know the truth of her biological parents, and she thought Bertalda would as well.

She was sorry.

You're a witch, Bertalda said.

She tells the truth, the Fisherwoman said.

Then she sighed.

Between Bertalda's shoulders and on the instep of her left foot, Bertalda raised a shaking hand to her mouth.

You have two violet birthmarks, the fisherwoman said.

If Bertalda wanted to come with them, she could take a trip and see where she was born.

The Duke and Duchess nodded, smiling, but Bertalda shook her head.

No, she would go nowhere with these these peasants Bertalda the Duchess's voice seemed to bounce off all the rafters at once, and still her daughter with a word.

You will come with me to the other room.

Your mother as well.

I am so sorry, the Duchess said to the fisherwoman, as Bertalda followed, chin to her chest.

Yeah, we should go,

Sir Holdebrand whispered to Undine, but it could be heard over the stunned silence of the other assembled nobles and the peasants who had seen it all.

We'll see what's waiting for them back at Holibrand's house, but that will be right after this.

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If it is true that Undine has won through love a soul, it is more pure than mortals know, Holdebrand remarked, after seeing his wife beside herself with sorrow over how she had hurt her friend.

Invitations to the Duke and Duchess's palace stopped after that, and despite vowing eternal friendship, neither Undine nor Holdebrand saw Bertalda for the rest of the time in the city.

Festivities surrounding the festival

died down.

and it was time for the happy couple to return to Holdebrand's family estate.

The day arrived, and Sir Holdebrand and Undine emerged from the inn to his waiting carriage, all his buddy servants waiting for him and

Holdebrand sniffed the air.

Did Undine smell that?

Undine said, yeah, she knew that smell.

It was fish!

Fish for sale.

A voice cried out from behind the carriage.

A trout emerged in the stranger's grasp, and its lifeless eyes flopped alongside its body as it waved back and forth.

Oh, thanks, but we're going to be traveling all day and don't want fresh fish, the knight said.

Right, Undine?

Undine, though, was circling the carriage.

She recognized that voice.

It was Bertalda in a sweat-stained dress and peppered with dirt.

She hadn't changed or bathed since her birthday dinner.

What are you doing here and but why are you selling fish?

Holdbrand had to know.

Bertolda said her parents, her, well, adoptive parents, the Duke and Duchess, had disowned her after her treatment of the Fisher couple.

She wasn't allowed back at the palace.

Of course, they gave her her inheritance.

Still, she was the daughter of a fisherman, if that was even true.

Yeah, no, it's true.

Undine felt bad her friend had taken it so hard, but this conversation was getting a little tiresome.

It was true.

Even if he was my father, he still wouldn't take me back to live with them on account of me publicly shaming and disowning them in front of the entire city.

Bertalda shrugged.

Okay, but why are you selling clearly rotten fish?

You have enough money to live, I don't know, forever on your own?

Holdebrand used his hat to fan the smell away from his face.

Bertalda swooned, or started to, but when she saw that no one would catch her, she quickly changed course.

She said she was selling fish because that was her lot lot in life.

She didn't deserve more, as was befitting her blood.

Also, she didn't know how to do, um,

anything?

Like laundry, finding food, finding a place to sleep that wasn't like a trash heap or a ditch.

Even hiring servants to do that stuff for her.

She wasn't great at this living on her own thing.

Then we shall be sisters, Undine clapped.

Holdbrand could see the relief on Bertalda's face.

Almost as if if that was the point of the conversation and the found fish the whole time.

Undine said that, to her, the birthday changed nothing, and she and Undine were still as sisters.

And so, like her sister, Bertalda would come live with them at Castle Ringstetten.

Sir Holdebrand agreed.

While the maidservants gave Bertalda a bath, Holdebrand sent messengers through the haunted forest to the Fisher couple and to the Duke and Duchess to let them know that she was safe with him and Undine in the event that someone was trying to use this as a teachable moment, one that was very slow to take.

So the trio made their way to Castle Ringstetten.

Ringstetten was on the banks of the Danube, and despite Haldebrand not really having a job, he did need to manage the estate and the tenants and all that feudalism stuff.

His parents had died when he was young, and he nearly lost the place, leaving it in the hands of unscrupulous stewards, so he was fastidious to the point of obsessive when it came to the management of the finances.

For that reason, Undeen was glad for a friend in the castle, and they spent a lot of time together, walking.

One time, on a summer afternoon, Bertalda stopped and pointed at the river.

They were pretty far out in the country, and strangers were either lost travelers in need of help, or, well, Bertalda didn't want to think about who else could be out here.

Who this man might be, who stood in a dirty white cloak on the edge of the river.

Undine, apparently, was fearless and strode over to the man.

Bertalda's eyes widened as the usually tranquil Undine tore into the man standing on the banks of the Danube, pointing at the water, telling him to be gone.

He was not welcome here.

The man looked at Bertalda with a smile, and Bertalda shuddered.

Undine returned, saying he wouldn't be a problem.

Bertalda pointed, wait, that was the master of the fountain from back in the city.

Undine sighed.

Yes and no, mostly no.

It was, okay, she was going to tell Bertalda a secret known only to three other people in this world.

And she did.

She told Bertalda everything

about the gnomes and her and the water elementals, and Bertalda marveled that her friend and savior was actually a princess,

just like she dreamed that she might be.

Then Undine told her about the uncle, Couleborn was his name, and he was the man Bertalda mistook as the master of the fountain.

He was also the man that saved Bertalda's life when she was a child, who took her her to the Duke and Duchess and delivered Undine to her place.

That was how Undine knew.

That's how she told everyone the truth at the banquet.

It didn't seem like Undine realized, but Bertalda didn't really care.

This Couliborn, this uncle of someone she thought was her friend, Undine, had taken her from her parents.

He had ruined her life.

And Undine just told her all this.

Undine with all of her magical powers.

Undine the princess who married the man Bertalda loved.

Undine, it seemed, was responsible for every bad thing in Bertalda's life.

And Bertalda would have her revenge.

I'm sorry, what was that?

Undine asked.

She had to step away for a bit to call the horses.

Oh, we should have that spot by the river

retrenched.

So it doesn't flood the garden.

You otherworldly monster.

Undine said she- sorry, she didn't quite catch that last part.

Oh, I said, I love you, sis, Bertalda grinned.

And for the spirit world, said Bertalda, I do not care, for I know it not.

It and those who have dwelt there fill me with fear.

and dread.

Oh, okay.

I was just asking how you were doing, but it's good to know.

Have you seen Undine?

Holdebrand said, having just returned from a hunt.

Who can say they have ever seen Undine?

She's actually just an elemental who takes the form of a human woman, right?

We see what she wants us to see, Bertalda shrugged.

But if he was asking about her physical location, she was outside having the workmen seal up the fountain with a massive stone.

Holdebrand...

thanked Bertalda, wondering what was going on there.

But he thought about about her words a little bit, and yeah, you know, it was a little strange that his wife was a water elemental and not, you know, human.

He was seeing the real Undine,

wasn't he?

For Undine's part, she was having the stone put on the fountain in the center of the courtyard.

Bertolda, now plain obstructionist to all of Undine's plans, regardless of how pointless it seemed, had demanded the workmen stop, but she had no luck.

Undine was the mistress of the castle.

It was strange, though.

The water seemed to bubble in a way they had never seen before as they sealed it, as if it protested being locked away.

She wouldn't give it up, though, and complained loudly to Holdebrand, who was getting real tired of all this.

And over dinner, he asked, what was going on with that fountain?

Bertalda would just not stop going on about it.

Undine set down her fork and looked at Bertalda.

She said it was Couleborn, her uncle, obviously.

Who else would it possibly be?

He wouldn't harm Undine, even though he was a little scary, and he respected Holdebrand's role in getting her a soul enough to not harm him, but...

Undine pointed to Bertalda.

He

hates

her.

Bertalda pointed to herself.

What?

Why?

She was amazing, a 100% perfect individual.

And if anyone thought otherwise, there was obviously something wrong with them.

Haldebrand cocked an eyebrow.

Yeah, so would Culiborn actually harm her?

Undine nodded.

Oh, definitely.

He said so.

Not really his words, but he has threatened to mess her up on more than three occasions.

Okay, so Rock stays on.

Bertalda, you satisfied?

Holdebrand asked.

Bertalda, seething, replied with a nod before excusing herself from dinner.

When the married couple was alone, Undine

said since she had answered his questions, she had a request of him.

She asked that he not upbraid her by water.

If he did so, her people would see that as an affront, and something terrible could happen.

Holdebrand narrowed his eyes and sat back.

Not upbraid her?

Hm.

Just by water, though.

Undine nodded.

And I can yell at you at all other times, Holdebrand asked.

Undine said she hoped they were at the point in their relationship where they didn't do that, but

sure?

Halderbrand exhaled sharply.

He was wary of any developments in their relationship that checked his power to publicly scold his wife, but

well,

that's what you get when you marry a water elemental.

Sure, he wouldn't publicly upbraid her by a body of water.

Just then they heard a

I don't think we should be doing this from outside, and both stood and rushed out to see Bertalda

trying to get the workers to take the stone off the fountain.

What are you doing?

We talked about this, Holdebrand said, pacing back and forth.

Like it was the whole theme of dinner.

Well, that and public scolding, which I'm doing now, so I guess things came back full circle, Holdebrand threw up his hands.

And on Bertalda's part, this is clearly a cutting off your nose to spite your face sort of thing, because there is no other reason other than spite for Undine's wishes for Bertalda to try to remove that stone, as she's the most at risk from the spirits that lurk below in the water.

Bertalda ran off in tears, and they didn't hear from her for the rest of the night.

They were thankful for the break.

And when they read her note, that she was sorry to the knight for forgetting that she was just a poor fisher girl and that she was going to her father's miserable cottage where she can't commit the same fault again, so goodbye forever.

Undine was a little impressed that she managed to fit so many digs to the people that were both Undine's adoptive parents and Bertalda's biological ones.

Haldebrand, though, sent his best servants, those who hunted with him and knew the forest best, to accompany him to bring Bertalda back.

Undine was fine with that, it was fine.

She had pledged to treat Bertalda like a sister, and you don't leave your sister to die in

the Black Valley?

The servant said to Holderbrand before he galloped off, No, Holderbrand must not go to the Black Valley.

Undine leapt atop her palfrey and rode it without a saddle after her husband, hoping that it wasn't too late.

The servant asked.

Have we talked about the Black Valley at all up until I said those words?

Another shrugged.

He had no idea.

He didn't get paid enough to care about any of that stuff.

And no, we haven't heard of the Black Valley yet.

It just came up.

But I guess Undine's reaction tells us all we need to know.

We'll see what everyone finds there.

Spoiler alert, it's not great.

But that will, once again, be read after this.

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Get you gone, get you gone.

Hold a brand heard.

There are evil spirits abroad.

Get you gone, or I shall seize you and hold you fast.

The figure, clothed in white with his long, bony arms, waved at the knight.

That's a verbatim quote from the original, too.

Holdebrand didn't say in the original, um,

if the stranger wanted him gone, why would he hold him fast?

Wait, is that Kuliborn?

The figure stuck out his lower lip.

No.

Yeah, it is.

All right, it is.

But I warned her, this Bertalda, by proxy, I warned her that I would mess her up.

Holderbrand had found Bertalda.

In the shadows of the fir trees in the black valley, she wasn't moving.

The white figure had formed in front of him, and he rushed to her aid.

Holderbrand swung his sword, and Kuliborn hissed before turning to droplets and falling to the ground.

Bertalda shall not be left to the vengeance of this evil water spirit He scooped up Bertalda and ran for his horse.

When he made it to his horse, though, the Gelding wouldn't let him up not when he had Bertalda in his arms, at least.

So they would walk.

Leave me, leave me, noble knight Bertalda cried out, not at all melodramatic.

Leave me, sir knight, to the punishment I so deserve swoon.

The swooning made carrying her more difficult, but Sir Haldebrand put up with it.

They made it about a quarter of the way out of the forest, with the day quickly seeding to the night, when they found a man wearing a white hood, driving a cart.

Ah, horse problems, is it?

Hmm, yes.

A water spirit dwells in this valley, and often would bewitch my own horses as I ventured yonder.

But now I've learned a little spell of my own, and yours will stand as steady as my graze.

Holdebrand breathed.

Yes, thank you, a helpful stranger who knew magic.

Nothing to be suspicious about here.

Ten minutes later, after the wanderer calmed Holdebrand's horse, they found themselves wading through a stream, water up to the horses' necks.

This is Kuliborn's doing Holdebrand clung to the wagon, while his own horse frantically started treading water behind them.

Bertalda was busy swooning in the back of the wagon.

Don't you know any spells that will counter his magic?

Oh, I do, the man laughed.

But before I say so, I should tell you my own name.

Sir Holdebrand replied that he hardly saw how that was relevant unless it was part of some big reveal.

Ho,

my boy, it surely is,

the man said as he dropped lower and lower in the waves.

For it is me,

Coolaborn.

No,

Holdebrand cried as he and Bertalda slipped under the water, lamenting that he should have seen through that stupid voice.

You're really bad at doing voices.

It's not stupid, it's cool,

the water seemed to cry out as Holdebrand's world grew dark.

The darkness, though, was short-lived, and the waters retreated.

Retreated until the stream was little more than a couple feet deep, and Holdebrand and Bertalda could stagger out.

Stagger out to see Undine on a hill overlooking the stream, hands raised, rebuking the waters.

In the moonlight, even her soul seemed to shine.

Now, you'd think that, with Holdebrand being warned not to rebuke his wife by water, and his uncle in long nearly killing him, that that last instance would be the time.

But no, after that,

They were cool.

Even Bertalda chilled out a bit.

Yes, because she was grateful to Undine, who seemed to actually care for her, but also because she saw Undine's power.

The true incident didn't come until the following spring, until it had been so long since Couleborn had shown his face that even Undine nearly forgot about him, to the point that they all decided to take a boat trip down the Danube to Vienna.

This went about as well as you'd think.

Undine fell asleep aboard the boat, and a horrifying face appeared in the water, which really scared Bertalda, and not Haldebrand.

He was shaking with rage.

He was screaming, but that was remembering something thrilling from earlier that week, it was unrelated.

What did it, what finally did it, was a hand coming from the water and reaching for Bertalda's necklace.

Bertalda shrieked and lost the necklace.

And though Undine put her hand in the water and drew the necklace back to her, presenting it to Bertalda, It wasn't enough.

It wasn't enough to placate Holdebrand.

He snatched the necklace and threw it back in the water.

Undine told him to be careful, please.

Holdebrand said no, they had been careful.

He had to board up the fountain.

They couldn't travel by water.

This was the 1700s.

They had so few other options.

They lived in terror, and she was the only thing that could protect them.

No, no, he was finished with this, and he was finished with her.

Quote, go and abide with your kindred.

You are a witch.

Go, dwell with those who are as you are, and take with you your gifts.

Go, trouble us no more.

Tears fell from Undine's eyes as she stepped toward the water.

She said she would do as he said.

She would leave to protect him from the wrath of her people, but know that while she had power, she would always shield him from evil.

With that, the Danube rose behind her and consumed Undine.

Holdbrand and Bertalda were left alone in the boat.

The fisherman, Bertalda's father, arrived at the castle in the forest.

Hey, Holdbrand, he said when he finally finally was able to get an audience with his son-in-law.

He had come to take Bertalda home.

Undine had come by their house a few months ago and told him about what happened.

It was untoward in this time period for Bertalda to live here alone with a man to whom she was not married.

Haldebrand laughed nervously.

Um

about

that?

The fisherman groaned.

Oh, Haldebrand.

And yeah, seeing as Undine had left and been gone for months, and there was some latent mutual attraction between Bertalda and Holdebrand, it was only a matter of time.

And after not nearly the appropriate amount of time had passed, they decided that they loved each other, and they wanted to marry.

The fisherman was not happy about it for Undine's sake.

For Bertalda's sake, to once again be back in the nobility, well, he would eventually accept it.

The priest, though, Father Heilmann, the same one who married Holdbrand and Undeen, the one who randomly showed up after Holdebrand and Bertalda announced their intention to wed, would not accept it, though.

Not only was this straight-up polygamy, but what did that say about the love between Undine and Holdebrand if he was ready to give up on her so easily?

Did he like try apologizing to a lake or something, seeing if someone would relay the message?

Holdebrand said that it was his right as a husband to publicly shame his wife, whether it was deserved or not.

Father Heilman would not argue that point, but maybe there was room for some grace, some forgiveness, for love.

Additionally, he did have a dream where Undine visited him and said that Holdebrand needed to reconcile, not for her sake alone, but because if he didn't and he remarried, her people would take it as a grievous insult and he he would never be safe again.

Yeah,

no, Holdebrand said.

If Undeem wanted to reconcile, she could come apologize for being so shameworthy.

But he didn't see that happening, so he was moving on.

He deserved to be happy.

Also, this is medieval Europe.

There are priests all over the place.

Get out.

And there were priests all over the place, and it was easy to find someone who would do what he wanted.

After he gave generously to the local monastery, a priest arrived a few days later to marry them.

When the day of the wedding arrived, Bertalda was

she was in a funk.

She had all Undine's old jewels arrayed before her.

She had all of her servants praise her with both prepared verbatim phrases and scriptist stuff they were encouraged to have fun with and make it their own.

But then, one of the servants commented on her freckles.

But she backtracked, saying they made her skin look all the more radiant by contrast.

Bertalda's freckles bugged her though, and she knew, she knew, if she had the water from the fountain in the middle of the courtyard, she could get rid of them, despite that not being how water, fountains, or freckles worked.

But she could not be reasoned with.

She had to get rid of those freckles.

The workmen, who had so much else to do, spent the morning chipping away at the stones sealing the top of the fountain.

But it wasn't until nightfall, until after the wedding, that they managed to get it loose, though they had no idea how they were going to be able to lift it.

It turned out, they didn't need to.

The stone lifted on a massive, rising column of water before tipping off to the side and cracking the paving stones.

Tall, pale, humanoid figure hovered in the air above the surface of the water.

She touched down, and she, well,

she was weeping, weeping and wringing her hands.

She was walking toward the castle.

It was Undine.

Holdbrand's tears fell.

Undine's tears fell.

He said he was sorry, and he was.

Upon seeing her face, all the pettiness, all the anger, it melted.

It was only her.

It would only ever be her that he would love.

And they could have something different.

They could be something different.

He took her into his arms, but she wouldn't stop weeping.

He said he would strive forever to be worthy of her forgiveness.

She said that that was unnecessary.

She loved him.

She forgave him.

They kissed, but then she pulled away.

She forgave him, but her family, her people, never would.

They would come for him.

They would enslave him for decades before allowing him the torturous death that would feel kind by comparison.

This...

This was the only way.

This was the only mercy.

She kissed her husband again, and the water flowed.

A drowning is a quiet death.

He struggled in her arms, struggled as he fought against her for his life, but every time he tried to strike her, he passed through her like water.

It was only when he stopped that he was able to hold her.

There at the end, as it all went dark.

After she laid his body down on the couch, the pale figure glided back toward the fountain.

Why did Holdebrand bring a water spirit to his home?

She is worse than a mermaiden.

She is a witch, a sorceress,

Bertalda said to no one in particular in the original.

Everyone was grieving Holdebrand, and no one had time for her nonsense of blaming the dead for being murdered.

Father Heilmann was recalled to Castle Ringstedten, and a small ceremony was carried out of the local village church, where Holdebrand would be buried next to his parents and forebears in the churchyard.

Holdebrand's helmet and shield were laid in his coffin.

He had no siblings and no children, so no one else would carry his family crest.

Everyone was clad in black, save one.

A woman, in white, wept and wrung her hands, like the form that emerged from the fountain at Ringstedden.

Bertalda, being his new wife, stood before the grave alone, but the form glided noiselessly alongside her.

Bertalda gasped with a start, as the water elemental, Undine,

held out a hand.

With that, Bertalda remembered the good times.

The times when she had a friend in Holdbrand and a sister in Undine.

The times when she wasn't consumed thinking about herself and her place in the world.

Times when they were happy.

She took Undine's hand, and together, they wept.

Bertalda felt the water flow from her hand, and When the mourners wiped away their tears, they found a stream.

Bubbling crystal water, it flowed down the hill and onward toward the river that rushed past the little village church.

In the days and years to come, the villagers would tell of Undine,

the little crystal stream that surrounded and protected Haldbrand, her beloved, forever.

This has been called the perfect fairy tale by some writers.

I will leave that up to you to judge.

And there is a sadness to the end, if you don't think about it too much.

But I, well, full disclosure, I kind of added the drowning bit when it comes to Holdbrand's death.

I posted the excerpt, and for me, it's very clear that Undine is responsible.

She kissed him, and her water flowed into his heart, and it broke and he died.

It's clear that they're both very sad, and that Undine's arrival brings his death, something he ultimately accepts.

I thought this made things a bit clearer, but like I said, I posted the death scene on the website and linked the entire book if you have like an hour or two to kill.

The writer of Undine was a victim of his own success.

Undine was a hit with its broad, melodramatic, romantic notes.

And then the writer never did anything else.

I mean, he did,

but it was kind of the same romantic stuff over and over again while the world moved on.

And he was called, quote, the Don Quixote of Romanticism by his rivals.

Which,

if you want a career-defining moniker, your rivals are probably not the ones you want coining it.

Next week, we're back in the stories of the Monkey King, and Xuanzong, the Tang monk, wants to do

something.

The creature this week is Sorgas from Namibia on the continent of Africa.

I'm not much of a hunter.

I'm not anything of a hunter.

But even I understand that if you're out on a hunting trip and you see a glimmering golden ram, you take the shot.

That's what Jiri, a hunter, did when he was out and he spotted the golden ram with fluffy fur and, seeing this one-of-a-kind marvel of nature, knew that it had to be his.

He shot it with an arrow.

He wasn't one for trophies though, and only wanted a bit of meat.

So, leaving the rest of the beautiful carcass rotting out in the sun and headed for home.

As he walked, though, he realized two things.

One, he was so thirsty, and two, he was out of water, an inconvenient discovery if you're extremely thirsty.

So he stopped off for some water.

He was familiar with the concept of mirages, but knew that when you're standing above water and then the water drops down and dries up right in front of you, that's a different thing.

They didn't have a word for that.

No one does.

He crawled, parched, to a wise man, who said that beautiful ram he had shot, Sorgus, was the sun ram.

He cut off a slice of the sun and now said sun was not only drying him out, but evaporating all the water before he could drink.

There would probably be cosmic consequences too, but luckily it was still the same day.

He needed to go make things right.

And he did.

Apparently Sorgus followed grim fairy tale rules and only needed the meat replaced, for Sorgus to shine, take to the sky once again, and for all the water to reappear from the ground.

Jiri rushed to get a drink and probably brag about how he was such a great hunter, he nearly ended the world and doomed us all.

That's it for this time.

Myths and Legends is by Jason and Carissa Wiser.

Our theme song is by Broke for Free, and the Creature of the the Week music is by Steve Colms.

There are links to even more of the music we used in the show notes.

Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next time.

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