Piękna (nie)obecna, czyli Meluzyna w polskim folklorze bajkowym
The Beautiful (Un)Present: The Figure of Melusine in Polish Folk Tales

Summary/Abstract: This article seeks to answer questions concerning the presence and function of Historia o Meluzynie (the Polish translation of the French Le Roman de Mélusine), a medieval romance, in Polish folk tales and, in more general terms, Polish folk culture. One can speak only of indirect evidence of knowledge of the story, as exemplified by Meluzyna, czyli panna z śląskiego wiatru (1947) [Melusine, or a Maiden of the Silesian Wind], a literary adaptation by Stanisław Wasylewski. The author of this version refers to the studies contributed by native folklore researchers and to oral tales about this mysterious maiden, which, for him, were sources of creative inspiration. Wasylewski’s work relates to only the first part of the French romance, which perhaps indicates the actual state of knowledge of the story displayed by folk storytellers, especially as the heroine of Wasylewski’s text is connected with the element of the wind. This can be interpreted as the author’s reference to the Silesian belief in which gusts of violent wind were treated as the moans let out by the figure of the unhappy Meluzyna. It would appear that the extensive fragment of Le Roman de Mélusine concerning the fate of her sons remained beyond the scope of folklore- and literary-specific observation due to there being too much story- and composition-linked complexity.

• Details
• Contents