UNDINE
AHOY! Below is an e-mail I got from a reader/friend yesterday. I laughed, so it’s the subject of today’s post. p.s. e-mails are always welcome (john.jannuzzi@gmail.com)
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Was just reading your textbook post on the Little Mermaid, and thought you should look at Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. It’s pretty twisted.
This water sprite girl (Undine) is raised by two old people all alone in seclusion until a knight who is scared by ghosts in the forests finds her. The knight falls in love and they get married. Cool, cause now she has a soul. Apparently she didn’t before? Hard to say. Then he takes her back to the city where the rich girl he was supposed to marry is royally pissed off and is all like bitch, I can’t believe you married some water sloot instead of me. Cat fight ensues. Well guess what? That girl is actually the two old people’s real daughter and she was switched with Undine as a baby. Woah. So she’s upset because she was super rich and now she has to go to her poor real parents and she is still single. Eff. Undine feels bad is all like no, cmon you can come with us to the castle. Mistake. Because of course the knight and the other girl totally have sex and Undine is betrayed. She ends up (for reasons I can’t quite remember) being obligated to stab the knight to death with some coral. Then she is so sad about what she did, she turns into a river that circles his grave forever.
I don’t know, I just feel like she could be wearing some pretty cool things.
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1. I’m just a poor sprite from a poor family
Skirt by Jonathan Saunders, shirt by Derek Lam, shoes by Peter Pilotto
2. Now I’m a princess, yaaay
Dress by Peter Pilotto, shoes by Gucci
3. I’ll cut a bitch
Dress by Christian Dior, shoes by Meadham Kirchoff
All images from Vogue.
