Monday, March 14, 2011

Creature Mondays

Credit for picture

The Undines are elementals of water. They look like women though they sometimes take the form of a fish or a snake. They have cold, soft skin and their beautiful voices can be heard over a rushing waterfall. They live in forest pools, lakes, and streams.

Undines can take on a completely human form to marry a human man. In some stories, they are motivated to do this to gain a human soul. They are notoriously vengeful against a human lover who betrays them. For instance, a German myth said that an "Ondine" fell in love with a knight who swore to be faithful to her with every waking breath. When she found him asleep in the arms of another woman, she cursed him so that if he ever fell asleep again, his breath would be taken from him and he would die.

4 comments:

Cherie Reich said...

I haven't heard much about the undines before. That's an awesome story about the German myth involving them.

Unknown said...

This is fascinating. I've never used Undines nor would I even know where to begin but this was a fabulous piece to give me more insight, especially if they were to ever creep into one of my novels!

Hannah said...

oooh, I need to tune in on Mondays on a regular! I love creature features. This reminds me of the Supernaturl episode I reviewed a couple of weeks ago about water spirits. LOVE!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Similar to mermaids? And I watched the recent movie Ondine, so understand the concept.