_The 'Morgan'._--To M. J. Cuillandre (Glanmor), President of the
_Fédération des Étudiants Bretons_, I am indebted for the following
weird legend of the _Morgan_, as it is told among the Breton fisher-folk
on the Île Molène, Finistère:--'Following a legend which I have
collected on the Île Molène, the _Morgan_ is a fairy eternally young, a
virgin seductress whose passion, never satisfied, drives her to despair.
Her place of abode is beneath the sea; there she possesses marvellous
palaces where gold and diamonds glimmer. Accompanied by other fairies,
of whom she is in some respects the queen, she rises to the surface of
the waters in the splendour of her unveiled beauty. By day she slumbers
amid the coolness of grottoes, and woe to him who troubles her sleep. By
night she lets herself be lulled by the waves in the neighbourhood of
the rocks. The sea-foam crystallizes at her touch into precious stones,
of whiteness as dazzling as that of her body. By moonlight she moans as
she combs her fair hair with a comb of fine gold, and she sings in a
harmonious voice a plaintive melody whose charm is irresistible. The
sailor who listens to it feels himself drawn toward her, without power
to break the charm which drags him onward to his destruction; the bark
is broken upon the reefs: the man is in the sea, and the _Morgan_ utters
a cry of joy. But the arms of the fairy clasp only a corpse; for at her
touch men die, and it is this which causes the despair of the amorous
and inviolate _Morgan_. She being pagan, it suffices to have been
touched by her in order to suffer the saddest fate which can be reserved
to a Christian. The unfortunate one whom she had clasped is condemned to
wander for ever in the trough of the waters, his eyes wide open, the
mark of baptism effaced from his forehead. Never will his poor remains
know the sweetness of reposing in holy ground, never will he have a tomb
where his kindred might come to pray and to weep.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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