Fairy tales often give an unsatisfying ending, or unfulfilling ending which disappoints me. Whether it be a punishment, a justified ending, or bad ending, I just wished the main characters received karma for their actions by the end of the tale. Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, gave me a satisfying ending and the main characters received karma through their actions. It is a fairy tale about a water spirit’s tragic life as she marries an unfaithful human husband.  

At first, I felt that the first half of the story was great as I could tell that Undine was a lively and lovely water spirit and that the knight, Huldbrand had a deep affection for her, as he desperately searched for her when she went missing. They had their moments together as I listened to them exchanging stories about themselves in the woods. The other half of the story was cliché, but I was still pleased with the ending it provided. Their affection for each other remained stable until Undine invited Bertalda to live with them. Bertalda became the third wheeler in their relationship. Her appearance, attitude, and verbal actions have made Undine’s married life depressing; she acts spoiled and selfish within their estate. Even though it was Undine that invited Bertalda to live with them because she cares deeply about Bertalda, her husband, Huldbrand holds an interpersonal affection towards Bertalda.  

Undine was following her father, the sea prince’s wish to marry a mortal human being. Undine’s marriage was meant for her to obtain a soul from her loved one as she is only an element; a water spirit. In the audiobook it is explained that elements hold great power within the world, but this is also a double edge sword as they can be overwhelmed by the power, crumble along with it, and die like nature. Gaining a soul will prevent that, but it will also bestow the beholder human emotions. Undine even shared her mythical stories of the sea and her origins with Huldbrand when they first met, back then Huldbrand just thought that she had an excessive imagination. However, as time went on, Huldbrand spends time with Bertalda, he begins to hold suspicion against Undine, as she is not a mortal herself unlike Bertalda.  

Huldbrand also becomes angry and short-tempered as his interpersonal affection grew for Bertalda and his suspicion of Undine. Even to unleash that anger towards Undine during their boat ride on the lake. This caused Undine to be captured and imprisoned by her family underseas as they thought he was threatening Undine. Even though Huldbrand soon regretted such a tragedy and gravely misses Undine, he still has the audacity to marry Bertalda. That’s just being plain unfaithful to his wife Undine, whom he had previously married. They don’t even know if Undine is dead or not, but still plan to marry. Since Huldbrand is already married to Undine, she has control over his life as he is married to an element, and he is also bonded to the laws of the elements. If he is unfaithful to Undine, she has the power to take his life away. In the end Undine took his life and became depressed knowing that she had killed her loved one. She even left a spring around the knight’s grave for future villagers to show them her everlasting love for the knight.

This story may have a bad ending as Undine took away her loved one’s life, but he deserved it, Bertalda also received karma for her actions as well, she not only became a widow, but she is also the culprit for Huldbrand’s death. She opened the gate for Undine to come back and take her groom’s life. As selfish and spoiled as she was, she was unsatisfied with her beauty, she despised the freckles on the side of her neck. She relied on their estate’s fountain water to nourish the beauty of her skin. So, when the fountain was closed, she reopened it, leading to the tragedy to fall upon herself. Her schemes went down the drain as she was the one that turned herself into a widow. The ending to this tale really pleased me as the storyline and plot was written really well.  

Hi, I’m Emily Chow and I have a deep passion for fantasy. My passion for fantasy started when I stumbled upon the dark side of Fairy tales and since then I have never been able to crawl out of it, but this opened me up to the vast world of fantasy and imagination. I daydream a lot thinking about fairytales, how each fantasy genre and sub-genre has their own unique charms. I even go as far as to reflect upon the philosophy and morality subjected around the characters within the genre. This is how I got into the world of fantasy.