The Curse of Ondine

There once was a beautiful water nymph named Ondine who fell in love with a mortal named Sir Lawrence. If Ondine was to ever marry Sir Lawrence she would begin to loose her immortality. However, this she was willing to do and the knight vowed to love Ondine with every waking breath.

Soon Ondine was carrying the knight's child, as as the child grew so her beauty began to fade. As the beauty that attracted Sir Lawrence began to fade, so did his love.

One day while roaming the estate Ondine found Sir Lawrence asleep in the hay... with another woman. Ondine's rage was fierce and she turned Sir Lawrence's vow of love against him... He should love her with every waking breath. However, if he fell asleep he would not breathe any more. Eventually the knight fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion and thus ended his own life by his own infidelity.

This is the German myth of Ondine.

I first came across it in the last unit at school, with a obscure reference to "Ondine's Curse" listed as a respiratory disorder*, with no further explanation. Curious I "wiki-ed" it to figure out what it was and came across a much shorter explanation of its origin.

Needless to say I thought it was pretty awesome and immediately shared it with a friend that I thought would find it interesting. He did and sent back the story of King Pandu.

I thought that would be the end of the story until it came up today.... randomly at family Christmas. I cannot remember the reasoning behind it but I somehow managed to interject something about Ondine. This was met by quizzical looks and a comment that I mispronounced the name (which came from my mother referencing a totally different mythological god of some sort). Luckily I had my iPhone and could prove them all wrong... but more importantly enlighten them.

But it does not end there. I mentioned yesterday that I have been watching some old Audrey Hepburn movies. Well, today I finished off the trio by watching Sabrina, which I absolutely adored. But I like to remain in the land of make-believe longer than the movies typically last... so I went on to the special features.

For Sabrina there is a little documentary about how the film came together.

And there it was: Ondine.

Apparently right after finishing up with Sabrina, Audrey Hepburn played Ondine in the stage adaptation by Jean Giraudoux, for which she won a Tony Award.

So random how so many different threads come together into one cloth.

*Ondine's Curse is a respiratory disorder (associated with sleep), in which the person only maintains regular respirations by consciously having to remember to breathe. It is also known as congenital central hypoventilation syndrome or primary alveolar hypoventilation.