Possession

by A.S. Byatt

“I even had a theory about water and fountains. I told you Ash’s post-1860 poetry had this elemental streak—water and stones and earth and air. He mixes up geysers from Lyell with Norse myth and Greek mythical fountains. And Yorkshire waterfalls. And I wondered about the Fountain of Thirst in Melusina.” “How?” “Well, is there an echo here? This is out of Ask to Embla. It possibly links that fountain to the one in the Song of Songs, as well. Listen: “ ‘We drank deep of the Fountain of Vaucluse And where the northern Force incessantly Stirs the still pool, were stirred. And shall those founts Which freely flowed to meet our thirsts, be sealed?’ ” Maud said “Say that again.” Roland said it again. Maud said, “Have you ever really felt your hackles rise? Because I just have. Prickles all down my spine and at the roots of my hair. You listen to this. This is what Raimondin says to Mélusine after he is told she knows he has looked at her in her marble bath and broken the prohibition: “ ‘Ah, Mélusine, I have betrayed your faith. Is there no remedy? Must we two part? Shall our hearth’s ash grow pale, and shall those founts Which freely flowed to meet our thirsts, be sealed?’ ”