La Belle Dame Sans Merci

A beautiful woman without pity

 

Henry Meynell Rheam. 

One of my favorite poems of all time, this ballad was written in 1819 by John Keats. The full text is as follows:

Sir Frank Dicksee. 1902.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads,

Dante Gabriel Rossetti.1848.

 Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

Henry Meynell Rheam. 1901.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.


There are many myths and folklore in Britain and Ireland that relate to a beautiful woman who can drain the life from a man. The Leanan sidhe (or fairy lover) is found in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. These fairies take human lovers. In exchange for their life's vitality, they serve as muses. Their lovers are inspired to create works of art, but the Leanan sidhe's presence eventually brings death.

In a similar vein, the Baobhan sith of the Scottish Highlands, are known to be literal man-eaters. Called the "White Women," these bloodsuckers would seduce young men traveling at night. They would lure them to secluded areas and then invite them to dance. Once the men were thoroughly entranced, they would puncture their necks with talons, and then suck their blood. Other versions of them involve them draining the life essence or sexual energy from their victims, quite like the leanan sidhe. They are often described as wearing white or green dresses, which brings us to our next femme fatale.

Hailing from Wales, the Glaistig is tied to a small body of water. Hiding her goat legs beneath a

Brian Froud. Fairies.

beautiful green dress, she lures men to her pond and drowns them. Some tales describe her in a benevolent light, where she watches the children of cow-herders. In some versions, she is not a fairy, but the ghost of a woman murdered while wearing a green dress. There are several tales of a ghost called the "Green Lady" that haunts castles in Scotland. Ashintully Castle in Scotland is haunted by a ghost named "Green Jean." Her tale follows the usual tradition of the Green Lady, in which she was murdered while wearing a green dress, and then had her body stuffed up a chimney. The Barony of Ladyland's Green Lady was said to be a smuggler's sweetheart who drowned herself after learning of her lover's wandering eye.

Arthur Hughes. 1861-63.

Although not one of Keats' most famous poems, by a century later, it had inspired over a dozen paintings. The paintings usually have a similar layout; most of them depict the knight laying at the fairy's feet, or their horse ride together.  Some versions also depict the "pale kings and princes" in the background, trying to warn the knight.

A common theme that runs between the poem and all these mythological figures is that of a beautiful woman that lures men to their deaths. This idea is rooted in both the historical beliefs that women were the cause of many evils, and that women, despite their traditionally low place in society, were able to exert control over men through their sexuality. Keats' poem and the brief survey of female figures in Celtic folklore are just a slice of the overall view of women worldwide.