The Ghost Ship and the Wounded Bird: Lucia di Lammermoor

‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ got the young boys in the class of Met Opera educator, Dr Emily Saenz, singing ‘The Ghost Ship’ – a sea shanty by Don Besig and Nancy Price. Here is the refrain – ‘And the cold wind blew…..’.

The winds that blew over Lammermoor were indeed cold on the forehead of Edgar, the Master of Ravenswood, protagonist of Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘Bride of Lammermoor’. A dashing gentleman, Ravenswood, fierce, alone in the world, temporarily overshadowed by family misfortune, yet with all his life ahead of him. Time and the political fortunes have brought his old and noble family to its knees and Ravenswood swears vengeance on those who displaced them. Instead, he falls in love with Lucy, the daughter of his family’s enemy.

Ravenswood now wants to reconcile, and the reader may fully expect him to be lucky, especially as the politics in London turn is his favour. Yet, this young man appears to be the ghost ship of that sea shanty, rudderless in the wild ocean. Where did those winds arise, to drive him into the darkness?

In a minor but significant point, the novel deviates from the opera – here, Lucy Ashton’s family is wealthy. Unlike the opera, in which her brother Enrico is driven to make a profit by her marriage, this family is under no such compulsion. In fact, the opposite is true: the change in London politics ensured that Lucy’s alliance to Edgar Ravenswood would have reconciled a powerful enemy and saved a large portion of their fortune.

However, Lucy’s mother (and not her brother Enrico) turns into her implacable enemy. Lady Ashton guards her night and day, steals her correspondence, surrounds her with malignant company that tells her of Ravenswood’s supposed infidelity and finally gets her to agree to marry Bucklaw, the man of her mother’s choice. And Lady Ashton exerts this control even when she sees her daughter pining away into sickness.  

In that moment when Lucy, in the presence of her family and the priest, is signing the papers that would legally bind her to Bucklaw, Ravenswood enters. Shutting out the ensuing storm, he simply asks her if THIS is what she wants.

This is Lucy’s cue. After weeks of persecution, all she needs to do now is stand up and tell Ravenswood ‘No, this is not what I want. Please take me away.’ And she needs to look Bucklaw in the eye and tell him ‘Mr Bucklaw, I consented to this marriage because of my mother’s coercion, but, as you see, I love another.’ After such a declaration, Bucklaw could hardly agree to Lady Ashton’s plans. And surely it would be a simple matter for Ravenswood to find a way to rescue her.

Lucy does none of this. She simply looks around vaguely, saying nothing. Stepping in, Lady Ashton quickly points out that of course this is what Lucy wants - does he not see that she has signed the papers? Ravenswood has to admit the truth of this. Disappointment makes him harsh. He commends Lucy to God’s forgiveness (but not his own) and departs.

The storm that tossed the Ghost ship now dashes Lucy like a wounded bird against the cliffs. On the night of her wedding, she tips over the edge of insanity. And in Scott’s novel, her ‘bonny bridegroom’ does not die by her insane hand, but survives her poniard stab to be a softened man. In fact, the author grants a happy ending to every other character but Lucy and Ravenswood, including Lady Ashton herself, who lived to a ripe old age, imperious to the last.

We come full circle to that question – whence arose the winds that raged across Lammermoor, pounding the two lives that were tossed into the encircling ocean? I believe that same ferocious wind drives Lucy's mother herself - for she is certainly not guided by her own interests. To me it appeared that the winds that battered the Ghost Ship were the superstitious legends of the wild moor. These superstitions are woven all through the story, in keeping with the stern landscape. They remind me of the legendary hound that had once been the nemesis of the Baskervilles. 

The hound of the Baskervilles was controlled by an avaricious human hand. In Scott’s novel, however, Ravenswood’s fate could be traced to a mysterious woman, who held assignations with an ancient Lord of Ravenswood at a fountain in his park. Despite her request to end each meeting before a certain hour at dusk, this man’s curiosity drove him to trick and delay her at the fountain. When she realized she had crossed the hour, she vanished mournfully into the waters, forever.  Superstition then held that approaching this fountain would be fatal to all Ravenswood descendants thereafter.

At this very fountain, Edgar Ravenswood had first met Lucy. And omen followed omen.

One day, a storm on the moors drove Lucy and her father (now living in Ravenswood’s ancient family property) to his new home in Wolf's Crag. Inside, when Ravenswood’s hand first touched hers in friendship, they were startled by a burst of lightning and thunder that shook the structure to its foundations. It was as though the founder of the fortress was expressing his displeasure at their reconciliation.

Ravenswood’s sole dependant, Caleb, now contributed the next sign. In the moment when his master was about to leave home to visit Lucy and her father at Ravenswood Park, he remembered the following prophecy:

“When the last Laird of Ravenswood to Ravenswood shall ride,
And woo a dead maiden to be his bride,
He shall stable his steed in the Kelpie’s flow,
And his name shall be lost for evermoe!”

Ravenswood, impatient to return to Lucy, asked Caleb why anyone would want to stable a steed in the 'Kelpie's flow', the quicksands near Wolf's Crag. Also, he declared that he was not going to Ravenswood Castle to woo a bride, dead or alive. He then led Lucy’s horse by the bridle through the rocky paths, in one of the happiest moments of their love.

 They promised themselves to each other at that same fountain in the grounds, where a deceived creature had once disappeared. And in that moment appeared omen number three. A curious raven, gazing at the couple as if turned to stone, was shot by Lucy’s young brother and fell dead at Ravenswood’s feet. Magic was brewing, as dark as the dead bird.

Spurned by Lucy’s mother, Edgar was was leaving Ravenswood Park, when he experienced the climactic omen. As he rode through the woods, his horse stood still, gripped by a strange terror, and he spied, at that very fountain, a female figure that he first took to be Lucy herself. As he came close, the figure turned and raised a hand to stop him. It was not Lucy, but an old retainer of the Ravenswoods who still lived in the Park and was known as Alice. She did not speak, but her lips moved wordlessly as she gazed at him. With her face still turned towards him, she seemed to glide, not walk, backwards to disappear into the thicket.

Her appearance was so strange that Ravenswood rode towards Alice’s home. He learned that she had died just a moment ago, desiring till the end to speak to him. Her messenger had not reached him in time.

A few more delightful prophecies followed. The first was by the sexton who buried Alice and saw death on Ravenswood’s forehead. The other was made by an old lady on the day Lucy was married to Bucklaw. She foresaw that the bride of Lammermoor was soon for the grave.

After Lucy’s death, Ravenswood was challenged to a duel by her brother. In his impatience to reach the rendezvous, he and his horse fell into the same quicksands of Kelpie, of which he had been warned.

This is the tale of the ghost ship and the wounded bird, shrouded in the wool-white fog of the moors. While Ravenswood’s love was not meant to be, it also seemed that it was MEANT not to be. In the author’s own words, ‘This could not be called a Scottish story unless it manifested a tinge of Scottish superstition.’ 

Acknowledgements: I thank Tithiparna Sengupta for the painting of the ghost ship. I am indebted to the Met Opera Education for sharing content from Dr. Emily Saenz. I am ever indebted to Sir Walter Scott, for providing many hours of escape from real life.