{ history }

[sylfiden]

Do not cry! You whom I have loved so dearly, I was blissful at your tenderness, but I could not belong to you, could not bestow upon you the happiness you desired. I must die! Take here your engagement ring, hurry, bring it back; you can still marry her, the one you loved before me. Farewell! I die in hope of your future happiness...
- La Sylphide, August Bournonville, 1836. Page 15, l. 17 - 22.

The story of James’ sylph goes like this: James was getting married to Effy, his fiancee. On the morning of his wedding, however, a sylph who had watched him for such a long time and loved him since she first laid eyes on him visited him in his house, finding him sleeping in an armchair. In his sleep, he looked so handsome that she couldn’t help herself; she simply had to kiss him. At her kiss, he woke up and saw her. Enthralled by her presence, he asked her why she was there, but she didn’t answer. Didn't dare. Instead she fled the scene and left him to wonder whether she had been just a dream. Nevertheless, James’ sylph couldn’t stay away. After having watched him with Effy from afar, observing their mortal happiness, she came to him once again when he found himself alone for a spell. Crying, she told him the truth - that she had loved him forever, that her very heart was ceasing to beat in her chest at the thought of him marrying someone else. However great her allure and however heartfelt her pleas, he wouldn’t come with her out into the woods. She had to retreat again, without success. Watching them dance, James and Effy, James’ sylph decided to appear before him one last time. When everyone was preoccupied with wedding preparations, she kneeled before him. Threw down his hat before his feet, spread out her arms and bared herself entirely to his will. And he came! When she turned to leave, he followed. Left everyone behind, but not her. Oh, once in the forest, they danced. They ate of its bounty, drank only the clearest of its water. They played hide-and-seek and when he found her, he brought a gift with him. A scarf, pink in the brightness of the daylight – a gift that she didn’t know was from the witch originally. From old Madge. So she knelt down before him again when he asked it of her and he wrapped the scarf around her shoulders, so tightly, so tight. That her wings fell right off. He killed her, James. James’ sylph. He killed her.