The Siren’s Bed and Breakfast

1. A Suspicious Letter

My dear friend,

I am currently staying the night at a Bed and Breakfast in Bath, England. The house is lovely, but the landlady is…dotty, to say the least. She is an incredibly lovely woman, but her mannerisms and actions are quite peculiar. There are two animals at the front of the house, a pretty little dachshund lying by the fireplace and a colourful parrot sitting in a cage. You’d think they’re real, but they’re stuffed. The landlady told me that she’d stuffed them herself. I wouldn’t have thought someone like her would be so exceptional at taxidermy, it’s a bit offputting. As soon as I rang the doorbell she sprang out at me like some sort of jack-in-the-box, like she had been waiting for me. It gave me quite a fright. Not only that but when I did ring the doorbell and enter the house, it was like I couldn’t control myself. I was watching myself do all of these things, but I didn’t exactly tell my body to do them.

There are also two names in her logbook from years ago, Gregory Temple and Christopher Mulholland. I believe they were the two boys that went missing around those same times. She said that they’re still here, on the third floor, but I haven’t seen either of them yet and, for whatever reason, she keeps describing acute details about the two. She’s even pointed some out with me. She said that she has a very particular type that she let’s stay here and that I’m that exact type.

 I’m starting to think she’s off her rocker. Her actions are really getting to me. She gives me this inviting yet uneasy feeling. All I know is that I need to leave this place as soon as I get up in the morning. It’s too late to leave now, it would be rude and I don’t think I’d be able to anyway. There is something wrong with this place.

Yours, 

Billy Weaver

2. Is ‘The Landlady a continuation of the tradition of stories about women as witches, and which teach mistrust and caution?

While I do not believe that ‘The Landlady’ is exactly a continuation of the witch storytelling tradition, I do believe that some parallels could be drawn between the events of the story and ancient folklore. Specifically, the Greek sirens.
As I assume most people are aware of, sirens are Greek mythological creatures that would lure men to their death with their supposedly beautiful singing.
Small side rant, sirens were not depicted as mermaids, contrary to popular belief. They were more similar to harpies, being half-human, half-bird. Sometimes they were depicted as birds with human heads, sometimes they were depicted as women, sometimes winged, with bird legs.
They were commonly said to have laid on the rocky coasts of the island they lived on. Their songs would entrance sailors on nearby boats and those sailors would jump off the boats and die or would cause entire ships to crash on the rocks at the coast. The Greek hero Odysseus, is one of the few people that have heard the songs of the sirens and survived. I believe the other survivor was named Butes, but don’t take my word for that. In Homer’s ‘The Odyssea,’ Odysseus had his crew members plug their ears with wax to keep them from hearing the songs. Despite his command, Odysseus was determined to hear the sirens himself, so he told the crew to tie him to the mast of the ship so he couldn’t interfere with the sailing course and crash the ship. When he heard the sirens, he was entranced and called to his crew to untie him. However, because they had wax in their ears, the crew could not hear Odysseus’s pleas, so he lived through the calls of the sirens.
We can see parallels to the mythology of the sirens in ‘The Landlady’ almost from the very start. Billy Weaver experiences a similar type of luring as the sailors that hear the sirens’ songs. He was entranced by the sign of the Bed and Breakfast, the story specifically stating, ‘BED AND BREAKFAST, it said. BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST.’ The sign openly called to him, his actions after that are implied to be out of Billy’s control. The landlady also asks Billy to enter the house and he, once again, does it without him fully considering at first.
I really don’t want to end up writing an essay and even if I did continue this I would have to bring up more mythological examples so I’m finished, for now, thank you for coming to my short TEDtalk.