The Sarmatian Language: A Key to Selene’s Lost Past

What Is the Sarmatian Language?

In Bewitched, the Sarmatian language is an ancient tongue that Selene Bowers instinctively understands and speaks, despite having no conscious memory of ever learning it. Created by Laura Thalassa from surviving linguistic sounds of real Sarmatian and Scythian cultures, the language functions as a hidden bridge between Selene’s modern identity and her former life as Roxilana, the queen of Sarmatia. The author’s note confirms that Thalassa built the fictional language using common sounds found in surviving words, since the historical Sarmatians left no written records. This constructed tongue becomes a powerful symbol of buried memory, inherited identity, and the inescapable pull of a past life.

The first explicit encounter occurs when Selene explores Memnon’s crypt in Chapter 6. She reads an inscription that looks like the Latin alphabet yet is not Latin, and she realizes she can decipher it effortlessly. She speaks the line aloud: “bind fast within. Keep safe for all eternity,” feeling the language make her “blood sing.” Later, in Chapter 13, Selene confronts Memnon in the forest and involuntarily answers him in the same tongue, crying “Let me go” in Sarmatian without meaning to. The language emerges from a deep, inaccessible part of her psyche—a remnant of Roxilana that amnesia cannot erase.

Where and How the Language Recurs

The Sarmatian language appears in multiple contexts throughout the novel:

• Inscriptions and spells: The walls of Memnon’s crypt are carved with Sarmatian text, including warnings (e.g., “For the love of your gods, beware of me”) and binding spells meant to imprison him. Selene’s touch releases the spells, suggesting the language is not only known but also magically potent.
• Spoken dialogue between Selene and Memnon: Their confrontations often shift into Sarmatian. Memnon demands she “speak to me in our tongue,” and Selene complies despite herself. This involuntary code-switching underscores the soul bond that transcends her memory loss.
• Memory fragments: In dreams and during memory restoration (Chapter 46), Selene recalls whole conversations in Sarmatian from her life as Roxilana. The language becomes the medium of lost intimacy and shared history.
• Magical invocations: Selene’s spellcasting in Chapter 16 is tinged with ancient power words; she instinctively corrects her instructor’s pronunciation of Egyptian hieroglyphs, showing that her knowledge of dead languages is a direct consequence of her Sarmatian connection.

As the story progresses, the language’s meaning evolves. Initially a mysterious, almost pleasant discovery, it becomes a source of terror when Memnon uses it to accuse and threaten Selene. By the time Selene regains her memories, the language is associated with both love and betrayal, carrying the weight of a curse she herself cast.

Character Connections through the Language

Selene Bowers / Roxilana

For Selene, the Sarmatian language is the most tangible proof of her reincarnated identity. She does not learn it; she remembers it, even though her conscious mind has no access to the memories. The language bypasses her memory loss and reveals the soul underneath. In Chapter 34, when Memnon recounts how Roxilana called out to him as a child, he notes she spoke a language he initially did not know—the Sarmatian that later became their shared tongue. Selene’s effortless use of the language confirms what her journals and physical marks suggest: she is Roxilana reborn.

Memnon

For Memnon, the Sarmatian language is the last thread connecting him to his lost wife and kingdom. He speaks it with Selene as a way of asserting their bond and forcing recognition. He calls her “est amage” (my queen) and “Roxilana,” using the language to project a past she cannot yet see. His insistence that she speak “in our tongue” reveals his desperation to restore what was destroyed. The language also carries the curse of damnatio memoriae—the Roman term for condemning a person to oblivion. Memnon explains in Chapter 37 that Selene’s curse erased him from history, and lifting that curse would restore both her memories and his legacy.

Secondary Characters

Nero, Selene’s familiar, appears indifferent to the language, but other witches at Henbane Coven show wariness when Selene displays her knowledge. In Chapter 16, her instructor Mistress Bellafonte is disturbed by Selene’s flawless recitation of Egyptian, a skill derived from her deeper Sarmatian connection. The language isolates Selene, marking her as different and tied to something older and darker than the modern coven.

Thematic Layers of the Sarmatian Language

Memory and Identity

The language embodies the central tension between Selene’s chosen identity (the ambitious witch who accepts her memory-loss disease as a shaping force) and the identity imposed by her past (Roxilana, betrayer and queen). The language is the key that unlocks the locked memories Memnon offers to restore. Yet Selene refuses that restoration in Chapter 37, declaring, “I am kinder, cleverer, and more authentic because of my memory loss. Not despite it.” The language thus becomes a symbol of what is lost and what is rejected—a map to a past she does not want to reclaim.

Soul Mates and Unbreakable Bonds

The Sarmatian language is the means by which the soul bond between Selene and Memnon operates. They share a telepathic connection—demonstrated in Chapter 24 when Memnon answers Selene’s unspoken question—and the language is the “frequency” of that bond. Even when Selene fights the label “Roxilana,” her tongue betrays her. The involuntary use of Sarmatian shows that the bond is not a choice; it is inscribed on her soul as deeply as the language is inscribed on her memory.

Dark Magic and Consequence

The language is inextricably tied to the curse that binds Memnon. The spells in the crypt are written in Sarmatian, and Selene’s act of unsealing him (by touching the inscriptions) activates the language’s power. The Law of Three, stated in the prologue poem, warns that magic cast with ill intent returns threefold. The Sarmatian language carries the weight of that law: it was the vehicle for Roxilana’s curse, and it will be the vehicle for its undoing. Every word Selene speaks in that tongue has consequences, reminding her that magic— especially ancient, cursed magic—always demands payment.

Revenge and Justice

Memnon uses the Sarmatian language to demand revenge for his imprisonment. He threatens Selene in rolling, guttural Sarmatian, and the language makes his accusations feel primal and inevitable. The language is the voice of history’s injustices, and Selene is both the perpetrator (as Roxilana) and the innocent inheritor (as Selene). The struggle over whose story the language tells—Memnon’s wrongs or Roxilana’s reasons—mirrors the broader conflicts of revenge versus understanding.

Sacrifice and Protection

The protective spells on the crypt were written in Sarmatian, designed to keep Memnon trapped. The language thus reflects Roxilana’s sacrifice: she used her own tongue to imprison the man she loved, believing she was protecting the world (and perhaps herself) from him. When Selene later refuses to restore her memories, she is echoing that original act of self-sacrifice—choosing the safety of ignorance over the dangerous truth.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Selene instinctively speak Sarmatian even when she has no memory of learning it?
   Answer: Selene is the reincarnation of Roxilana, the Sarmatian queen who spoke the language fluently. Her soul retains linguistic knowledge even though her conscious memories are blocked by the memory-eating disease and the curse of damnatio memoriae. The involuntary speech reveals that the soul bond between Selene and Memnon operates at a pre-conscious level, bypassing her amnesia.

2. How does the Sarmatian language contribute to the theme of identity in Bewitched?
   Answer: The language represents the split between Selene’s present identity (the modern witch shaped by loss) and her past identity (Roxilana, the queen and betrayer). Selene’s ability to speak Sarmatian contradicts her insistence that she is not Roxilana, forcing her—and the reader—to confront that identity is not solely a matter of memory. The language suggests that true identity persists beneath amnesia and even deliberate rejection.

3. In what ways does the Sarmatian language act as a symbol of the soul bond between Selene and Memnon?
   Answer: The language is the medium of their telepathic connection, as seen when Memnon answers questions Selene hasn’t asked aloud. It also serves as a test of their bond: when Selene refuses to speak it, Memnon becomes angry, seeing her English use as a denial of their shared history. The language is the “secret code” of their eternal pairing, functioning even when their emotions are hostile.

4. Why might Selene resist reclaiming her Sarmatian-speaking past even though it would restore her memories?
   Answer: Selene fears that regaining her memories would erase the person she has become—a person who has grown stronger, kinder, and more resilient because of her memory loss. In Chapter 37, she explicitly states that her ambition and optimism were “borne and shaped” by forgetting. The Sarmatian language, as the key to the curse, threatens to undo that growth. Resisting the language is an act of self-preservation and a declaration that her present identity is valid and worthy.

Conclusion

The Sarmatian language in Bewitched is far more than a linguistic flourish. It is a living artifact of a lost civilization, a thread connecting two souls across millennia, and a symbol of the deep, unresolved tension between who Selene was and who she chooses to be. Thalassa’s careful construction of the language—grounded in real historical sounds—makes it feel both authentic and magical. For readers tracking the themes of memory, identity, and dark consequence, the Sarmatian language provides a concrete, recurring touchstone for the novel’s most profound questions.

For further exploration, visit the main book page, or dive into related themes such as memory and identity, soul mates and unbreakable bonds, dark magic and consequence, revenge and justice, and sacrifice and protection. You may also read more about the central characters: Selene Bowers, Memnon, Nero, Sybil, Kane Halloway, and Constance Sternfallow.