Welcome to another Tiggeriffic Trivia Tuesday! Today I am talking about Ursula’s Spell. Do you know the meaning behind those couple of lines that take away Ariel’s voice? I was listening to Ursula’s song in Disney’s The Little Mermaid 
Ursula’s Spell
In Ursula’s villain song “Poor Unfortunate Souls” she takes Ariel’s voice by convincing her that women can persuade a man to fall in love by body language only. Ariel is young and a bit naive so she easily took Ursula’s bait. At the end of Ursula’s song, she says her magic spell.
“Beluga sevruga , Come winds of the Caspian Sea, Larynx Glossitis, et max laryngitis,
– Ursula in Disney’s Little Mermaid
La voce to me”
What Does Ursula’s Spell Mean?
One thing I know about Disney is that there is a bit of truth in everything they do. Songwriters didn’t just string a bunch of words together, there is meaning behind them.
♫Beluga Sevruga, Come winds of the Caspian Sea♫ -one of the highest priced varieties of caviar, eclipsed in cost only by the Beluga and Ossetra varieties. It is harvested from the Sevruga sturgeon, native to the Caspian Sea.
Why Ursula mentions caviar is beyond me. According to Disney Wikia, Atlantica is in the North Atlantic Ocean near Denmark. Maybe Ursula was summoning special powers from the Caspian Sea considering it is not all that close to Atlantica.
♫Larynx♫ – the part of the respiratory tract between the pharynx and the trachea
♫Glossitis♫ – is a condition in which the tongue is swollen and changes color, often making the surface of the tongue appear smooth.
Ariel’s tongue doesn’t appear to become swollen, but it does start to glow. I also think there was a little bit of pain because Ariel surely doesn’t look comfortable. We women, sure go through a lot to get the man of our dreams, lol.
♫Et max laryngitis♫ – Et is the French equivalent of “and”. So it means to say, ‘And max laryngitis’ with laryngitis being an inflammation of the larynx which results in people losing their voice.
♫La voce to me♫ – basically in Italian is, “Give me the voice”
So now you know a little more about the words Ursula uttered. Good thing Ariel and her friends were able to break her silly curse!
Looking for more Disney Movie Trivia?
Sean McMullen
Monday 28th of June 2021
Just finished watching the Halloween episode of Bewitched from the third season. Endora has forgotten the caviar at the Halloween party and invokes an incantation that begins beluga beluga come winds of the Caspian Sea. Apparently Howard Ashman was a fan of the show and this was a nod to endora.
Zac
Saturday 4th of January 2020
I just thought I'd let you know that at a special screening of the little mermaid Ron Clements and John Musker talked about the curse. Sevruga is supposed to should like latin and rhyme with beluga it's Ursula's word for sever. Ariel's tongue doesn't look swolen because one of her ingredients in the spell is a swolen tongue which is in reference to the original Hans Christian Anderson story where the sea witch severs the tongue from the mermaids mouth. Also, that type of caviar comes from a rare albino Beluga whale and ariel is a mermaid so she's half mamal, so Ursula is referencing Ariel's skin tone and talking about severing her tail into two.
April
Saturday 4th of January 2020
Wow, the Anderson versions are so gory, lol! Thank you so much for sharing, what a special opportunity that screening was!
Daniel Price
Thursday 28th of February 2019
La voce is actually italian, not spanish!
April
Friday 1st of March 2019
Thank you I will correct that. I got most of my research through the Disney wiki but they can be wrong. :)
Kimberly @Frontierland Station
Tuesday 4th of March 2014
Great trivia! I've actually wondered what Beluga Sevruga meant.
Heidi Strawser
Tuesday 4th of March 2014
I never really thought about what the meaning of these phrases might be. Great trivia this week.