Dune of Amber

"Eglė lived by the sea, and one day while bathing, a golden ring fell from the sky. She put it on, and the sea turned dark; the wind howled, and from the waves rose a magnificent, emerald-scaled serpent, her husband. He took her to his underwater kingdom, where they lived happily, bearing three sons and a daughter. But Eglė longed for her parents. Her brothers, envious of her rich, foreign husband, found the serpent's hidden skin, and when he returned to the world of humans to visit, they burned his skin, binding him to the sea forever. Eglė, heartbroken, became a pine tree on the shore, her children ever near, whispering her eternal sorrow to the waves."