Introduction

Introduction

In Marie de France’s Bisclavret, a beloved Lord disappears for several days each week. When his wife asks him to tell her where he goes, he informs her that he becomes a werewolf in the forest. Lines 63-88 of the poem describe how the Lord tells his Lady that when he has transforms into a wolf, the only way he can return to his human form is by putting his clothes back on. His wife harasses him to tell her where he keeps his clothes, and he eventually tells her he keeps them under a bush near a church. In this poem, the clothes come to represent the werewolf’s humanity, which he must literally cast off to transform. A manuscript from 1223, created by Gerald of Wales, a historian, contains a small miniature which depicts a priest blessing a dying female wolf as her male partner looks on. This miniature taps into one of the central themes of Bisclavret, which is, essentially, what makes us human? Even if our outward appearance is monstrous, is it our souls that make us who, and what, we are?

“Dame, I become a bisclavret.

In the great forest I’m afoot,

In deepest woods, near thickest trees,

And live on prey I track and seize.”

When he had told the whole affair,

She persevered: she asked him where

His clothes were; was he naked there?

“Lady,” he said, “I go all bare.”

“Tell me, for God’s sake, where you put

Your clothes!”

“Oh, I’ll not tell you that:

I would be lost, you must believe,

If it were seen just how I live.

Bisclavret would I be, forever;

Never could I be helped then, never,

Till I got back my clothes, my own;

That’s why their cache must not be known.”

“Sire,” said his lady in reply,

“more than all earth I love you, Why

Hide, why have secrets in your life?

Why, why mistrust your own dear wife?

That does not seem a loving thought.

What have I done? What sin, what fault

Has caused your fear, in any way?

You must be fair! You have to say!”

So she harassed and harried him

So much, he finally gave in." (Marie de France 63-88).