Introduction

Marie de France’s Bisclavret tells the story of a bisclavret (werewolf), sometimes referred to simply as “Bisclavret,” whose wife betrays him. With the help of an accomplice, she hides his human clothes and subsequently trapps him in his wolf form. In his wolf form, he comes across the king, who recognizes his humble gesturing as that of a human being's. Later, when he encounters his wife again, he viciously attacks her, biting off her nose. She is exiled from the country and produces noseless children. Is Bisclavret human? Is his wife the ‘real’ wolf? In Bisclavret, humanity and bestiality are not bound by form – Bisclavret acts in ‘human’ ways, while in the form of a wolf, and his wife’s ‘bestial’ cruelty is hidden behind her human appearance. In this vein, I will argue that Bisclavret is, at his core, human, and that his humanness comes at the cost of his wife’s dehumanization, since she acts as a foil to his character. In other words, the defining of human necessitates the existence and marginalization of non-humans. This is also shown in the Map Psalter, which depicts non-normative humans at the margins of the world and in Beowulf, wherein Grendel’s mother is said to exist outside society, amongst the wolves. Overall, I argue that Bisclavret is human, but this humanity comes at the cost of his wife’s dehumanization and marginalization.