Introduction
"When Bisclavret saw her entrance,
No man could have held him back;
He ran like mad to the attack--
Listen now to his fine vengeance:
He tore her nose right off her face.
Could anything be worse than this is?
Now they surround him in that place,
They're ready to cut him in pieces,
When a wise fellow tells the King,
"My Lord," he says, "Hear what I say:
It's with you this beast's been living
And every one of us here today
Has watched him a long time; beside
Him we've traveled far and wide.
He's never before hurt anyone,
Or shown a criminal disposition,
Except to this lady you see here.
By the faith I owe you, it's clear
He holds some grudge or other
Against her and her lord together.
This is the wife of that knight who
Used to be so dear to you,
Who was lost such a long time ago;
What happened to him, we don't know"
(Bisclavret, J. Shoaf, 1996)
The passage selected is from Bisclavret, a lai written by Marie de France during the late 12th century. The lai is about a lord, described as a handsome knight loved by his king and neighbours, and who had a wife who loved him and whom he loved. However, he had a secret, he turned into a werewolf, or a Bisclavret, when he took all his clothes off. After some persuasion, he revealed this to his wife who then betrayed him with another man and left him stranded in the forest as a wolf. One day, the king found him and the Bisclavret followed him and lived in the palace, without ever harming anyone. This changed one day when his wife’s new husband shows up at court and later when his wife shows up at court. This is where the passage picks up the story, it describes when a wise man comes to the Bisclavret’s rescue and reveals his real identity. The king helps the Bisclavret transform back into a human and his wife is banished. The artifact is a parchment codex found in a copy of John Lydgate’s Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund. It is dated between 1461 - 1475. On the parchment, is a depiction of the discovery of St Edmund’s head, which a wolf is guarding. This can be related to the passage as, the bisclavret is someone with a very gentle temperament and is often protective of the King, except for the time he attacked his ex-wife and her husband.