Conclusion

Nicole Eddy, in a British Library blog post about dogs during the medieval period, said that wolves were the more wild and threatening counterpart to the dog. If the dog was known for loyalty, the wolf was known for greed. Dogs protected the flock, and wolves ran away with the sheep (Eddy, "Nothin' but a Hound Dog.”). This exhibit brings together two manuscripts and a painted shield, all of which relate to a tradition that Marie de France's Bisclavret interacts with, as well as disrupts.In her tale, Marie's werewolf figure is not greedy, but rather, universally well-liked, so much so that Bisclavret manages to win over the affections of the king and his court while in wolf form.Instead, the greedy character is his beautiful wife. Typically, female monsters had some physical signed that marked them as different, but like the sphinx, Bisclavret's wife's combination of sexuality and intellect is what makes her a threat. Her superficial beauty conceals the danger. By the end of the tale, the unnamed wife becomes physically marked as a result of her terrible behaviour. Bisclavret bites off her nose, and Marie writes that each of her children was subsequently "born without a nose." Marie also makes the distinction that her children are female or at least the ones born without a nose (Gilbert 305) In effect, the wife and her bloodline finally join the traditional female monster canon, and Bisclavret continues to defy medieval expectations. By closing the story with the wife being disgraced and banished from the community, Marie turns the wife into a wolf, at least in Norman terms.