Melion and Biclarel - University of Liverpool

Two Old French Werwolf Lays
intervention of another character by means of magic; these Smith designates as
‘involuntary’ (p. 5) and Ménard as ‘faux’ (p. 213). Yet, as Suard states, the act or
fact of transformation ‘ne suffit … pas à définir le garou’ (‘Bisclauret et les
contes du loup-garou’, p. 268): the basis of the distinction between them is
behavioural. The ‘voluntary’ werwolf displays ‘bestial ferocity’, being ‘the most
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horrible, the most dangerous of all such creatures’ (Smith, p. 4), a trait which
is not seen in the general behaviour at court of the lays’ werwolves; conversely,
the ‘involuntary’ werwolf is ‘kindhearted’ and ‘beneficent’ (Smith, p. 5). 43
Bisclavret is not the sole example of bestial metamorphosis among the Lais
of Marie de France. The duplication of the motif sharpens the distinction between
magical and inborn metamorphosis, for where the hawk-lover of Yonec
manipulates his transformations into bird form by the employment of magic, 44
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Bisclavret has no control over his metamorphoses. Smith’s use of ‘voluntary’
as an exact term is thus subverted, and the critic’s apparent recognition that the
behaviour of Marie’s werwolf does not conform to the explanation of the type
further undermines the definition of the class: ‘Exceptional is the fact that, in this
case, the author takes the part of the werwolf … We must suppose … that she
looks upon the Bisclavret’s transformations as an unfortunate necessity which
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43
Compare Marie de France’s description of the generic werwolf (Bisclavret, vv. 5-12).
Smith’s assessment of the ‘involuntary’ class is founded primarily on an analysis of the
werwolf in Guillaume de Palerne, whose role in uniting the eponymous hero with his amie and
restoring him to his rightful position is so significant that, on being knighted, Guillaume adopts
the werwolf as his heraldic emblem (see William of Palerne, vv. 2193ff.). The wolf frequently
occurs in heraldry, but this use of a werwolf as a device appears to be unique (Menuge, ‘The Ward
as Outlaw’, a paper given to the Sixth Biennial Romance in Medieval England Conference,
Robinson College, Cambridge, 1998. See also chapter 3 of Menuge, Medieval English Wardship
in Romance and Law).
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Neither the means nor the mechanics are detailed.
Bloch (The Anonymous Marie, pp. 79-81) describes Bisclavret as a ‘species-traitor’ (p. 81),
reading the early moves of the narrative in terms of double treachery, with the lady’s fear of her
husband’s adultery echoed in ‘the fact that her husband is not just unfaithful to her, not just
amorously double, but unfaithful to his species. And here there can be no doubt’ (p. 81). This
comparison of the wife’s adultery and the husband’s therianthropy seems ill-founded: as Marie
herself makes clear, both in Bisclavret and elsewhere, adultery is a choice and treachery a
deliberate act; since Bisclavret’s metamorphosis is imposed on him by nature, it cannot be seen
in the terms of choice fundamental to treachery.
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