Melion and Biclarel - University of Liverpool

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Two Old French Werwolf Lays of Marie’s hero and the magically transformed Melion, who, at his lowest ebb, regains his optimism and watches keenly as Arthur’s ship approaches the coast, recognising the travellers by their shields, hung over the side of the ship. This scene itself is justification, and perhaps indeed the reason, for the substitution of Arthur for the unidentified king of Marie’s text, since the use of the familiar names of the Arthurian world serves to exemplify and accent Melion’s human reactions here, allowing the audience a far greater appreciation of the situation than would an unnamed king and knights. The passage emphasises Melion’s fundamental humanity in describing, in effective, simply-constructed terms, his understanding of these man-made objects and the meaning of their devices, and in his response to the sight, his resurging hope that he will regain human shape. The wolf-Melion’s subsequent actions are considered. He waits until the company has made camp, then calmly walks into the tent and straight up to Arthur. Here is no suggestion of supplication, rather a sense of the hero taking his rightful place in the court as he approaches Arthur and settles himself at his feet. Arthur feeds Melion meat and gives him wine, and the wolf accompanies him everywhere, refusing to be parted from him. This last point is, of course, also found in Bisclavret, but where Marie’s narrative continues to present a relationship of suppliant and protector, Melion seems to be trying to perform his rightful human role as escort and entourage, seen especially in the description of man and wolf entering the Irish king’s castle: ‘Qant li rois monta el doignon, / Li leus li tint par le giron’ (vv. 475-76). This visit to the Irish king’s court is, of course, another difference from Marie’s lay. In Bisclavret, the wolf appears only in the king’s own court; and he has spent some time there before his attack on his wife’s new husband, and later on his wife, forces the court to realise that the wolf’s strange tameness and unusual ferocity must have some reason. Here, the setting for the wolf’s attack on the faithless squire has political ramifications, since it takes place in the Irish court and on a member of the Irish king’s household; furthermore, Arthur has had little time to judge the degree of his wolf’s domestication. Yet Arthur continues 38
Introduction to protect this unusual and recent member of his company like a feudal lord who affords rightful protection to one of his retinue. This attack is the last in Melion’s ‘war’ and he is soon restored to human form. However, once a man again, he regains all the childishness and naivety his human self displayed earlier, demanding vengeance on his wife and only reluctantly being dissuaded from revenge by Arthur and his fellow knights. How much the distinction between man-Melion and wolf-Melion and his behaviour in each role is bound to the author’s underlying misogyny is unclear. In human form, Melion is apparently a good knight, but he is also foolishly naive: his vow is thoughtless, his reaction to his ostracism immature, his choice of wife unfortunate, his demands for vengeance against her petulant. Yet, in wolf form, Melion proves a competent strategist, demonstrating the military skills which Arthur’s affection and respect for him imply, travelling to Ireland as a stowaway, persuading the wolves to follow him and leading the pack in its devastation of the land, planning how best to approach Arthur. Although the narrative leaves many unanswered questions, not least why the hero possesses the transforming ring at all, the presentation of Melion’s character is closely bound to plot and structure, and both the narrator’s demonstration of the retention of Melion’s human mental capacities in his wolf form and Melion’s human-form behaviour seem to suggest that it is only as a wolf that his identity becomes mature and complete; which in itself is a paradox, since Melion, of course, is not a true werwolf. THE ROLE OF THE WIFE Kittredge proposes that the lady who becomes Melion’s wife is a partly humanised fée and that the character of the squire originally represented her fairy lover: the fée arrives to fulfil Melion’s ‘boast’ and ‘the misfortunes which come upon the hero are a rebuke to his pride’ (‘Arthur and Gorlagon’, p. 190). This is problematic in view of the fact that there is no further reference to the hero’s vow after its fulfilment in the appearance of the lady (vv. 117-18); neither the protagonist himself nor the narrator explicitly links the hero’s misadventures to 39
Page 1 and 2: MELION AND BICLAREL TWO OLD FRENCH
Page 3 and 4: Melion and Biclarel Two Old French
Page 5 and 6: Contents Acknowledgements .........
Page 7 and 8: Introduction 1 Melion and Biclarel
Page 9 and 10: Introduction a complete edition of
Page 11 and 12: Introduction 19 innovation in her P
Page 13 and 14: Introduction in evoking the origina
Page 15 and 16: Introduction marries a lady. Biclar
Page 17 and 18: Introduction Bisclavret’s revelat
Page 19 and 20: Introduction enchanter transforms a
Page 21 and 22: Introduction Grimes follows Kittred
Page 23 and 24: Introduction Is it not possible, ho
Page 25 and 26: Introduction clearly derive from a
Page 27 and 28: Introduction that the transformatio
Page 29 and 30: Introduction instigation of Gawain,
Page 31 and 32: Introduction nature has imposed upo
Page 33 and 34: Introduction … conme loups grans
Page 35 and 36: Introduction practices of the perio
Page 37: Introduction level, ‘blandi e los
Page 41 and 42: Introduction E l’escuier o lui me
Page 43 and 44: Introduction verbal transgression,
Page 45 and 46: Introduction the narrator has defin
Page 47 and 48: Introduction completeness of this m
Page 49: Introduction opportunity which Mari
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Melion and Biclarel - University of Liverpool

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