Melion and Biclarel - University of Liverpool

Introduction 1
Melion and Biclarel are two redactions of a werwolf tale which occurs in several
French versions in the high Middle Ages. These include Marie de France’s
2 3
Bisclavret, written in the 1160s or 1170s, of which Biclarel is a reworking.
Melion, a Breton lay like Marie’s narrative, has close parallels with Bisclavret,
but significant alterations in plot and tone suggest the working of other
influences.
Manuscripts, Editions, Translations
MELION
Melion is preserved in a single manuscript, Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal,
3516, f. 343r, col. 1 – 344r, col. 4, now commonly identified as MS C, although
in earlier editions (Horak, Grimes) it is designated P. Written in the Picard
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dialect, the manuscript is dated around 1268. A second manuscript, Turin, L. iv.
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33, f. 60r, col.1 – f. 63r, col. 1, was destroyed in a fire. This manuscript, known
as T, was also in the Picard dialect and dated to the early fifteenth century;
fortunately, variants were recorded in detail by Horak and are largely reproduced
in Grimes.
1
Parts of this introduction originally appeared in Hopkins, ‘Identity in the Narrative Breton Lay’,
pp. 63-96. See also Hopkins, ‘Bisclavret to Biclarel’, pp. 317-23 (for full details of all items
mentioned, see the Bibliography).
2
Burgess and Brook, Three Old French Narrative Lays, p. 7. Quotations from Marie’s lays are
from the edition by Ewert. Unless otherwise stated, English translations of all Old French material
throughout are my own.
3
Marie’s text was also translated into Old Norse prose and appears in a collection known as
Strengleikar. References in the present work are to the edition by Cook and Tveitane, in which
the narrative, named Biclaret, appears on pp. 85-99.
4
Tobin, Les Lais anonymes, p. 290, cf. pp. 86-89. Quotations from the anonymous Old French
lays, other than Melion, edited here, are from Tobin’s edition.
5
6
Burgess, The Old French Narrative Lay, p. 93.
Tobin, Les Lais anonymes, p. 289. She supplies no further details about the fire.
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