Bisclavret

Bisclavret ( " The Werewolf ," modern French pronunciation: [ ˌ bisklavrɛ ] ) is the title of one of the twelve Lais of Marie de France and was built around 1170 piece, written in Anglo-Norman language tells the story of a werewolf, who was forced by the betrayal of his wife. is to remain in its animal form.

Background

Marie de France asserts in the introduction, they have the story, as well as all their Lais, translated from the Breton. At least the motives of her stories come from well actually the Breton or Celtic sagas.

Content

Not even his wife - Bisclavret, a respected British norman noble, every week disappears for a full three days without anyone knew where. Finally, this begs him to tell her about his secret and he tells her that he is a werewolf. After some initial reluctance, he told her also, at which place he keeps hidden his clothes, so that he can transform back into a human after his animal episodes again. Bisclavrets wife this news shocked so much that she does not want to "share the bed with him " longer, and consider them as they could escape her husband. She turns to a knight who loves them for a long time, and tells him to steal the clothes of her husband, whereupon Bisclavret can not transform back into a human itself. When he does not return and the search of his followers remain without success, his wife marries the knight.

The following year, was surrounded at a hunting wolf multiform Bisclavret of the king's hunting dogs. As the Wolf sees the king, who rushed, running up to him to ask him for mercy. This behavior surprised the king so much that he orders his men to call back the dogs. All are impressed by the generosity and kindness of the wolf and the King takes Bisclavret, still in wolf form, with to to his castle.

The knight, who has since married Bisclavrets wife is a little later invited along with many other nobles to a solemn ceremony in the Royal Palace. As Bisclavret sees him, he attacks him. Then the wolf was never violent, one suspects at the court that the knight would have done him a great injustice. Soon after the king visited the possessions of the nobles and brings the wolf will. Bisclavrets wife hears of the arrival of the king and bring him many gifts dar. But when Bisclavret his former spouse's sight is, he attacks her and bites her nose off.

A wise man explains that the wolf had never traded before and so that the attacked woman the wife of that very knight was, had the Bisclavret attacked earlier. In addition, this woman had formerly been the wife of the missing nobles Bisclavret. The king asked Bisclavrets woman under torture, to which she eventually confessed all and publishes the stolen clothes. The King's men put the clothes in front of the wolf off, but this ignores. Then proposes the wise man, to bring in to the wolf and the clothes in a bedchamber so that he could dress there. So Bisclavret transformed back finally. He gets back his possessions while his wife, and the knights are sent by the king into exile. Many of the female offspring of Bisclavrets women are born without noses, and all their children are " well recognize in their faces and their appearance. "

Word and name " Bisclavret "

In the introduction, Marie de France uses the old French word " garwalf " among others in the variant " garwaf " which wariwulf from an undeveloped old-fashioned * is incurred, and the Breton " Bisclavret " is synonymous for " werewolf ".

Bisclavret ad now en Bretan, Garwaf l' apelent li Norman

Bisclavret his name in Breton, Garwaf call him the Normans

She draws a clear dividing line between the protagonists Bisclavret and ordinary werewolves. Their violence had him as our own.

Adaptations

The fabric was also used in the stories Melion and Biclarel. The IV on behalf of King Håkon resulting mid-13th century Strengleikar ( " Strings " ) contains Norse prose translations of the Lais of Marie de France, including Bisclavret. 2011 also created a short film by Emilie Mercier, who tells this story in animated images, which are based on motives of church windows.