Beauty can be destructive.

My dear he explains, you must not let our radiant love shine through your looks, your Lord shall take notice and wonder what the meaning of this is, for he has locked you away in a keep and you my darling; certainly show of misery. Should you suddenly begin to glow and show of what our love has become, he will find the meaning in this. Our love will certainly be ruined; forevermore by your glorious beauty. She exclaimed in insult of his falsehood, claiming he thought for her plainness to be better than that her beauty. She pleaded with him to understand that her beauty would certainly most not ruin the love they share, for how sickened she was to hear such nonsense. Although she knew in her heart he was right, she knew it to be true. That night she promised herself that she would stay in her homely appearance. She thought of a plan that night while she laid awake in bed.. They would run off together where they could freely love each other and where her greatest asset, her beauty; could shine for her one true love. At least..this is how the story should have ended, the young maiden did not believe her lover and was naive as a result in the end, her beauty was indeed the end of their love affair.







The Lais of Marie de France Yonec (page 210 to page 239)
pictures from Google Images

Are Werewolves Dangerous?

When people in society hear the word werewolf, they automatically think of it in a negative connotation as being threatening or dangerous. One thing that stood out to me in the reading of “Bisclavret” was how the werewolf was automatically perceived as dangerous. The moment in “Bisclavret” where the king and his knights went hunting in the woods and found the werewolf displayed this common idea because the king sent the hounds after it to kill it without even checking to see if it was friendly or dangerous. In classic movies, the werewolf is always portrayed as the threatening being. For example, in the movie Red Riding Hood, the townspeople were so afraid of the wolf that they would make sacrifices to it in order to keep it from attacking them.

 It surprised me that this idea of werewolves being dangerous originated during the medieval time. It shows that people are only following what they have been told. In all the fantasy novels, werewolves are seen as dangerous because that is the only way people learned to look at them. They were not taught to perceive the werewolf in a positive light where it can do no wrong and how it won’t hurt anyone. People automatically think that a werewolf will hurt you or kill you once you encounter it. My favorite part of “Bisclavret” is where the king sees that the werewolf is friendly and takes care of it. I honestly feel like we need to experience this more where people see werewolves as something other than negative or threatening.

The Lais of Marie de France, Bisclavret, pp. 151-153)

When Love Comes to Save You

"I do not wish it to be held against him, concerning what he said; you should know that the queen was wrong: he never asked for her love. And concerning the boast he made, if he can be acquitted by me, let your nobles set him free!”(Marie 618- 624)


This quote is significant to me because this is coming from the queen that Lanval fell in love with. Even though she told him not to tell anyone about their love and the things she was giving him, she decided to come and rescue him when he was under investigation in a sense. Lanval did the one thing she asked him not to do but to me, it shows that she truly loves him because of why he did it. He was proving to someone else that he happy and in love with someone when they couldn't take no for answer and answer and then some feelings got hurt after that. The queen showed up to save him because he did what he did out of love and not to bost about all the cool and expensive things she had given him. So to me she knew that he truly loved her because of this.

Hunting the Huntsmen

“I never liked these woods” I said to my fellow hunter “I’ve heard too many stories”. The wind rustled the leaves through the forest, the only sound breaking the deafening silence. “what kind of stories?” he grumbles back. “The kind with monsters and death” I respond with a worried tone, squinting through the dark woods, searching for anything moving. “calm yourself man! They’re just meant to scare children, there are no monsters in these woods, only myths” He said, readjusting his quiver. “But what about the werewolf? Folk say that he still prowls these woods, stalking those unfortunate souls that wander too deep into the forest, and what about the animals they found? Torn to pieces with their carcasses thrown about.” My voice was shaky, as were my arms. The hunter sighs, grabbing my shoulder “those people who talk of the werewolf are either fools or sick in the head. Even if there were something in these woods, its nothing we couldn’t handle.” Just then a twig snapped from the brush beside us, followed by a rumbling growl that sent a chill down my spine.

 I began shaking as I looked into the brush, seeing only a pair of red eyes reflecting in the moonlight. As I reached for my bow the beast leaped out of the bush, landing mere feet in front of me. I fell over backwards in fear as the werewolf snarled and crept towards me, but just then the hunter lobbed a stone that connected with the side of his head. “Over here, foul monster!” he yelled. The werewolf recoiled and locked onto my friend, slowly stepping towards him. “Run now!” he yelled to me “run and tell the king that he is real, and in these woods!”. I did exactly that, I ran, ran faster than I ever had before, not looking back even once. The twigs and scrub scratched my face and arms as I pushed through the woods, hearing the sickening screams of the man who saved me fade behind me. It was up to me to ensure the king new what lurked in these woods so close to home, knowing full well he would not miss the glory of hunting such a beast. The woods once again were silent, as was I. Nothing dared make a sound in these woods that new what lurked in the shadows.

(Based on The Lais of Marie de France, Bisclavret, pp. 144-160)

I'll Love You Until The I Die

"Beautiful one, I feel my heart quite strong: I would not by any means stop long enough to drink" (Marie 190)

To me, this quotation was significant because the maiden knew the guy needed to drink something to help him carry her the rest of the way and he refused because he didn’t want to be mocked for it. So instead of drinking the potion for him to be stronger and to be able to carry her all the way, he exhausted himself so much he collapsed and died. If he would have listen to the maiden and not have been so ashamed of what people would say, his heart would have continued to stay strong and he would have survived. By not drinking it, he killed himself and the woman of his dreams because he refused to listen.

Werewolves

Werewolves are used in all kinds of pop culture. They're used in shows like "Teen Wolf", "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Originals"; and movies like "The Wolfman", "An American Werewolf in London", "Teen Wolf 1 and 2", "Harry Potter", "Underworld", and "Twilight". I've seen all but "An American Werewolf in London", but I think I've seen enough to recognize the differences in them compared to "Bisclavret".

In "Bisclavret", he had to go about naked and when he returns, his clothes has to be there in order for him to turn back. I expected the knight whom took Bisclavret's wife would have been turned into a werewolf when he bit him, but that wasn't the case. In something such as the show, "Teen Wolf", they can change into werewolves with their clothes on and something as simple as a scratch can change a person into a werewolf. In "The Vampire Diaries" and "Twilight", the werewolves change into wolves, and have to remove their clothes or they'd rip during the change. They are also incapable of turning others into werewolves as you have to be born that way.

Bisclavret's Perspective

Though I do not wish it, I have little choice but to abandon my wife, each week, for three days at a time. More than this, I must also abandon my humanity, my dignity. Each week I enter the woods, naked and exposed, and wander the familiar paths among the dark trees until I reach a point by the water where I sit, prostrated before God and the forest and my demons. My flesh contracts and writhes in agony and defiance, battling the cold, my skin produces waves of goose-pimples, and I shiver by the water for several agonizing moments. Then, as suddenly as the cold and goose-pimples assailed my corpus, I became warm. My senses heightened, my discomfort gone, and I became one who belonged in the forest. But my feelings of abandonment, my lone-wolf lifestyle, persists. I was a man without any who truly understood me, and I am a wolf without a pack.

It was then that I first caught scent of my purpose here, for I must feed the beast within me lest it force me to satiate it in places where Humans would become the prey. The scent of deer, while indistinguishable to myself as a man, is unmistakable to me now, as a wolf. Thus began the hunt, which I executed with practiced skill and instinct, those instincts which at first were foreign and frightening to me have since become comfortable and familiar, and once I had finished with my hunt and my feeding for the first day, and lie down to rest, I was greeted by another realization. The sound of hoofbeats, the unmistakable stench of man and horse, the sounds of hounds trained to hunt small game growing uneasy and frantic at their sensing of the beast which awaited them. Though these hounds did not fear me so much that they did not continue their pursuit. I, the hunter, have become the hunted.

[based upon the works of Marie de France, (The Lais of Marie de France, Bisclavret, pp. 144-161)]

Judgement in Bisclavret

WTH WTH that was my initial reaction while reading the Bisclavret.The story shows how unfaithful , insensitive and selfish people can be. It is very absurd that Bisclavret wife would use the knight and prostitute herself  just to get her dirty work done. I find it disturbing that she has recognized that her husband goes missing every week for three days with no one knowing where he is. But instead of showing compassion and care she decided to prostitute  herself because she doesn’t want to be with him anymore. Her and the knight behavior showed that neither of them cared about Bisclavret well-being . However, at the end of the story both Bisclavret ex-wife and the knight had to pay for their inhumane actions. Not only them but also their children because they ended up having noseless children. This story illustrated that one’s action not only affect their lives but also those  around them . And whatever you partake in now will come back to you in the future!

                                 

Marie, de France. The Lais of Marie de France. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2018. Print

Karma Is a Marathon

In the story “Bisclavret” in The Lais of Marie de France, Bisclavret’s wife discovers that he is a werewolf and no longer wants to be with him. She victimizes him by making a deal with a knight that she knows likes her to steal Bisclavret’s clothing while he is transformed as a werewolf, so he will not be able to transform back into a human. In exchange, she offers to be with the knight. Neither she nor this other knight care about Bisclavret’s well-being. Throughout the story, it appears that no harm will be brought to either Bisclavret’s past wife or her new husband, and they will get away with the evil they commited. It is not until the end of the story when Bisclavret in his werewolf form bites off his ex-wife’s nose, she gets torched, and then she gets banished does she truly get punished. It is revealed that Bisclavret’s ex-wife and new husband have daughters who are all born without noses, “she had a number of children by him. They were quite recognizable in appearance and face: many women of that line, in truth, were born without noses” (Marie page 161 lines 309-313). The ending of this story punishes Bisclavret’s ex-wife and husband quite harshly for their crimes. Although they got away with their crimes for a long time, they eventually were punished. This story shows that everyone will pay for their crimes and wrong-doing. It may not be right away, but it will come eventually. Karma is a marathon, not a sprint.

Marie, de France. The Lais of Marie de France. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2018. Print.

Karma of Bisclavret

“Thus Bisclavret was betrayed and brought to ruin by his wife”. (Bisclavret, 125-126)

 This quotation is significant because it illustrates the belief in karma. The lady is frightened when Bisclavret reveals he is a Werewolf and decides to leave him for another Knight. She then takes his clothes, and moves away therefore "ruining" his life. The story comes full circle when the King discovers this and puts the lady to torture and arrest the Knight. Bisclavret then gets his clothes back. The lady is banished from the country and removed from the region, ruining her own life, or as some would say, getting what she deserved.