BISCLAVRET
A French werewolf story.

(From F&F#48 Feb. 2004)

The lord and his lady loved each other dearly and were very happy together but every week he would disappear for three whole days. She feared that he was seeing another woman and so eventually she plucked up the courage to ask where he went and what he did for those three days. He refused to answer saying that if he told her she would leave him. She refused to be put off and asked him again and again until he gave in and told her his dreadful secret - he was a werewolf, a bisclavret. For three days each week he lived in the forest feasting on the prey he killed. She asked what he wore and when he said that he went naked she asked where he hid his clothes. He refused to answer this saying that if he should ever lose his clothes then he would have to stay bisclavret for ever. She nagged him and harassed him until he gave in and said "My lady, near that wood, there is an old chapel. There is a stone there, hollow and wide, beneath a bush. I hide my clothes there." When the lady heard this she was filled with fear and didn't want to have anything more to do with her husband.

Now there was a knight in that country who had long loved the lady. She sent a messenger to bring him to her, and told him everything. She showed him the way into the forest, the chapel and the stone and he took away Bisclavret's clothes. Time passed and her husband didn't return and the local people came to the conclusion that he was dead and so the lady was able to marry the knight.

A year passed and the King went hunting in the forest. The hounds were loosed and they found the bisclavret and chased him all day. At last they had him at bay and would have ripped him to pieces but he ran to the king and seized his stirrup-ring and kissed his foot and leg. The King saw this and called to his men "See how this beast bows down to me! It knows who I am. It begs for mercy. We will let it go," But Bisclavret followed the king back to his castle and the king decided to keep the wolf as a pet and they became inseparable.

Some time later the King was holding court, he'd summoned all his barons to attend him, and that very knight who had married Bisclavret's wife came to the feast. The second that Bisclavret saw him he leapt at him and bit into him and dragged him off. He would have killed him if the King hadn't called him back and threatened him with a stick. Everyone was amazed because he'd always been so tame and docile up until then. They thought there must be some reason why he had acted in this way, the knight must have offended him in some way, so they did not punish him further and life returned to normal.

Some time later the King again went riding in that wood where they'd first found Bisclavret and Bisclavret went with him. At nightfall they found lodgings. Bisclavret's wife heard about this and dressed herself in her finest array and, the next morning, presented herself before the king. When Bisclavret saw her no man could have held him back; he leapt at her and tore her nose right off her face. The king's servants surrounded him and were ready to cut him to pieces, but a wise fellow intervened and said "My Lord, this beast has been living with us for a long time and he's never hurt anyone. It's clear that he holds some grudge against this lady and her lord for this is the wife of that same knight who used to be so dear to you and who has now disappeared. Try this lady with some torture and see if she doesn't have something to tell you about why the beast hates her! If she knows, make her say it!"

The king agreed and the lady was forced to tell of the whole affair. They retrieved the clothes which the lady had hidden but Bisclavret showed no interest in them. Then someone suggested that to put on the clothes and transform in front of the assembly would be too shameful a thing to do and that Bisclavret and the clothes should be left alone in a room.

When they returned some hours later they found the noble lord, fully clothed and fast asleep. The king restored to him all his lands and loaded him with presents. The lady was expelled from the realm along with her treacherous accomplice. Together they had many children and they were well known because more than one of the girls was born without a nose!

This was originally a long story in verse (or a ballad) from Brittany where bisclavret is/was the common term for a werewolf. (In Norman French it is garwolf.)

The fact that the werewolf is trapped in wolf form by the loss of his clothes is an interesting parallel to the silkie trapped in human form by the removal and hiding of its seal skin.

This is one of the stories in the appendix of the Steel Carpet publication 'HUGHES the wer-wolf'.

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