Bisclavret

 Bisclavret or "the Werewolf" is one of the twelve Lais of poet Marie de France. "Bsclavret" is a tale about a man named Bisclavret, a baron of Brittany. Great friends with the king, Bisclavret would disappear for a few days and nights. It happened more than one time. Everyone including his wife wanted to know where he would vanish to. Bisclavret told them that he was actually a werewolf but goes away to keep himself hidden. The wife of Bisclavret becomes frightened of him. She confides in her lover, a knight, about ridding her werewolf husband. When Bisclavret becomes a werewolf again, he leaves the castle and goes off into the woods. His wife and her lover take Bisclavret's clothing, and on Bisclavret's return, he can't find his clothes and remains in his werewolf form. He stays away from the castle, and soon his wife marries the knight. There is a search party for the missing baron, but after so long of not finding him, they soon give up. All is not over.

The king is hunting in the woods a whole year after Bisclavret disappeared. The royal hunting dogs soon discover a timid Bisclavret as a wolf. Bisclarvet grovels to the king and talks like a man. So the impressed and amazed king decides to keep the wolf, and takes him back with him to the castle. The king wants to celebrate and show off his new pet, so a lot of nobles are invited including the knight who married the wife of Bisclavret. Once the knight enters the castle, he's attacked by the angry wolf Bisclavret. The king intervenes and threatens to kill Bisclavret with a staff. Feeling curious about the wolf reacting so aggressively to that particular knight, the king visits the knight's house, taking the wolf with him. Upon finding his wife there, Bisclavret bites off her nose. As if things couldn't get worse for the woman. She's taken by the king, and she's questioned severely under torture. She admits to taking the clothes of Bisclavret, her first husband, who vanished to trick him into staying as a werewolf so she could be free to marry the knight. The king gives the clothes back to the wolf, who soon becomes a man. So happy to see the baron again, the king restores land and castle to Bisclavret. The knight and baroness are exiled. Future female generations of the baroness are born without noses. 

The author Marie de France originally called the baron "Garwaf", a Norman word, until she changed it to the Breton "Bisclavret." Her work appears in the Strengleikar ("Stringed Instruments"), Old Norse stories based on the Old French Lais of Marie de France. She was born in 1160 in France and spent time living in England at the royal court of king Henry II. An early scholar, storyteller and poetess, she was able to speak many languages. She translated the Aesop's Fables from Middle English to Anglo-Norman French. She could read Latin, and wrote many other stories. She was an extremely intelligent woman, creative and educated. This is a Medieval horror story author. She died in 1215.

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