Marie de France

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 Marie De France wrote a poem titled, Bisclavret a section of her twelve part Lais. This poem is not a sonnet, and it is formatted in rhyming couplets. The poem is about a man named Bisclavret, he seems to be hiding something since he keeps on disappearing. His wife wants to know where he keeps going, and he tells her that he is a werewolf. He also told her that the only way he can be a human is when he is wearing his clothing. His wife was so sick of him always leaving that she went off and married another man, who happens to be a knight, while he was gone. Later on, the king is hunting and sees Bisclavret as a werewolf. The King goes to kill him,but Bisclavret begs the king for mercy and he accepts. He stays with the king. When the knight went to the king for a visit, Bisclavret attacked him. When Bisclavret see's his past wife, he bites off her nose. The King and the people think that the knight and the woman must have done something bad to Bisclavret, because he was never violent before. Suddenly, a man informs the king that the woman was married to Bisclavret. They decide to torture the woman to make her confess. She reveals where the clothing is, and Bisclavret changes back into a human. The king then exiles the woman and the knight.  The woman has children and like the mother the female children were born without noses.  In the end, the wife is the real monster because she didn't even give Bisclavret a chance.  She ruined his life completely.  In this poem, the author uses a lot of details in describing what a werewolf is. Marie De France also used repetition, especially when she wrote "She was not the least amused. She brought it up again, and often she would flatter him and cozen.'' Also, Marie De France made the clothes represent the werewolves’ human form. They were the only things that could make him seem normal again.


Link to biography of Marie de France:  http://enloehs.wcpss.net/projects/west42002/mariedefrance8/bio.html        


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Our Version of Bisclavret

By Dawn and Mayumi
Deep in the night
With the moon shining so bright
A werewolf creeps
A woman weeps
The werewolf, Bisclavret
His wife’s love he cannot get
For he keeps disappearing
Without his wife hearing
She became suspicious
But the truth seemed fictitious
Her one and only love
Was not to be spoken of
He was part beast
For three days a piece
For with no clothes
His werewolf life grows
Because of this fright
His wife married a knight
And Bisclavret was on his track
With no clothes to change him back
One day a hunting king came


Looking for some delicious game
Bisclavret, the werewolf he saw

All the kings people stared in awe
They drew their swords ready to kill
But Bisclavret begged the king mercy on his last will
And he took Bisclavret under his wing
For a while he lived with the king
One day came the knight
Who arrived and made Bisclavret start a fight
He recognized he was the one
Who took his love and left him with none
Next came his ex wife
Creating tremendous strife
She brought him his clothes
But he ripped off her nose
The ex- wife and the knight were exiled
And thrown into someplace wild
Then the women gave birth
On this new piece of earth
To baby girls like their mother
With no noses, like no other