Bisclavret, the gentle werewolf who gets king smooches

[lb_lee]

Miranda: Through a chain of associations, I recently found myself reading Marie de France's 12 century lai (sort of a short story poem) Bisclavret, AKA "the Werewolf."

And it is delightful! Oh my goodness! It's just this lovely little story about a gentle werewolf who overcomes his wife's treachery through the love of his king and the common sense of one of the people in his court. The lai starts with, "everyone knows that werewolves are violent, bloodthirsty, wretched fiends! Now let's talk about one who is not any of that, and who is in fact the loveliest man ever."

This is the 1996 translation I read, by Joan Shoaf. Less clunky than the following, tries to keep to the original rhyming poetic scheme.

Here is a as-literal-as-possible, a bit clunky translation, side by side with the original French, done by a man with the handle "Mad Beppo." Also comes with some illustrations, plus translation and historical notes. Follows the poetry lines, does not try to rhyme.

And here's a prose, fairy tale type of translation, by Eugene Mason from 1911. More smooth and beautiful than the other two, but I enjoy the clunky charm.

Comments

[conuly]

There's a MG novel based on that poem as well, This Is Not a Werewolf Story.

It took so long to get to the part where the protagonist turns into a wolf that I actually started to think it wasn't a werewolf story.

*

[minoanmiss]

Next year I need to nominat this for once_upon_fic!

[sinistmer]

Read the original poem--so good!

[lb_lee]

Miranda: it's so good! I normally am not one for poetry, but I found the prose version lacking something, despite the clunkiness of translation in poetry.