By Julia Dantzler (Fall 2022)
In the 12th century, Marie de France wrote the lai “Bisclavret,” which is the story of a man who changes forms and disappears for days at a time from his wife and civilized life to be a wolf in the forest. This lai is one of many within Marie De France’s collection, most of which tell a story with a clear moral theme and often include feminist subtext. During this time, the popular form of poetry was the chanson de gestes, which depicted battles between nations and traditional Christian chivalric romances. Marie De France was one of the first to spearhead the lai poetic form, of which she wrote narrative lais that were essentially short narrative poems. Marie was a pioneer of French poetry and a foundational figure to women writers everywhere.
Bisclavret starts with a clarification from De France. She says “Long ago you heard the tale told– And it used to happen, in days of old– Quite a few men became garwolves” (De France 1), to which she describes garwolves’ beastly dangerous connotations. She describes garwolves as savage beasts who specifically “eat men” (De France 1). This begins the extended metaphor of werewolves as queer-coded monsters. De France then insinuates to the reader to put previous connotations about garwolves aside because, through the story of Bisclavret, she wants to present a new perspective on creatures society deems as beastly. Marie De France’s “Bisclavret” can be interpreted through a queer-coded lens, in which Bisclavret’s queer secret isolates him from society’s heteronormative values. The king, though, sees Bisclavret as a marvelous creature and accepts him for who he is.
De France then begins her description of Bisclavret as a “handsome knight” who “acted like a nobleman” (De France 1). Something to note in this description is the use of the word “act.” De France uses the word ‘act ‘again just 4 lines down when describing Bislcarvret’s wife who “acted beautifully” (De France 1). Immediately the connotations of ‘acting’ alongside the descriptions of physical appearance work to invoke the idea of a performance of heteronormativity.
De France then frames the central problem within the story, which is the fact that Bisclavret disappears with no word, then reappears days later to his wife “happy and gay.” This disappearance can be attributed to his wolf form, but the fact that he always shows back up “happy and gay” (De France 2) is significant. Bisclavret escapes his heteronormative facade every few days to exist in his true form. He returns “happy and gay” to his wife as he’s coming down from the joy of getting to be himself. Bisclavret is living a double life, an experience which was and still is common for many queer people. Bisclavret is a noble, honorable man by day and a beast by night. Through a queer-coded lens though, his existence translates into being a conforming heterosexual man by day and a beastly homosexual by night.
One day, Bisclavret’s wife inquires where he goes off to, which she frames as a question she is scared to ask out of fear he will get angry. Bisclavret immediately “hugged her when he heard all this, drew her close, and gave her a kiss. “My lady,” he said, “Ask me now! Anything you want to know” (De France 2). This response of gentleness and love subtly works to dismantle stereotypes of evil beastliness. He then tells her everything about his transformation, including how he gets undressed, saying “I go all bare” (De France 3). Bisclavret’s true form hides beneath clothes. The stripping of clothes relates to societal performance and the stripping of a gender-confining facade.
His wife reacts internally to Bisclavret’s confession claiming that “she didn’t want ever to share his bed” (De France 3). She decides to steal his clothes thus turning him into a wolf forever to get him out of her life. Her discomfort towards his ‘dark’ side exceeds mere disapproval, manifesting more as disgust. His wife is so disgusted by what might be Bisclavret’s true form that she sabotages his possibility of living a normal human life, which can be compared to outing him and denying him the possibility of living a socially accepted heteronormative life. She uses a knight who has loved her for a long time to execute her plan, promising to be with him in return. This begins Marie de Frances’s creation and depiction of a toxic heteronormative relationship. After Bisclavret is considered gone for good, the knight and Bisclavret’s wife get married, and “the lady’s marriage was celebrated” (De France 4). This celebration symbolizes society’s blind celebration of seemingly normal relationships. It is important to note that the dark secrets of some are socially tolerated, like the evil actions of the newlyweds, while the dark secrets of others, like Bisclavret, drive them into a life of forced solitude.
“Bisclavret” by Marie de France is unique as it is one of the only lais in her collection that paints the main female character in a villainous light. Why does she do this? This seemingly anti-feminist character depiction exists for a larger purpose. De France needed a depiction of a toxic heteronormative relationship that included a female character to focus on the positivity within the king and Bislcarvet’s delightfully non-normative relationship. A king is the voice of a nation; therefore, depicting the king as non-normative and thus going against the systems a king should uphold creates a more powerful story of hope on a larger scale. This creation of humanity and acceptance on a larger scale works to equalize all societal others, including women in the grand scheme of things.
One day, the king goes hunting and comes across Bisclavret. The first reaction of his men and dogs is to hunt and chase Bisclavret, revealing society’s immediate prejudices. When Bisclavret begs for mercy at the king’s feet, the king is surprised by the beast’s gentleness and humanity. This connects to prejudices and stereotypes that paint queer people as dangerous sexual predators. In this moment of connection between the king and Bisclavret, the king proclaims “Its sense is human. It begs for mercy” (De France 5). At this moment the king is able to see Bisclavret for who he truly is, rather than as how society perceives him.
The king brings Bisclavret back to his castle and reveals “ he’s never seen such a creature” (De France 5), but instead of immediately othering and fearing the unknown, he decides “ it’s a marvel of nature, and treats it as a great treasure”(De France 5). This level of open-mindedness and acceptance is jarring to the reader, as society is so used to casting off unknown things as terrifying and beastly. Marie de France creates a counternarrative in which we approach unique individuals as great treasures rather than something to be hunted and discarded. The king orders his people to “let no-one harm it, or dare to strike it, for love of the King” (De France 4), which is important as the king forces gentleness and care rather than forcing harm and torture as seen throughout history. Without the king’s acceptance, others would not accept Bisclavret, resulting in the king being a very important character to the story. The king and Bisclavret form a deep bond in which they love each other dearly and do not leave each other’s side. De France says “wherever the King might go It didn’t want to be separated, so It went along with him constantly. That it loved him was easy to see” (De France 6). Their relationship possesses a subtext that furthers the extended metaphor of queerness in De France’s narrative.
The king then has a feast, which the knight that married Bisclavret’s wife attends. When Bisclavret sees him “well equipped and richly dressed” (De France 6), he attacks him. Bisclavret’s wife then went to speak to the king a few days after dressed “in her attractive best” (De France 7), to which Bisclavret also attacks her and, most significantly, rips off her nose. Both Bisclavret’s wife and her new husband are dressed very richly, which further the symbol of clothes representing conformance and heteronormativity. Ironically, they disguise themselves and their wickedness in clothes the same way that Bisclavret disguised his beastliness in clothes. Bisclavret attacks both his wife and the knight, altering their physical appearance. He ripped off his wife’s nose, and it can be assumed he ripped the knight’s clothes or scratched him in some manner when he attacked. He damages both of their physical facades out of anger and out of a subconscious desire to rip away the same thing they took from him. The easy ability of someone else to rip away a physical facade is symbolic of how malleable heteronormative gender performance truly is. It’s also significant that when Bisclavret’s wife confesses, she says “she’d stolen all his linen” (De France 8). Linen is a very delicate fabricate, which adds to the delicacy of gender performance within a heteronormative society. Also, a relevant allusion is the burial of Jesus in the bible. His body was wrapped in linen before being buried in his tomb, which some believe to be symbolic of his covering of human sin. She takes away Bisclavret’s linen thus revealing his ‘sin’. This adds an extra layer of symbolism to the clothing metaphor. This allusion also relates to the widespread religious belief of homosexuality being a sin.
When the king finds out about Bisclavret’s truth, he quickly gives Bisclavret clothes so he can transition back into a man. The king “set them down in front of his nose, but Bisclavret ignores the clothes” (De France 8). This can be interpreted as Bisclavrett not wanting to return to his human facade, perhaps enjoying the freedom of existing in his true form. This could also be interpreted as Bisclavret experiencing shame and embarrassment over his transitionary nature, with the act of transformation being a thing he is conditioned to do in private to avoid the judgment and disgust of others. De France depicts Bisclavret’s conditioned shame when she says transitioning is “something he’s far too ashamed to show” (De France 9).This transformation also resembles the uniquely queer experience of gender transition. The identities which a transgender person may associate with themselves before and after what they consider their transition are often very personal and occasionally kept private due to the desire to keep one’s current and past identities distinct. Also, the fact that the king put Bisclavret’s clothes in front of his nose connects both physical facade metaphors of noses and clothes within the text, symbolizing the peak of this metaphor. The characters in this scene are standing face to face with the reality of the facade and the performance of identity.
A wise fellow then suggests that Bisclavret transition in private, and Bisclavret is brought to the king’s chambers. Bisclavret does transition, to which De France writes “On the king’s royal bed, they see Lying fast asleep, the knight. The king ran to hug him tight; He kissed him a hundred times that day” (De France 9).This scene is the most directly queer as Bisclavret lays in the king’s bed and they kiss each other a hundred times. Through this conclusion, the king is rewarded for his kindness and acceptance. Though De France does return to conventionality in the conclusion, being that Bisclavret turns back into a man, the reader knows that everyone still supports him and accepts him in the castle for his wolf form. Perhaps in the future, this will make Bisclavret more comfortable transitioning and existing freely in both forms.
When Bisclavret meets the king, the king saves him from death and the fate of being a total outcast. The king and Bisclavret arguably fall in love, resulting in a queer-coded romance where the villain is heteronormative society and the hero is general acceptance of a form that is discarded as beastly. Marie de France says herself that “Bisclavret” is an everlasting tale. At the end of the lai, she says “the adventure you have heard Is true–don’t doubt a single word. Of Bisclavret, they made the lay, To remember, forever and a day” (De France 9). She reminds the reader that the story is true. By this, she means the messages and themes within the story are true and relevant to humanity and always will be. Her poem “Bisclavret” works to unravel and reclaim the monstrous stereotypes of queer bodies and presents a counternarrative to the common socially accepted ideas regarding outcasts and otherness.
Works Cited
France, Marie De. Bisclavret. 1996, https://people.clas.ufl.edu/jshoaf/files/bisclavret.pdf.
This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
