The Lais of Marie de France

The wife of Bisclavret, a popular Breton knight, is deeply disturbed that he is absent three full days a week and implores him to tell her the reason. At first, he refuses, prophesying that “I shall lose your love and destroy myself” (69). However, after further entreaties, he confesses that he is a werewolf. She immediately asks him whether he is naked or clothed during his lupine adventures. When he confesses that he goes naked and remains a werewolf until he re-enters his clothes, the lady asks where he keeps his clothes. He tells the lady about a hollowed-out bush near an old chapel. The terrified lady, meanwhile, does not want to sleep with Bisclavret anymore (69). As a result, she summons a knight admirer and tells him that she will become his mistress if he takes her husband’s clothes and prevents him from returning to his human form.

To the outside world, it seems as though Bisclavret is gone and the lady is free to marry her knight. A year later, while hunting, the king chances upon Bisclavret as a wolf in the forest. Bisclavret approaches the king and kisses his stirrup. The king recognizes that the beast “has the intelligence of a human” (70).