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îñ"ò îøëæ ñéôåøé òí åôåì÷ìåø |
C. F. F |
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Melion Summary
of the text Melion, a knight in Arthur’s court, vows never
to love a lady who has loved or spoken of another man. Angered, the ladies of
the court ostracise Melion,
whose unhappiness makes him lose interest in chivalric pursuits. To cheer
him, Arthur gives him a valuable fiefdom, where he hunts and recovers his
good spirits. While
pursuing a stag, Melion meets a lady, riding alone,
who tells him she is the daughter of the King of Ireland and that she has
come to meet him, for she has never been loved by a man, nor will she love
any but him. The knight is delighted and marries her at once. They live
together happily for three years and have two children. One
day, they go hunting, taking a squire. Melion draws
his wife’s attention to a large stag, but she immediately swoons and,
weeping, declares that she will die if she does not eat meat from the stag.
Distressed, Melion promises that he will obtain the
venison by transforming himself into a wolf, using a ring with two magic
stones. He undresses, urges his wife to keep the ring safe so that he can
turn back into human form, and tells her to touch his head with one of the
stones. As
soon as she does so, he turns into a wolf, retaining his human mind, and
follows the stag. His
wife at once leaves for the harbour and Ireland,
taking with her the squire. Melion returns with the
meat, but cannot find his wife. Realising where she
has gone, he goes to the harbour and stows away on
a ship going to Ireland. There he begins a war of attrition, killing
livestock. The peasants go to the king, who dismisses their complaints. Melion persuades ten wolves to join him: for a year they
kill livestock and peasants, and no one can stop them. One day, a peasant
sees the wolves lying up and tells the king, who kills all the wolves except Melion, who mourns his lost companions. Just
as he has given up hope, he sees a ship approaching Dublin. He recognises the shields hung over the side: it is Arthur’s
ship. The ship docks and Arthur sets up camp. Melion
enters Arthur’s tent and lies at his feet. Everyone marvels at the wolf’s
docility. Melion refuses to be parted from the
king. The
next day, Arthur and his retinue, including the wolf, go to the Irish king’s
court. Melion sees the squire who left with his
wife and attacks him. Melion is threatened by the
Irish king’s men, but Arthur protects him, insisting that the wolf must have
a reason for his attack. The squire is forced to confess and Arthur demands
that the King of Ireland obtain the magic ring from his daughter. She
supplies it and Melion is taken to a private
chamber, where he changes into human form. His wife is brought before Arthur
for judgement, and Melion
wishes to transform her with the ring, but Arthur dissuades him. Melion, expressing his low opinion of women, returns with
Arthur to Britain, leaving his wife behind. From:
Melion and Biclarel:
Two old French werewolf lays, Edited
and translated by Amanda Hopkins, Liverpool Online
Series, Critical Editions of French Texts, 10, Liverpool Online Series http://www.liv.ac.uk/media/livacuk/cultures-languages-and-area-studies/liverpoolonline/Werwolf.pdf Marie de France’s Bisclavret and
the lesser-known lay of Melion are two
medieval stories among the dozen or so popular during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries that address the
metamorphosis of man to wolf. In both poems a young knight who is highly
regarded by his king and peers marries a beautiful lady of quality. The lady,
after swearing her undying love for him, betrays him, purposefully leaving
her husband in the state of a werewolf. The hero is condemned to live the
life of a beast for quite some time, but is then able to seek his recovery
following a fortuitous encounter with the king, who marvels at the animal’s
human-like qualities. In the king’s presence the wolf confronts those who
have betrayed him and the intrigue unravels. The guilty confess and the wolf
is finally returned to human form. The creator of Melion is unknown,
but it is thought that he was a professional jongleur of Picard origin who
possessed a wide-ranging knowledge of the stories circulating during his
time. According to P. M. O’Hara Tobin, the most recent editor of the Melion text, included in Les Lais
anonymes des XIIe et XIIe siècle,1 this storyteller was
probably familiar with the works of Wace, Chrétien de Troyes, the Tractatus de Amore by André le Chapelain,
as well as the Breton lays of Marie de France. The lay of Melion and the lay of Bisclavret
are fairly contemporary. In her critical edition Tobin places its composition
between 1170 and 1267, more narrowly, between the years 1190 and 1204 (292).2
Most editors of the works of Marie de France agree that her Lais were set down during the last one-third of the
twelfth century, with the date of 1170 often being mentioned.3 __________________ [1]
The Tobin text is edited from MS C Paris, Bibliothèque
de l’Arsenal [2] Burgess’ analytical bibliography,
The Old French Narrative Lay, published in 1995, cites 1268 (p. 93). [3]
Ewert states that it was sometime before 1187 (p.x), Rychner limits it to
between 1160 and 1170, Warnke says 1170 ( p.10). From:
Robyn A. Holman, Metamorphosis and Return in the Lays of Bisclavret and Melion, The
South Carolina Modern Language Review Volume 4, Number 1. http://images.acswebnetworks.com/2017/78/META.pdf The English translations of Melion on the web are copyrighted. For prose translation see: Helen
Nicholson, Melion, translated from Les Lais anonymes des XIIe et XIIIe
siècles, ed. Prudence M. O'Hara Tobin
(Geneva, 1976), 1999.
http://freespace.virgin.net/nigel.nicholson/Melion.htm For lyric translation see: Melion and Biclarel: Two old
French werewolf lays, Edited and
translated by Amanda Hopkins, Liverpool Online Series,
Critical Editions of French Texts, 10, Liverpool Online Series http://www.liv.ac.uk/media/livacuk/cultures-languages-and-area-studies/liverpoolonline/Werwolf.pdf For essay about Melion
see: Robyn A. Holman, Metamorphosis
and Return in the Lays of Bisclavret and Melion, The South Carolina Modern Language Review Volume
4, Number 1. http://images.acswebnetworks.com/2017/78/META.pdf |
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