Reading for Week Six: Melion

Melion is an anonymous lay written in the French Picard dialect in the late 12th or 13th centuries. Although I have suggested that, like Biclarel, Melion is a reworking of Bisclavret, the truth is more complicated. Since we don’t know the composition date of Melion it is possible that Melion predates Bisclavret. Additionally, there are substantial differences in the plot between Melion and Bisclavret, so that some scholars have suggested that the two are not strongly related. The standard scholarly conclusion has usually been that Melion and Bisclavret have a single source in common that Marie de France and the Melion author each adapted in different ways.

Reading from:

Hopkins, Amanda, trans. “Biclarel” in Melion and Biclarel: Two Old French Werwolf Lays. Ed. Amanda Hopkins. 2005, Print, The University of Liverpool.

Music:

Arden-Taylor, Paul. Medieval Dance Tunes Sequence.