Melion and Biclarel: Two Old French Werewolf Lays (review)

This is a very useful edition of two little-known Old French lays. There is a full introduction that covers the manuscripts, the dating, previous scholarship, the links of the two poems to the Arthurian tradition, the werewolf tradition and critical summaries of the two poems. The section on previous scholarship is perhaps rather overlong and could have made way for a closer look at the world in which the two poems were probably written. That would be more useful to the general reader who is part of the target audience of this series. The editions are accompanied by textual notes which take full account of the work of the previous editors, and the texts themselves are excellent. The translation is a very close rendering of the Old French and is extremely accurate. Anyone with a little French should be able to follow the text with the assistance of such a close translation which still reads perfectly well in English. There is a full bibliography with some very helpful, lesser-known references as well as all the standard works. The editing is impeccable. All in all, this is an edition which shows a very high level of scholarship as well as wide-ranging knowledge of the relevant period and real literary sensitivity in the analysis of the texts.