Melion and the Wolves of Ireland

Abstract

When the werewolf protagonist of the Old French lay of Melion recruits a band of other wolves in order to lay waste to Ireland, this activity—unique to Melion—is informed by the medieval Irish view of diberg ‹(wolf-like) brigandage’. These aspects of Melion’s setting and plot are major developments in the medieval werewolf tale most famously attested in Marie de France’s Bisclavret. The case of Melion has profound implications for understanding Celtic influence on Francophone literature in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.