How do you think that objects with magical transformative qualities would be considered, such as the ring which turns Melion into a wolf? Could this ring be considered a meditative object because of its ability to shift the translation and trajectory of Melion character and form? Could this ring be compared to Cleges and his “ten blows” — an actant which brings about justice and truth? How so?
ENGL 365 | Medieval Object Ecologies
Dr. Myra Seaman | Fall 2014
The magical power of the ring in Melion is mainly instrumental and is therefore able to be used by humans against other humans as we see with Melion’s wife. The same magical power can be attributed to the clothes in Biclarel and Bisclavet. In each of these stories the object (ring/clothing) is used against the will of the werewolf by his beloved. It seems always that at the moment of the man revealing his secret he inevitably gives his wife the tools for his own ruin: “But anyone who took my clothes away from me/ Would cause me very great hardship” (Biclarel 233-4), “If I am not touched with the other stone;/ I should never again be a man” (Melion 171-2), “If I were to lose them…I’d stay a werewolf forever” (Bisclavet 73-5). Melion, though, seems to have much more control over his turning into a werewolf because the werewolf quality is not in himself (as it is with Biclarel and Bisclavet) but in the ring. Thus when he wishes to punish his wife, turning her into a wolf is an option because the quality is in the ring. With the other two, the wolf seems to be a part of them and it is the humanizing quality of the clothes that hold the magic of transformation back to human. Biclarel though is also under lunar transforming power: “each month I become a beast” (223) which makes his transformation seem much more natural than that of Melion. Melion even goes so far to use the ring as a tool in order to catch a stag, for him the werewolf is not really a part of his nature but a useful perk of owning the ring.