Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/78

64 of development. The framework is lacking, as are also any signs of contamination from the Gellert and Attack on the Child themes. It has, however, obviously been modified to fit it into the Arthurian cycle, Arthur sharing with the werwolf's father-in-law the role of the protector-king. The hero's relation to this personage explains how it is that he finds his wife at the Court, a point which has preserved, but for which it does not account. In the treatment of the wife is nearer to  than to ; although pronounced guilty, she is spared. The most notable feature is that preserved by the opening; the hero is wooed by a maiden who comes from Ireland, and who returns to her own country when she has, as she thinks, got rid of him. The significance of this will be made plain presently.

In the Lai de Bisclaveret of Marie de France the story runs thus:

The hero is a born werwolf, compelled to pass three days of every week in his animal shape; the change is effected by putting off his clothes. The wife discovers this, hides the clothes, and marries a lover of hers. The hunt by the King takes place as in other versions; the werwolf wins the King's favour, resides at his court, and whilst there attacks his wife's second husband, and, later, his wife. The mystery is disclosed, the wife is compelled under torture to give up the clothes, the werwolf regains his human form, and the wife is banished with her second husband.

Here then is a simple and straightforward version of one of the themes, the main one, found in the allied stories. It cannot be derived either from or from the common original which may be assumed to lie at the back of  and. On the other hand it cannot be their sole source. It proves that what may be styled the Werewolf's Tale proper once existed apart from the other elements found in, , and.

As regards the relationship of the other three versions, cannot have come from the Welsh original of, as it lacks the framework, and as it has preserved an opening of which no traces are found in the Welsh tale. For the same reasons it cannot be the direct source of that tale; which again cannot have originated, as the latter has retained