A Comparison Between Bisclarvet And Other Historic Werewolves

Since the beginning of man the idea of lycanthropy, the ability to change from man to beast, has been a source of great interest (Webster). Marie de France took many of the folk tales and legends of werewolves and wove them together in “Bisclarvet“. When comparing “Bisclarvet” to other historical werewolves one gets a sense of where Marie de France or the poet/s she heard the story got their inspiration. One also begins to see how a folk tale, such as “Bisclarvet” can evolve from cave paintings to the modern myth of werewolves that the world knows today.

In approximatley 25,000 BCE Franco-Cantabrian cave artists began “depicting ghostly creaters and a variety of two-legged beings with the heads of animals and birds” (Steiger xxiii). Ethnologist Ivar Lissner suggests in his book Man, God and Magic those Stone-Age artists were portraying:

“intermediary beings who were stronger than common men and able to penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of fate, that unfathomable interrelationship between animals, men and gods.” (Steiger xxiii)

Lissner’s assumption of early humans’ belief that “intermediary beings” had the capacity t

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