Right from the start we get violence from Equitan which shows us that you shouldn't be evil lest evil be done to you. Good moral. Of course, this plan was doomed from the start (what do they think this guy is? seafood dinner?). And a victory bone in the tub should be done after the victim is killed, not that I would know. Because it seems less like karmic fate in the end and more "maniacal justice."
The correct way to prepare a boiled dinner.
At least no one died in Le Fresne. Still, ruining your neighbor's life just because you're jealous is a bit extreme. Especially considering your jealousy is over gross babies. The first act of this story essentially repeats the moral of our last story with less "Game of Thrones" worthy murders before moving on to the love story and concluding with the ever so familiar "long lost relative" story. Surprisingly, this ends happily! Must've gotten all the drama out of our systems with the intro.
Bisclavret threw me off a bit. When I think "Medieval werewolf," I think "rampaging monster" and not "dude who needs to keep his clothes on." Well, that's one modern stereotype that doesn't conform with past ideas. What about "sexy" werewolves from trashy romance novels? Well the wife didn't want anything to do with that furry mess. Then what were werewolves doing in those old stories?!
Pictured: Not our werewolf.
Even more surprising is how cool everyone was with it like, "Dude! A talking buppy!" Wasn't this supposed to be the time of superstitious fear mongering? And he attacks a knight at a party and everyone is privy that it's for revenge so they just forgive him! And he rips his wife's nose off and everyone thinks, "She had it coming maybe. Let's torture her to find out... Yeah, she had it coming." Way to go Medieval people... at least you stick to the fun stereotypes. In the end the wise man helps the knight assume his human form and everyone good lives happily ever after. How does the wise man know so much about werewolves anyway? I'm glad the story ended with the disclaimer this all actually happened for realsies. Cause a noseless lady having noseless kids? I would've thought all these stories were made up otherwise!
-Brian
Brian - These lais were definitely super fun and easy to read! The second the boiling tub of water was mentioned in Equitan I knew things were not going to end well... however, I didn't expect to snicker so much after reading the actual ending! I figured that something horrible would happen and the plan would be ruined but I wasn't expecting the King to die the way he did or for the husband to shove his wife in the tub after him. Ah, now there's revenge! Additionally, I also found it surprising how cool everyone was with the discovery of Bisclavret... yet the fact that I hadn't been able to anticipate their actions only drew me into the story even more. Actually, that entire lai didn't play out as I expected but it was because of this that it ended up being my favorite. On the whole I was super (and pleasantly) surprised by how much these lais defied my original expectations. (Also, your caption for that werewolf picture is fantastic!)
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