Introduction

Melion is currently preserved in only one manuscript (S). A second manuscript was in existence in Turin but it was largely destroyed by fire in 1904. As a werewolf tale, Melion is often compared with Marie de France's Bisclavret and with other tales such as the French verse romance Guillaume de Palerne and the Latin prose romance Arthur and Gorlagon. Melion is one of five Arthurian lays in this collection, the others being Cor, Mantel, Trot and Tyolet.

Melion swears he will never love a woman who has ever loved another man. Ostracised by the ladies at Arthur's court, he loses all interest in chivalry and retires to one of Arthur's castles on the coast. One day, out hunting, he meets an Irish princess who seems to be his perfect match: she has never been, and never will be, loved by anyone other than himself. They marry and have two children, but one day, when they are hunting together, she demands a piece of meat from a stag he has spotted. Melion then tells her his secret: his ring can transform him into a wolf. However, when he returns bearing the meat for his wife, he finds she has fled, together with his squire, and the ring. He follows her back to Ireland and with ten wolves as companions causes havoc among the local livestock. When a peasant spots the wolves and reports this to the king, Melion's companions are killed. Hope comes when Arthur arrives in Ireland, as Melion is able to secure his protection. When he sees the squire at court, he attacks him. The squire confesses and Melion retrieves his ring. In the privacy of the king's chamber, he resumes his human shape but wants his wife to be transformed into a wolf. Arthur recommends mercy for the sake of the children and Melion returns home cursing all women.

Looked at from the perspective of ‘magic and mystery’, or from the contrasting poles of realism and the supernatural, both the principal protagonists in Melion have non-realistic elements in their make-up.