Old French Tales from Brittany
Marie de France: The Story of Bisclavret
12th century, Old French: British Library, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris.
Whilst he is in the forest he is not half a man and half a wolf, he is all wolf. A wolf with a man's mind.
Bisclavret, a Breton nobleman, hides a dark secret. Whenever he goes away from home for a few days at a time he takes off all his clothes, leaves them in an old chapel and goes to live in the forest surrounding the chapel as a wolf. He is a werewolf. And whilst he is in the forest he is not half a man and half a wolf, he is all wolf. A wolf with a man's mind.
When he returns to his clothes, his human form comes upon him again and he returns to his wife. But her suspicions begin to grow. Prising his secret out of him, the next time he disappears for a few days she arranges for the chapel to be visited and his clothes to be taken. He is now trapped as a wolf...