The Lais of Marie de France

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1100

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Lai 1

Lai 2

Lai 3

Lai 4

Lai 5

Lai 6

Lai 7

Lai 8

Lai 9

Lai 10

Lai 11

Lai 12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Introduction-Lai 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction Summary

While translators and editors Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby are certain that a female poet called Marie was writing in Britain and Northern France in the latter half of the 12th century, they hesitate to attribute The Lais of Marie de France to a single author. Instead, the fictitious name, Marie de France, was coined by Claude Fauchet in the 1581 Receuil de l’origin de la langue et poesie françoise. While Burgess and Busby cannot attribute the poems to any particular lady, they assume that the author or authors were educated young women who were familiar with Latin, English, and Old French. There is no conclusive evidence to attest to the author’s femininity; however, Burgess and Busby note that the Lais pay attention to the well-being of children and the sexual frustration of mal mariées— young women given to older men in dynastic marriages.

The tales featured in the following edited text were found in a 13th century British Library manuscript, which also contained writings in Latin and some fables in old French. The tales are presented in the order that they appear in in the manuscript, although this does not necessarily reflect the order in which they were written. The Lais were first published together as a separate volume in 1819.

The lai, or lay, a short, lyrical poem accompanied by music, originated in Brittany, France. Marie de France’s Lais, however, were not explicitly intended to be sung. The Lais each feature an aventure, or adventure, which “occurs in the life of one or more individuals, a special event or period, unexpected but often apparently preordained” (8). The second half of the twelfth century, when the Lais were published, was a period of extensive literary innovation in France. The “love-element” in the Lais, links them to the courtly romantic literature popular at the time, which featured love triangles and trials of romantic longing (24). Scholarly opinion often positions the lay “as a transitional genre between the earlier Provençal love-lyrics […] and the romance” (26). Burgess and Busby argue that in Marie’s Lais the lovers “are privileged” and “set apart from the rest of society […] by virtue of their loving” (27). This is in contrast to other models of love lyric, where the lovers are restored to society. Still, the Lais are typical of their time because the characters are stock types rather than psychologically nuanced personalities. For example, different variations on the lady, knight, and jealous husband feature across the Lais.

Translators’ Note Summary

The translators note that their aim is to “provide a plain English prose translation of Marie’s Lais which renders them as closely as the semantic differences between Old French and Modern English will allow” (37). They also replaced Marie’s “rather short staccato phrases” with longer sentences in order to provide a smooth reading experience (37).

Prologue Summary

The narrator of the Lais begins her Prologue with the dictum that “anyone who has received from God the gift of knowledge and true eloquence has a duty not to remain silent” (41). While the narrator’s initial idea was to translate a Latin text into French, she decides against it, because “others have undertaken a similar task” (41). Instead, she gathered the lays of an oral tradition and crafted them into written poems. The originators of these tales sought to “perpetrate the memory of adventures they had heard” (41). She then humbly offers the collection of lais as a gift to her king, Henry II of England.

Lai 1 Summary: “Guigemar”

The lay begins with a reference to the narrator, Marie, “who when she has the opportunity, does not squander her talents” (43). Despite the slanderous remarks of those who envy her, Marie will continue with her first tale. The protagonist of the tale, Guigemar, is a handsome Breton prince who becomes a valiant knight in the service of another king. For a long time, Guigemar is indifferent to women, regardless of their beauty or virtues. One day while hunting, the arrow he shoots at a white hind redoubles, injuring Guigemar in the thigh. The dying animal curses Guigemar, saying that he will never heal “until you are cured by a woman who will suffer for your love more pain and anguish than any other woman has ever known, and you will likewise suffer for her” (44).

An injured Guigemar stumbles onto a ship, which leaves despite his wishes, and he eventually docks in the harbor of a city ruled by an elderly lord with a beautiful young wife. The lord is so jealous that he keeps his wife locked in an enclosure. A maid-servant and a castrated priest guard one entrance point, and the other leads to the sea. The day of Guigemar’s misadventure, the lady and her maid notice his ship while walking in the garden. When they discover Guigemar alive, they bring him inside and tend to his wounds. Guigemar and the lady find themselves tortured with love for one another, and Guigemar realizes that this is the lady who will fulfil the hind’s prophecy. He implores her to accept his love. After a brief spell of coyness, she does, and they become lovers. They live in a state of bliss for a year and a half until the old lord catches them. When Guigemar must leave, the lovers promise loyalty to one another, as the lady dons a chastity belt, and Guigemar wears a tightly knotted shirt about his arm. The lady tells him that he is free to love the woman who can untie the knot without using scissors or a knife. The old lord imprisons the lady in a tower of black marble and threatens to kill Guigemar, who escapes onto a ship and ends up safely in his home of origin.

The lady is miserable until one day she finds the door to her enclosure unlocked. She escapes and boards a ship, which docks in the lands of a castle-lord called Meriaduc. Meriaduc becomes instantly enamored of the lady, and when he discovers that she is wearing a chastity belt, he complains that she is like the knight who refuses to marry anyone except the woman who can untie the knot of fabric on his arm. The lady instantly recognizes that this is a reference to Guigemar. Guigemar and the lady release each others’ bindings and are reunited. However, Meriaduc wishes to keep the lady for himself, and Guigemar must challenge him to a duel. Guigemar wins his lady and earns many followers who oppose Meriaduc, but not before he has “besieged the town”, “starved all those inside” and killed Meriaduc (54).

Introduction-Lai 1 Analysis

Marie de France is a poet of French origin who was present at the court of the English Plantagenet king, Henry II, during the second half of the 12th century. The name Marie de France, which literally translates to “Marie of France,” links the poet to the French language and ideas of Frenchness. In his online biography, the scholar John Funchion writes that the poet’s name “was even obtained from a verse of her poetry: ‘Marie ai num, si sui de France,’” which means, “I am Marie and I come from France”. Marie’s link with Frenchness is further reinforced by being the first known female francophone poet. She thus formed part of the 12th century literary trend of moving away from writing in Latin, in favor of the language that is now known as Old French. Funchion also assumes that, owing to Marie’s use of a particular Norman dialect, she was likely from Northern France.

Funchion speculates that Marie de France’s Lais were written in Breton before they were translated into Old French, although there is no archival evidence of this. Still, the author would have been familiar with Brittany and the distinctive culture that originated from a population that emigrated from the Celtic Southwest of Britain. The Lais’ topography spans Brittany and Normandy in Northern France, as well as the Celtic British regions of Southwest England and Wales. The Celts were known for their marvelous storytelling, which features strong supernatural elements such as talking animals. However, Marie, with her knowledge of Latin, French, Anglo-Norman, and Breton, was also influenced by late Latin poet Ovid and the Arthurian romances originating in Northern England and Wales.

As narrator, Marie emphasizes that she knows the story of Guigemar “to be true” (43). This reflects her anxiety that the lay, which was handed down through multiple singers, likely mutated since its original recital. Still, she appeals to the ancientness of the lay and its origin in the specific land of Brittany as a testament to its authenticity and worthiness of being made into a gift for a king.

The narrator’s anxiety about telling the truth also appears in the knight Guigemar’s words when he tells the lady, “if you wish me to tell you the truth, I shall do so and withhold nothing from you” (47). Here, the character’s emphasis on speaking truth reinforces the truthful appeal of the lay itself.

This first lay in the collection introduces the theme of romantic love as a potent, irresistible force. The imagery of Guigemar’s redoubling arrow reflects that of the Roman God of love, Cupid, which ensured that its victims became infatuated with the next person they laid eyes on. When he goes on a hunt, proud, love-resistant Guigemar is a prime target for a redoubled arrow which permanently destabilizes him. The violence Guigemar inflicts on the eloquent hind doubles back on him and the lady he comes to love. They both suffer from love as “an invisible wound in the body”, especially when their adulterous situation is discovered, and they cannot be together (49). The chastity belt and arm-bind they force each other to wear inflict further pain, as does Guigemar’s final campaign against Meriaduc, which results in the siege and starvation of a castle-town. However, nature, the force behind Guigemar and the lady’s love, is on their side, and despite the destruction their love causes others, they are reunited. Thus, the lay sets up the motif of transgressive lovers against a world that tries to keep them apart.