Marie of France: Lais


 * “Marie ai num, si sui de France.”
 * 1150?-1200?
 * English writer, “composing in the Anglo-Norman dialect that had become the mother tongue of the English ruling classes following the Norman conquest a century before” (294)
 * Dedicated  Lais  to Henry II
 * “She uses terms that presume some degree of familiarity, perhaps even a family relationship (294).
 * Was likely a nun, perhaps even an abbess
 * Lais
 * A collection of “short, intense stories of love and loss”
 * “…reflect the complex cultural encounter of Celtic folktale, Anglo-French court setting, and English landscape…”
 * Romance genre of late 12th c.
 * First time that Celtic Arthurian legends were written and published (pre-dates de Troyes)
 * In the prologue she details why she is writing this work:
 * “Whoever has received knowledge/ and eloquence in speech from God/ should not be silent of secretive/ but demonstrate it willingly.”
 * “He who guard himself from vice/ should study and understand/ and begin a weighty work/ by which he might keep advice at a distance,/ and free himself from sorrow.”
 * “I have heard many told [lais (romantic tales)];/ and I don’t want to neglect or forget them.”
 * “Lanval”
 * Laval tells the story of one of King Author’s knights who is the son of a foreign king, and is great and wonderful knight who is under appreciated by Arthur and envied by the other knights.
 * One day he goes out adventuring and winds up falling in love the most beautiful and rich woman ever (of course), who warns him not to ever tell anyone of their love or that she will never see him again.
 * Back at court, the queen comes on to Lanval and he rejects her: “I know nothing, but I love and I am loved by one who should have the prize over all women I know. And I shall tell you one thing; you might as well know all: any one of those who serve her, the poorest girl of all, is better than you, my lady queen, in body, face, and in beauty, in breeding, and in goodness.”
 * The queen gets angry and tells the king that Lanval was hitting on her, and wants him punished.
 * Eventually the mystery woman who Lanval loves shows up and testifies on his behalf and rides off with him the Avalon.