Creator / Marie de France

Marie de France was a French poet and fabulist who lived during the late 12th century (fl. 1160-1215).

Virtually nothing is known of her life, but one written description of her work and popularity from her own era still exists. She is considered by scholars to be the first woman known to write francophone verse. She was possibly from Île-de-France (around Paris) and died in England.

---

Lais

The "Lais of Marie de France" are a collection of twelve narrative poems, primarily concerned with the theme of love and courtliness, and as such the heroes are usually knights or aristocratic ladies. The setting is generally a mythical Brittany.

1. "Guigemar"
2. "Equitan"
3. "Le Fresne" ("The Ash Tree")
4. "Bisclavret" ("The Werewolf")
5. "Lanval"
6. "Les Deux Amants" ("The Two Lovers")
7. "Yonec"
8. "Laüstic" ("The Nightingale")
9. "Milun"
10. "Chaitivel" ("The Unhappy One")
11. "Chevrefoil" ("The Honeysuckle")
12. "Eliduc"

Other works

Other surviving works of Marie de France include Ysopet, a selection from Aesop's Fables retold in Norman French verse.

Marie de France's works provide examples of:

• Bowdlerise: In "Lanval":
  • The original story has the faerie queen ride into town, and save Lanval from execution. He leaps upon the back of her horse as she rides away, providing a reversal of the traditional knight in shining armor archetype. In some translations/adaptations/what have you, people have had Lanval take the front of the horse, returning the archetype to its "proper" form. This has the unfortunate side-effect of removing a huge chunk of what makes the faerie queen so mysterious and alluring (her beauty is so great that she holds sway over everyone around her, and one of Arthur's knights gladly takes the traditionally "feminine" place).
  • In at inversion of Sorry, I'm Gay, when Lanval turns Guenevere down, she accuses him of being a gay misogynist with a stable of catamites. One early-twentieth-century translation reduces this to:
    Guenevere: Launfal, well I know that you think little of woman and her love. There are sins more black that a man may have upon his soul.
• Mal Mariée:
  • "Guigemar": Guigemar is a knight who mortally wounds a white hind, but is injured as well. The hind leaves a curse he can only be healed if a woman suffers for love of him while he suffers as much for her. He gets to a land where the lord has imprisoned his young, beautiful lady wife out of jealousy. Worried she might cuckold him, he keeps her trapped in an enclosure with one entry that is guarded, but the place can also be approached from the sea, which is how wounded Guigemar gets there. Guigemar and the lady fall in love. Assured that their feelings are mutual, they consummate their love and spend some time in bliss. They are discovered and the lord forces Guigemar to return to his country. The lady is imprisoned within a marble tower and keeps longing for her love. She manages to escape and considers drowning herself in the sea. She then spots the same mysterious ship that had taken Guigemar away long ago and the ship brings her to Brittany, where she is taken captive by a Lord. She is eventually saved and gets together with Guigemar.
  • "Laüstic": There are two knights who live nearby one another in St. Malo. The first knight is older and has a beautiful, refined wife, and the other knight is known for his bravery and adventures. The young man is in love with his neighbour's wife and thanks to both his persistence and reputation, she gives in to his entreaties and falls in love with him. They are never able to meet because of her husband, but they are able to speak through windows over the courtyard and they toss presents to one another. One summer, the lovers rise at night, wanting to adore each other through the windows. The lady's husband gets angry because she's constantly out of their bed. She tells him she gets up to listen to the nightingale's beautiful song. The spiteful husband plans to capture and kill the bird. He does, throws the nightingale at her, staining her dress with its blood. The lady knows she can no longer rise to look at her beloved and is worried he will not understand her absence. She sends her servant with the bird to the knight. The servant complies, and her beloved understands the message. He puts the bird in a small coffin and carries it around with him from that day forever.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: There was an idea at the time (though also controversial at the time) that twins were convinced by a woman getting with two different men. In "Le Fresne", a woman unfairly accuses another woman of infidelity after she bears twins. The accuser later bears twins herself, and unable to prove her innocence, exposes one daughter.

---