Lais of Marie de France
Twelve Anglo-Norman lais celebrating courtly love and moral instruction.
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They are thought to have been composed between 1155 and 1170 and focus on courtly love and adventure.[1] Only one 13th-century manuscript, Harley 978, preserves all twelve lais.[2]
Quick Facts
- Field
- Anglo-Norman literature, medieval French literature
- Known for
- Twelve narrative Breton lais celebrating courtly love
- Language
- Anglo-Norman
- Manuscript
- Harley 978 (13th-century, British Library)
Facts from the source article.
Making and release
Marie de France likely wrote the Lais around 1170, according to scholarly estimates.[3] She claimed to be translating them from Breton or possibly Welsh sources.[3] The poems are written in octosyllabic verse and celebrate love with vivid character descriptions.[2] Marie's Anglo-Norman language was the dialect of the aristocracy in England and northern France.[3]
Her Lais were read in her own time, often in the original French.[3] The twelve Lais and their prologue survive in the mid-13th century manuscript BN MS Harley 978.[3] These lais were translated into Old Norse as part of the collection called Strengleikar, making them early examples of such translation work.[4] In the Harley 978 arrangement, the lais placed in odd positions (like "Guigemar" and "Le Fresne") celebrate characters who show love for others, while those in even positions (such as "Equitan" and "Bisclavret") caution against self-centered love.[2]
What the cited sources add
Judy Shoaf's translation notes that Marie's French is "easy" and her poems are relatively short compared to contemporary verse romances.[3] Shoaf observes that Marie uses an "historical present" tense, switching between past and present more than English allows.[3] The translator notes that Marie's tendency is to make each line a grammatically complete unit, unlike Shoaf's own enjambed verse.[3] The translator acknowledges that her English verse form might be called "doggerel" and cannot match Marie's limpid effect.[3]
Shoaf thanks members of Arthurnet for encouragement and criticism of her translation.[3] Shoaf's translation excludes four lais from the Harley manuscript: Guigemar, Milun, Les deuz amanz, and Eliduc, leaving only eight of the twelve.[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "Lais of Marie de France" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: KHANMOHAMADI, "Salvage Anthropology and Displaced Mourning in the "Lais" of Marie de France", Arthuriana, 2011, p. 49–69; "The Lais of Marie de France Judy Shoaf", people.clas.ufl.edu; Greenblatt, "The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A", W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012, p. 142; Greenblatt, "The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume A", W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012, p. 142 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lais of Marie de France" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ferrante, Joan M. "A New History of French Literature," p. 53, Edited by Denis Hollier. Harvard University Press, 1994; Ferrante, Joan M. "A New History of French Literature," p. 53, Edited by Denis Hollier. Harvard University Press, 1994; Ferrante, Joan M. "A New History of French Literature," p. 53, Edited by Denis Hollier. Harvard University Press, 1994 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "The Lais of Marie de France Judy Shoaf", people.clas.ufl.edu. facts only, no text reused. people.clas.ufl.edu
- Wikipedia, "Lais of Marie de France" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Strengleikar: An Old Norse Translation of Twenty-one Old French Lais, ed. and trans. by Robert Cook and Mattias Tveitane, Norrøne tekster, 3 (Oslo: Norsk histor (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Lais of Marie de France (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Poetry Collections And Epic Poems
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Lais of Marie de France (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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