Marie de France probably wrote late in the twelfth century in England or France. She wrote poetry primarily in Anglo-Norman French, but also knew Latin and English. Her surviving works are mainly lais and fables. Twelve lais are attributed to Marie de France, while another twenty-four lais (“anonymous lais”) have also survived. The latter lais are now readily available in Burgess & Brook’s Twenty-Four Lays from the French Middle Ages (2016). While all the lais concern relationships and are thus important to men, Marie de France’s lais are particularly important to men. Marie de France appreciated the challenges and difficulties in men’s lives and showed keen sensitivity for men as a gender.
The medieval French lais Tyolet and Tydorel, like Chrétien de Troyes’s Perceval, show the warped personalities and violent tendencies of fatherless sons. … Read the post Tyolet and Tydorel underscore Perceval’s devastating father-death
In the medieval lai Desiré, a knight’s illicit sex with a fairy-woman caused him to fall into gyno-idolatry, but she perversely saved him. … Read the post sanctifying Desiré’s sexual relationship with a fairy
The cuckolding (chastity) tests of lais Cor & Mantel show men’s solidarity, but men aren’t effectively demanding gender equality in parental knowledge. … Read the post lais Cor & Mantel: men’s solidarity in being cuckolded
In Marie de France’s lai Equitan, the seneschal’s wife has a love affair with the self-abasing King Equitan and kills her husband. More deaths then come. … Read the post Marie de France’s Equitan on self-abasing men & women who kill men
Unlike modern stereotypes of medieval romance, the lais Graelent and Guingamor frankly depict queens sexually harassing knights. … Read the post no medieval romance: queens sexually harass Graelent & Guingamor