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.
Gesta Romanorum and Marie de France’s Laustic teach that men’s lack of self-confidence in love contributes to the allure of the nightingale’s song. … Read the post wife caused nightingale’s death, anxious husband killed for it
Marie de France’s lai Yonec poignantly expresses a young, noble woman’s carnal desire for a young, noble man whom she imagines from a hawk. … Read the post Marie de France appreciated women’s carnal desire for men
In 7th-century England, Earl Tondberht and King Ecgfrith endured sexless marriages with Æthelthryth. She’s a famous Anglo-Saxon saint. They were chumps. … Read the post Tondberht and Ecgfrith in sexless marriages to Æthelthryth
Andreas Capellanus’s medieval treatise De amore indicates that in medieval Europe, natural dread game was more important than supernatural dread game. … Read the post varieties of dread game in Andreas Capellanus’s De amore
Against all the forces that have suppressed men’s dreams, Marie de France in Lanval dared to represent a nearly unspeakable male heterosexual fantasy … Read the post Lanval: Marie de France understood men’s dreams