Yonec by Marie de France

There was a lord who took a lovely, well-mannered wife in order to have heirs to leave his fortune to. The lord's selfish obsession with his wife caused him to lock his wife in a tower with the lord's sister to maintain her monogamous relationship with the lord. The wife and sister never spoke and the wife lived in the sorrow and pain of the tower for seven years. The wife lost her beauty and wished for death to separate her from this marriage. The wife craves the opportunity to socialize and attend church. 

One day, the lord and sister left the wife alone in the tower. A hawk enters the wife's room and transforms into a handsome knight named Muldumarec. Muldumarec came to the wife in response to her prayers and announces his love for the wife. The sister returns to the tower, causing Muldumarec to leave the wife. Foreshadowing future events, Muldumarec tells the wife, "If it all happens as I've said, and we are indeed betrayed, I will never be able to fly away, except to die."

With the love of Muldumarec, the wife changes her mindset about her circumstances and prefers to exist home alone. This sudden happiness of the wife puzzles the lord and his sister, so they plot to discover the source of the wife's newfound happiness. The lord fakes a journey to see the King and the wife hides behind a curtain to spy on the wife. 

Muldumarec arrives in the wife's window and performs his transformation, scaring the lord's sister. The sister reports her findings to the lord and the lord orders that the knight be trapped and killed. The lord sets up sharp iron spits in the window where the knight makes his entrance. The wife sends for Muldumarec and he is pierced by the iron spits and begins to bleed. Muldumarec offers the wife comfort by stating that the wife will give birth to a son named Yonec who will be the avenger of Muldumarec and his mother. 

The wife leaps from her prison tower and follows the blood trail made by Muldumarec upon his fleeing of the tower. The wife enters the silver city of Muldumarec and finds him sleeping in his golden bed inside a castle. Muldumarec warns the wife to leave the city now or she will be tortured for the injuries made to Muldumarec. Before leaving, Muldumarec gives the wife a ring to wipe the lord's memory and a sword that Yonec must use to kill the lord with. Yonec must be told the story of Muldumarec and adventures. The wife returns to her tower and the lord or his sister ever ask the wife to explain her absence. 

The son of Muldumarec and the wife, Yonec, is born and is dubbed a knight at the appropriate age. The lord, the wife, and Yonec attend a feast in Caerleon where they stay in an abbey. In the chapter room of the abbey, the trio spy a tomb belonging to Muldumarec, unknown to the trio. The wife tells Yonec of Muldumarec's story and dies shortly after. After hearing that the lord murdered Muldumarec, Yonec beheads the lord. The wife was buried beside the lord and Yonec was made lord. 

Lanval by Marie de France

King Arthur was known for his generous gifting to the members of his court, especially during his feasts. Every member of the King's court received gifts except for his knight, Lanval, who was saddened by the King's. Lanval was envied by all of the King's court and was even the son of a king. Lanval went riding on his horse to contemplate his situation. 

Lanval was approached by two beautiful and richly dressed women. These women took Lanval to their elaborate homestead to meet the lady who they serve. The lady was very beautiful and Lanval remarked at how lovely the lady's body was. The maiden said she left her kingdom just to seek Lanval and become subservient to him. The maiden and Lanval give their love to each other and the maiden gives Lanval her body. The maiden requests that Lanval not reveal their love to anyone or else Lanval will never see the maiden again. The maiden furnishes Lanval with fine clothes and feeds him a gracious meal. Lanval leaves the maiden's homestead. 

Upon his homecoming, Lanval holds a feast for no apparent reason. Lanval's feast was a no expense spared occasion, and according to Marie, "Lanval did all man every honor." 

Following Lanval's feast, 30 knights went to play in the land of Queen Guinevere, including the knights Gawain and Yvain. Because the knights did not include Lanval in this outing, they felt very guilty and returned to Lanval to beg him to join them on their outing. Lanval agrees to accompany the knight and upon their arrival, Guinevere brings 30 girls to play with the knights. Lanval retreats by himself far away from others and is followed by Guinevere. Guinevere offers Lanval all of her love and her body. Lanval states he refuses Guinevere's advancements because he does not want to disrespect his King. Guinevere insults Lanval and Lanval's king and says Lanval's king is making a big mistake by keeping Lanval around. 

To the Queen's dismay, Lanval says that one of Lanval's maiden's servants is fairer than even the Queen. This conversation between Guinevere and Lanval causes the Queen to retreat to her bed and demand justice be served. The King was angered by the Queen's accusations against Lanval and the King had his barons fetch Lanval. Lanval reveals his love of the fair maiden to attempt to clear his name with the King.

Lanval calls upon the maiden in his chamber with no reply. Lanval is taken from his chamber and asked to appear in court, which he reluctantly agrees to. 

Lanval was free until his trial if he surrendered hostages. Gawain offers himself for Lanval's bail and the King strips Lanval's hostages of their possessions. Over 100 knights attended Lanval's trial and many knights asked that Lanval is pardoned. Lanval is allowed to defend himself against the Queen's accusations and before this defense could take place, Lanval's lover's maidens rode in on great beasts, asking the King to prepare a place for their fair maiden. Marie says, "Either of these girls was worth more than the Queen was now, or ever before." The Queen becomes angered by the extended length of the trial. 

Just when the court had lost faith in Lanval's maiden's arrival, the fair maiden arrives on a great beast. Marie described the maiden by saying, "My lord, a maiden's come to town, but she's now neither tawny or brown, No--just the most beautiful girl of all girls living in the world." The maiden testifies against the queens accusations and the maiden's account is Lanval's perfect defense. Lanval is acquitted of his charges and rides off with the fair maiden to the land of Avalon. 

Bisclavret by Marie de France

When comparing our first three lais written by Marie de France, it is easy to observe the similarities between Equitan and Bisclavret and observe the differences between Bisclavret and Le Fresne. "Bisclavret" means "garwolf", which is a savage beast of the woods known for eating men and wreaking evil. 

In Bisclavret, a knight marries his beautiful wife and while all seems well, the knight's wife loses her husband every week and demands answers to explain his absences. The demands of his wife place great stress on the knight, who is scared of revealing that in his free moments, the knight prefers to turn into Bisclavret. The knight's wife becomes scared & frustrated that the knight does not trust her and does not wish to share a bed with the knight anymore. The wife demands to know where the knight keeps his clothes, which foreshadows events to come. 

In one of the knight's extended absences as Bisclavret, the wife sends for another long admiring knight as she is craving love and affection, resulting in their engagement. To seal the marriage deal with her new fiance, the wife sends her fiance to steal Bisclavret's clothes at the old chapel where he stores them. 

Bisclavret was thought to be forgotten until the King went hunting in the land of Bisclavret. In a plea of mercy by Bisclavret, the King calls off his hunt and Bisclavret follows the King to his castle. Despite his animalistic tendencies, Bisclavret followed the King around his kingdom as he loved the King. 

During one of the King's parties attended by Bisclavret's former wife and her new husband, Bisclavret twice attacked the wife's new husband. 

Following the party and attacks, Bisclavret's former wife visits the King, where her nose is bitten off in an attack by Bisclavret. The King chalks the attack up to a grudge held by Bisclavret against his former wife and her new husband. In order to get to the bottom of the Grudge, the King sends for the new knight and tortures both the knight and his new wife. The wife admits to her affair with her new husband during her marriage to Bisclavret. The King request that Bisclavret's stolen clothes be located and restored to Bisclavret's possession, which Bisclavret's former wife wholeheartedly disagrees with. 

A wise man tells the King to place Bisclavret with his clothes in the King's room and wait. Bisclavret is no more and the knight's existence is restored to the joy of the King. The knight's former wife and her new knightly husband are expelled from the King's kingdom for betraying her first husband. The wife and her second husband have children that are born without noses.

Le Fresne by Marie de France

Before I analyze Le Fresne, I will give some basic background information about the significance of names in Marie's lai. "Fresne" is a French masculine noun and is also the name of the ash tree in this lai. This contrasts to Le Fresne's sister's name, La Codre, which is a French feminine noun meaning "the hazel", a fruit bearing tree. 

Le Fresne is a lai with a Cinderella-esque theme where two twin sisters (separated at birth) are each at some point in the lai, engaged to be married to Gurun, a noble prince. Le Fresne is raised in a humble manner in the abbey by the abbess. La Codre is raised in a world of privilege by her noble parents. Le Fresne's mother chose to abandon her because when one of Le Fresne's mother's friends became pregnant with twins, Le Fresne's mother accused her friend of having an extramarital affair, resulting in twins. When Le Fresne's mother became pregnant with twins herself, she new she must rid herself of one of the twins in order to save face and maintain her apparent loyalty to her noble husband. While Le Fresne was in fact abandoned by her mother, Le Fresne's mother ensured her daughter's status would be known by wrapping Le Fresne in an elaborate scarf and tying a gold ring to Le Fresne's arm. 

Once Le Fresne developed into a woman, she became known for her incomparable beauty. Noble prince Gurun heard of Le Fresne and her beauty and desired to meet Le Fresne at once. Gurun and Le Fresne began a controversial sexual relationship met by disproval expressed by Gurun's vassal knights. The vassal knights revoke Gurun's feudal rights until he agrees to leave Le Fresne for a noble wife. Enter La Codre, Le Fresne's secret twin sister of noble standing who marries Gurun. 

While Le Fresne is preparing the wedding bed for her La Codre and Gurun, she decorates the bed with the silk brocade she was wrapped in as an orphaned baby. Upon discovering this fine brocade, Le Fresne's biological mother sends for her and upon Le Fresne revealing her possession of the gold ring, Le Fresne's mother realizes Le Fresne is the daughter she abandoned so many years ago. La Codre is separated from Gurun, who now marries Le Fresne as she is granted half of her father's kingdom. La Codre is married to another noble groom.

"Stealing Cinderella" by Chuck Wicks

Ironically, as I was writing this blog post, "Stealing Cinderella" by country music artist Chuck Wicks began playing on my Pandora Radio station. The story painted in this song mirrors some of the events faced by Le Fresne. 

Equitan by Marie de France

Equitan is a lai by Marie de France about the adulterous "courtly love" between Equitan, Equitan's seneschal, and the new bride of Equitan's seneschal. The name "Equitan" references the struggle for equality in status prevalent in Marie's lai. Equitan was a Lord, judge, and king known for his love of sports and amorous sports. The seneschal's bride was beautiful and well kept, which is a commonality found in many of the women in Marie's works. "All Marie's ladies conform to a single physical and moral ideal--pale grey-eyed golden-haired beauties with exquisite bodies and perfect manners and "breeding."" 

As previously stated, Equitan is a "courtly love" story, which is "...a power relationship in which the man "serves" the lady..." "There is nothing she could tell him to do that he wouldn't do, if he could--Maddness or wisdom, folly or good." Equitan is not the stereotypical "courtly love" story in which the wife of a noble is in a secret relationship with one of the noble's knights (seneschals). Instead, Equitan is a lai about the relationship between a king and the wife of the king's seneschals. This is a point of scandal and concern in the lai, especially in regards to how the seneschal's wife feels about the obvious financial and social standings of herself and the king. The seneschal's wife said to the king, "As lovers, were an uneven pair." This concerns the seneschal's wife because she believes that love is worthless without equality.

Hygiene practices such as bathing and blood letting are very important components of this lai as bathing is ultimately a murder weapon used in the close of this lai. Equitan is ironic because Equitan starts out as a man of sport and over the course of the lai becomes a sickly patient participating in blood letting and frequent bathing. Equitan plots to murder his seneschal by scalding water in order for Equitan to have the ability to marry the wife of Equitan's seneschal. Equitan falls prey to his own evil doing and dies by the very scalding water he planted to trap his seneschal. The following quote by Marie very accurately sums up the moral the story of Equitan: "He who seeks to harm his neighbor will be the victim of his own labor."

The events taking place in Equitan remind me of the events encounter in Hansel and Gretel. In Equitan, Equitan planned to scald his seneschal in a boiling tub, but instead fell prey to his own evil doing. In Hansel and Gretel, the evil cannibalistic witch plans to cook Hansel and Gretel in her oven/boiling pot (depending on translation), but the witch's plan is foiled when Gretel pushes the witch into the witch's oven/pot, killing the witch. Both stories serve as reminders that what goes around, comes around. 

Prologue to the Lais by Marie de France

Marie de France is famous for her twelve lais, which are either poetic or musical works composed of rhymed stanzas containing 6-16 lines, with each line having 4-8 syllables per line (Marie preferred poems with 8 syllables per line (octosyllabic)). Even more specifically, Marie is famous for her work with Breton lais, which are short, rhymed romances containing supernatural and chivalric components. 

The first few opening lines of Marie's Prologue to the Lais are as follows: "Whoever gets knowledge from God, science, and a talent for speech, eloquence, shouldn't shut up or hide away; No that person should gladly display." These lines instantly made me think of Dr. Nido R. Qubein and his contributions not only to High Point University (HPU), but to the entire world through his renowned motivational books and speeches. Had Dr. Qubein chosen to ignore his gift to communicate and build connections with others, I am certain the modern organization that is High Point University would not be functioning at the capacity it is capable of in 2015. Dr. Qubein has helped foster an environment that allows the students of HPU to flourish not only during their college career, but also in their life beyond college. 

Finally, I could not help myself, as I once again found similar messages in the following quotes by Dr. Qubein and Marie de France:

"Whoever wants to be safe from vice should study and learn (heed this advice) and undertake some difficult labor; Then trouble is a distant neighbor--From great sorrows one can escape." - Marie de France

"Your present circumstances don't determine where you go; they merely determine where you start." - Dr. Nido R. Qubein 

A Room of One's Own (Chapter 4) by Virginia Woolf

Female poets were few and far between in the 16th century, as these women were thought to be disturbed if if they created written works like Virgina Woolf. According to Woolf, "What one would expect to find would be that rather later perhaps some great lady would take advantage of her comparative freedom and comfort to publish something with her name to it and risk being thought a monster." The talent of so many female writers such as Woolf and Margaret Cavendish was stifled by rigid gender expectations guarded by 16th century men. Florence Nightingale best summed up the conditions women of the 16th century faced in the following statement: "women never have an half hour... that they can call their own." In order to hone their craft, early female authors observed the intricacies of character and analyzed the values of emotions. 

Female authors such as Virgina Woolf and Margaret Cavendish paved the way for future female authors like Aphra Behn, who proved that a woman can make a living by the work of her pen. The acts of Behn and other women like her made it possible for 18th century women to become extremely involved in cultural activities, such as talking, meeting, and writing essays about the works of Shakespeare. 

Although Aphra Behn was an author and only earned enough money to make ends meet, I cannot help but draw comparisons between Behn and Henrietta "Hetty" Green, who was known as "The Witch of Wall Street". Green was famous for her miserliness and careful investment techniques which led her to be considered the wealthiest woman in America during the late 19th century. Like Behn's successes in the male dominated world of writing, Green was famous for her extreme successes in the male dominated worlds of business and finance. Like early female writers practicing their secret craft, Green too had cultivated a hardened image by wearing all black clothing in order to portray a confident, "don't mess with me" attitude.