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.
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.
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