Lais of Marie de France tales

Lais of Marie de France tales

The Guigmar Tale

This tale tells the story of a knight called Guigmar who does not believe or have any interest in love. In his endeavours, Guigmar meets a magical deer that curses him and tells Guigmar that the curse can only be lifted once he finds a woman he can pine (Burgess 3). Guigmar journeys across the see using a magical boat, and Guigmar fell in love with the wife of the lord of the land who banishes Guigmar after finding out the relationship with his wife. Guigmar leaves with his heartbroken, but the two are reunited when the woman travels to Guigmar’s land using the magical boat. Guigmar rescues the woman from her husband, and they live together, fall in love, and the curse is lifted.

The Equitant Tale

The equitant is a tale of a ruler who has an affair with the wife of his seneschal. The king and the woman decide that they want to live together, but the seneschal is an obstacle to their love story. The two plots to kill the seneschal to get him out of the way of their relationship (Burgess 10). The plan never works as one day the seneschal finds them together and kills them. The irony of this tale is that the villains die by the same strategy they had planned..

The Le Fresne Tale

This is a story where a woman gives birth to twins, and because of the fear of being scorned for giving birth to twins. She decides to give away one of the young twin girls who is raised in an abbey. The little girl grows into a selfless and noble young lady who gets into an affair with the ruler of the land (Burgess 20). When the ruler is forced to get a spouse, he unknowingly marries the other twin. Le Fresne shows kindheartedness towards the two and offers the tokens of what her mother had bequeathed her. She finally reveals identity and announces herself worthy of having a wedding to the lord of the land.

Roman de Renart

It is a tale that tells of a very clever and cunning fox called Reynard who had a lot of friends such as the king lion, the rooster the bear and the cat while on the other hand Isengrim as his rival. Reynard uses his canniness to trick the wolf into going fishing while he steals his food. He also tricks the wolf into dressing like a shepherd so that he can capture a lamb for dinner which does not end well. His cunning behaviour continues until the other animal report the matter to the king lion, where he is found guilty. During Reynard’s funeral, he jumps out of his coffin that he even escapes death.

Work cited

Burgess, Glyn S. The Lais of Marie De France: Text and Context. Manchester University Press, 1987.

Simpson, J. R. Animal body, literary corpus: The old French “Roman de Renart”. (1996).