Five manuscripts contain one or more of Marie’s lais;
only Harley 978 contains a general prologue, which
presents the twelve lais that follow as a collection spe-
cifi cally arranged by the author (the same manuscript
also contains a complete collection of the Fables).
Marie appears to be the initiator of a narrative genre
that fl ourished between about 1170 and the late 13th
century. About forty narrative lais are extant. The lyric
lai, which fl ourished from the 12th to the 15th century,
seems to be an unrelated form.
The prologues and epilogues that frame each of
Marie’s tales refer to the lais performed by Breton story-
tellers in commemoration of past adventures truly lived.
Celtic and English place-names and personal names
corroborate Marie’s claimed sources: four lais take
place in Brittany, three in Wales, two in both places, and
one in an undetermined Bretagne. Marie did not simply
write down orally circulating stories. Her artfully crafted
compositions combine the written traditions of Latin
and vernacular writings with the legendary materials
of Celtic and popular tales. While it may be impossible
to untangle historical reference and literary topos in
Marie’s repeated claim to retell well-known lais bretons,
her indications suggest a process of transmission that
begins with an adventure heard by Bretons, who then
compose a lai, sung with harp accompaniment. Marie
has heard the music and the adventure, the latter perhaps
told as a prelude to the song. She then tells us the adven-
ture in rhymed octosyllables, the form used also in the
Fables and the Espurgatoire, elaborating simultaneously
its truth, or reisun (cf. the razos in the Provençal lyric
tradition). The title itself, carefully designated in each
case and sometimes translated into several languages,
guarantees the authenticity of the process.
The general prologue opens with a traditional exor-
dium on the obligation of writers to share their talents
and then cites the authority of Priscian to describe the
relationship between ancient and modern writers: do
philosopher-poets hide a surplus of meaning to be
found later in the obscurities of their writing, or do later,
more subtle poets add it to their predecessors’ works?
Scholars have variously interpreted these verses (9–22):
we are drawn into the problem of interpretation at the
very moment the subject of glossing is introduced by
Marie’s authorial persona. She then explains the nature
of her project: not a translation from the Latin as many
have done, but something new, demanding hard labor
and sleepless nights, the writing down in rhyme of those
adventures commemorated in lais. Hoping to receive
great joy in return, Marie then offers her collection to
an unnamed king. She names herself in the following
verses, printed by modern editors as the prologue to
Guigemar (ll. 3–4) but set off in the manuscript only by
a large capital indicating a new section (G1).
The twelve lais that follow in Harley 978 are Guige-
mar (886 lines), Equitan (314), Fresne (518), Bisclavret
(318), Lanval (646), Deus amanz (254), Yonec (558),
Laüstic (160), Milun (534), Chaitivel (240), Chievrefoil
(118), and Eliduc (1184). As indicated by the consider-
able variations in length, the lais offer great diversity,
but they also operate as a collection unifi ed by the
themes of love and adventure. Indeed, they seem to
invite exploration as an open-ended set of theme and
variations, in which Marie reveals the complexities and
varieties of human experience, without trying to contain
them within the confi nes of any single doctrine of love.
Heroes and heroines, all noble, beautiful, and courteous,
are individualized not by psychological development but
by the situations in which they fi nd themselves. Con-
sider the two short anecdotes that constitute Laüstic and
Chievrefoil. Both involve a love triangle: married couple
plus lover. Chievrefoil relates an episode in the story of
Tristan and Iseut, a secret reunion of the lovers vouch-
safed during one of Tristan’s returns from exile. Whereas
Marc here remains ignorant of the tryst, the husband of
Laüstic discovers his wife’s nocturnal meetings with her
lover. Although their affair remains innocent, limited
to their mutual gaze across facing windows, the angry
husband puts an end to their meetings by trapping and
killing the nightingale the lady claims as reason for her
nightly visits to the window. When the lady sends to her
lover the nightingale’s body wrapped in an embroidered
cloth, along with a messenger to explain the events, he
has a golden box made, adorned with precious stones.
The nightingale’s body is placed in it, and the reliquary
accompanies him wherever he goes—hence the name
of the lai: laüstic is the Breton word for russignol in
French, nihtegale in English (ll. 3–6).
The emblem that thus closes the lai fi gures the end
of the lovers’ meetings, though it may also suggest the
triumph of continued love, however impossible to real-
ize: optimistic and pessimistic readings of the ending are
both possible. The emblem of Chievrefoil also testifi es
to the enduring nature of Tristan and Iseut’s love: just as
the hazelwood dies (so it was thought) if the honeysuckle
growing around it was cut away, so the two lovers would
die if separated: “Bele amie, si est de nus: ne vus sanz
mei, ne jeo sanz vus” (ll. 77–78). But while that phrasing
is negative, what we see realized in this episode is the
reunion of the lovers thanks to the piece of hazelwood
that Tristan prepares as a signal to Iseut, so that the queen
will know he must be hiding in the woods near the route
of her cortege. Whereas the emblem of Laüstic ends the
lovers’ meetings, Chievrefoil’s emblem initiates Tristan
and Iseut’s reunion, as it symbolizes their love. And just
as the repetition of characters, scenes, and situations in
Laüstic and Chievrefoil creates doubles, echoes, and
contrasts in positive and negative variations at all levels
of the text, so the tendency to present and explore dif-
ferent combinations of the same materials characterizesMARIE DE FRANCE