ACC Final Marie de France

Laustic themes

secret courtly love physically restricted by marriage and social control

Laustic plot

married woman and knight neighbor have an affair from their windows, woman tells husband she stays up to hear nightingale sing, husband kills bird, woman sends bird to knight, knight puts bird in jeweled reliquary

Lanval themes

fantasy, idealized courtly love contrasting flawed Arthurian court society.

Lanval plot

King Arthur rejects knight, knight meets fairy offering happiness love and wealth for secrecy, knight rejects Queen Guinevere’s advances, knight reveals beautiful fairy, knight put on trial, no fairy, Fairy appears/ proves innocence, happily every after in Avalon

Yonec themes

supernatural romance to critique possessive marriage, revenge against patriarchal control

Yonec plot

jealous old man imprisons his wife in a tower, hawk flies through the window and transforms into the knight, knight proves his Christianity, begin a secret supernatural love affair, husband places iron spikes in the window, knight is mortally wounded, lady is pregnant with a son who will avenge them, lady follows the wounded knight into his magical kingdom and receives his sword and prophecy, son learns the truth about his father, son kills his stepfather with his father’s sword

Andreas Capellanus Courty love rule 1

Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.

Andreas Capellanus Courty love rule 2

He who is not jealous cannot love.

Andreas Capellanus Courty love rule 3

No one can be bound by a double love.

Guigemar themes

courtly love, emotional awakening, loyalty, healing through love, and liberation from imprisonment

Guigemar plot

respected knight but feels no desire for women, while hunting hurts a magical white hind that curses him with an unhealable wound, only a woman who suffers equally for love can heal him, discovers a mysterious unmanned ship and is carried across the sea, brought to a jealous old lord’s castle with a beautiful wife, lady nurses him back to health and begin secret affair, loyalty tests through knotted shirt and magical belt, jealous husband discovers the affair and sends knight away, refuses all women because none can untie the knot in his shirt, lady eventually escapes and reunite when she unties the knot in his shirt and he recognizes her belt, knight that kidnapped her refuses to return her, war and he defeats the knight

Chaitivel themes

satirizes courtly love by showing how competition for prestige and admiration leads to pointless suffering and death

Chaitivel plot

a beautiful noblewoman is admired by many knights, four noble knights fall in love with the lady and compete, lady refuses to choose one lover because she does not want to lose the attention of the other three, four knights wear her tokens and perform chivalric deeds, three of the knights are killed and the fourth is severely wounded, lady mourns all four knights and arranges honorable burials, lady says she wants to compose a lai called “The Four Sorrows”, surviving knight argues the lai should instead be called “The Unfortunate One”

Bisclavret themes

challenges appearances defining morality by portraying the werewolf as more noble and human than the treacherous wife and her lover

Bisclavret plot

man disappears into the woods for three days every week, worrying his wife, reveals that he secretly transforms into a werewolf, explains that he must hide his clothes in order to return to human form, wife plots to get rid of him and reconnects with another knight who desires her, wife steals hidden clothes with the help of her lover, trapping him permanently as a werewolf, during a hunt, the king encounters the wolf, who behaves rationally and begs for mercy instead of attacking, king brings wolf back to court and protects him, wolf violently attacks the knight who betrayed him and tears off his exwife’s nose, counselor realizes attacks must be connected to betrayal, wife confesses, returns clothes privately so he can transform back into a man, recovers his lands, and is restored to honor by the king

poems sung in the tradition of courtly love, religion of love

lais

stock character for female audience, unhappily married

mal mariee

bird impregnating woman as mary’s miraculous conception, hawk pierced for love as jesus

religious imagery in Lanval

jesus in cave for 3 days, birth of christ visited by three wise men, chapel

religious imagery in Bisclavret