#MarieDeFrance

[whencyclopedia]

Twelve Famous Women of the Middle Ages

Women in the Middle Ages were frequently characterized as second-class citizens by the Church and the patriarchal aristocracy. Women's status was somewhat elevated in the High and Late Middle Ages by the cult of the Virgin Mary and courtly love poetry but, even so, women were still considered inferior to men owing to biblical narratives and the patriarchy.

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[whencyclopedfr]

Guenièvre

Guenièvre est la reine de l'île de Bretagne, l'épouse du roi Arthur et l'amante de Sir Lancelot dans les légendes arthuriennes, mieux connues sous leur forme normalisée dans Le Morte d'Arthur de Sir Thomas Malory (1469). Elle apparaît pour la première fois dans l'Histoire des rois de Bretagne de Geoffroy de Monmouth (1136) en tant qu'épouse d'Arthur. Elle est alors enlevée par son neveu Mordred et doit être sauvée par Arthur, mais son personnage reste peu développé jusqu'à ce que Chrétien de Troyes (écrit vers 1159-1190) ne la place au centre de l'intrigue de son Lancelot ou le chevalier de la charrette (vers 1177).

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[freddisetgo]

Lanval

So recently for a class I’ve read Marie d’France’s Lais and I was particularly taken with the story of Lanval because it’s such a flip of the chivalric romances I’ve been reading for my thesis. It’s very short and you can find the text online because it’s an Arthurian story that really has it all and honestly deserves a movie. A sanitized version would make an AWESOME Disney movie.

So, Lanval is a knight in King Arthur’s court and is the son of a foreign king. He does everything he’s supposed to but he’s still pretty poor as far as knights go. This is because he’s too polite to ask Arthur for a raise, or even a paycheck despite having earned it. The other knights (*cough* Lancelot,Perceval,and Kay, the mean girls/heathers of the round table *cough*) are jealous of Lanval’s hair and prowess and don’t remind Arthur either.

So, concerned about his money issues, Lanval goes for a hunt to get himself some dinner when he comes across two beautiful maidens with greyhounds in sheer, floaty dresses. It should be noted that in some versions they GLOW. Anyway, they ask Lanval to follow them to the swankiest glamping site ever to meet their lady, a Fae from Avalon, who is beautiful, rich, and his #1 fan. Here’s the first twist: she is the one who approaches Lanval romantically, in a speech very much in the vein of knights woo’ing their ladies in courtly romances. These speeches follow a pattern of “please love me or I’ll die, I’ll do anything for you just love me.” The fairy lady even offers Lanval riches and castles if he doesn’t mention their tryst. She is providing for him and being very proactive, and I’m assuming because Lanval likes proactive,forceful ladies he has heart-eyes for her too.

Enter Guinevere, who is hunting for her next adulterous lover. She approaches Lanval, who up until now has never been interested in any of the maidens at court. So she ham-fistedly gives him a similar flirtatious speech as the fairy lady, except Guinevere is clearly more sexual in her advances. When Lanval rejects her, Guinevere decides to take the lowest possible road and implies that Lanval is gay and threatens his station and probably his life over it. Lanval then defends his “honor” by pulling the first instance of the “I have a girlfriend, she’s super hot but she’s not from here so you don’t know her” trope. Guinevere then stomps off, tells Arthur that Lanval won’t sleep with her and Arthur promptly puts Lanval on trial for not letting Guinevere cheat on him.

So the trial takes place and the knights who actually like Lanval, mostly Gawain, are trying to defend him. The trial is continuously interrupted by increasingly beautiful and scantily clad fairy maidens asking if Arthur has any vacancies for the Lady of Avalon who is coming to visit him. Arthur keeps sending off random knights to help them set up a room, and Gawain is asking Lanval if any of the 8 ladies who passed by are his girlfriend. When all of a sudden Lanval’s unnamed fairy gf comes in on a pure white horse, in a GORGEOUS glowing gown, and tells Arthur she’s here to rescue her boyfriend. Lanval is psyched and announces this is his lady-love and Arthur asserts that she is in fact hotter than his wife, which means Lanval is innocent. Satisfied, the lady picks up Lanval and carries him off Princess-style to the land of Avalon to be her consort.

I love this story not only because we get to see hints of Arthur and Guinevere’s characters in not necessarily the most flattering way, but we also have the best fairytale tropes. It’s got fairies, damsels in distress and magic. But my all time favorite is the fact that it’s Lanval’s girlfriend, not Lanval who saves the day and solves the problems. Just like it’s Guinevere who’s the main antagonist. Lanval is our princess in this story, he’s the damsel-in-distress, and the way he leaves Arthur’s court for Avalon at the end is a punctuation of this. The ladies here are overtly sexual, and they’re proactive. The men here just follow their leads.I can’t recommend this story enough, it’s such a breath of fresh air and I keep coming back to it. 10/10.

[faireladypenumbra]

My purchases from the bookstore this week were mostly school books, but I also added some new poetry and research to my collection. #amreading #poetry #mariedefrance #hgwells #booksofinstagram #bookstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BszjICVnDhu/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=j5p6w26cm50m

[womenauthorsinhistory]

Radegund (Latin: Radegunda; c.520 — 13 August 587) was a Thuringian princess and Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. She is the patron saint of several churches in France and England and of Jesus College, Cambridge. The poet Venantius Fortunatus and the bishop, hagiographer, and historian, Gregory of Tours, were close friends with Radegund and wrote extensively about her. She wrote Latin poems to Fortunatus on tablets that have been lost. The three of them seem to have been close and Fortunatus' relations with Radegund seem to have been based on friendship. There are two poems written in the voice of Radegund, De Excidio Thoringiae and Ad Artachin. While it has been proposed that Venantius wrote them, recent historians see her as the author. In her book Woman Under Monasticism: Chapters on Saint-Lore and Convent Life between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1500, Lina Eckenstein drew the attention of modern readers to the rebellion of the nuns at Poitiers after the death of Radegund, during which, for a period of two years, they refused to accept a new abbess who had been appointed by the male Catholic hierarchy. #womenartist #womanwriter #neverthelessshepersisted #girlsruntheworld #girlscandoanything #womenempowerment #femaleempowerment #womenartistsinhistory #womenauthorsinhistory #women #womenwriters #womenwritersofinstagram #womenshistory #history #lais #fables #mariedefrance #franks #germanicwomen #frenchwriters #french #frenchwomen https://www.instagram.com/p/BovLuUlAXeX/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=n6ivfy7cjyf4

[earnestscribblr]

Off for a week because the library is closed between Christmas and New Year’s (bless!). Going to spend tonight listening to a medieval Christmas mix while reading a book of fables by Marie de France and diffusing a medieval essential oils mix (rosemary and thyme). #historynerd #mariedefrance #medievalfables https://www.instagram.com/p/CYDeBqlu_Hq/?utm_medium=tumblr

[oldenglishpoetry]

Five from the Arthurian shelf (almost shelves). Chretien's Romances are pretty intricate stuff. He plays the long game with history. One's progenee IS one's motive or a eucatastrophe. Marie de France - of course briefer, but potent and fascinating turns of phrase. Have not finished Mabinogion. #arthur #kingarthur #arthurian #arthurianlegend #arthurianlegends #arthurianliterature #arthurianlit #chretiendetroyes #chrétiendetroyes #mariedefrance #lancelot #knightofthecart #yvain #yvaine #knightofthelion #erecandenide #lanval #mabinogion #welshmythology #welshkingarthur #padraiccolum #burtonraffel #penguinclassics #everymanslibrary #bookstagram (at Nashville, Tennessee) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuJg973A4VE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mml7ra5gkf1q

[nicolaroseactress-blog]

I played a nun today! #screentime #nun #mariedefrance #medieval #lais #barnardcollege #french #francais

[authorkarajorgensen]

Complimentary textbook? Don't mind if I do. If you've never read Marie de France's medieval romances/Brenton lais, you really should. #amreading #mariedefrance #lais #medievalromance #chivalry #medieval #medievalliterature #itslit #academia #nortonanthology #professorlife

[postmetaectotranscendentalism]

My coffee cup today matched My books 📚 #biocup #biocupartseries #penguin #penguinclassics #Orange #black #reading #bookish #bibliophile #virgil #classics #goethe #lesmis #mariedefrance #literature #study #studygram #coffee #espresso #plato #euripides #sophocles

[muspeccoll]

This #MarbledMonday, we are welcoming autumn with the endpapers from a collection of French fabliaux.⠀ PQ1319 .L43 1779⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #marbledpaper #endpapers #mariedefrance #fables #bibliophile #bookstagram #booklover #rarebooks #specialcollections #librariesofinstagram #iglibraries #mizzou #universityofmissouri #ellislibrary #ifttt

[whencyclopedfr]

Marie de France

Marie de France (active c.1160-1215) était une poétesse et traductrice polyglotte, la première poétesse de France et une voix littéraire de premier plan dans l'Europe du XIIe siècle. On dit (de façon controversée) qu'elle fit à elle seule du roman de chevalerie un genre littéraire à part entière, contribua à l'évolution de la légende arthurienne et fit du lai breton (un court poème) une forme d'art reconnue. Parmi les ouvrages publiés de Marie se trouvent :

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[womenauthorsinhistory]

~Marie de France~ (fl. 1160 to 1215) was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court of King Henry II of England. Virtually nothing is known of her life; both her given name and its geographical specification come from her manuscripts. She is considered by scholars to be the first female French poet. Marie de France wrote in Francien with some Anglo-Norman influence. She was proficient in Latin, as were most authors and scholars, as well as English, and possibly Breton. She is the author of the Lais of Marie de France. She translated Aesop's Fablesfrom Middle English into Anglo-Norman French and wrote Espurgatoire seint Partiz, Legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick, based upon a Latin text. Recently, she has been (tentatively) identified as the author of a saint's life, The Life of Saint Audrey. Her Lais, in particular, were and still are widely read and influenced the subsequent development of the romance/heroic literature genre. #womenartist #womanwriter #neverthelessshepersisted #girlsruntheworld #girlscandoanything #womenempowerment #femaleempowerment #womenartistsinhistory #womenauthorsinhistory #women #womenwriters #womenwritersofinstagram #womenshistory #history #lais #fables #mariedefrance #englishwriters #frenchwriters #french #frenchwomen https://www.instagram.com/p/BoboXKXgMHk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1e2amo3z2r0cy