Breton lai

A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short (typically 600–1000 lines), rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs. The word "lay" or “lai” is derived from the Celtic word laid, meaning "song".^[1]

The earliest Breton lais to survive in writing are probably The Lais of Marie de France, thought to have been composed in the 1170s by Marie de France, a French poet living in England in the late 12th and early 13th century. From descriptions in Marie's lais, and in several anonymous Old French lais of the 13th century, we know of earlier lais of Celtic origin, perhaps more lyrical in style, sung by Breton minstrels. It is believed that these Breton lyric lais, none of which has survived, were introduced by a summary narrative setting the scene for a song, and that these summaries became the basis for the narrative lais.

The earliest written Breton lais were composed in a variety of Old French dialects, and some half dozen lais are known to have been composed in Middle English in the 13th and 14th centuries by various English authors.

[edit] Old French Lais

• The Lays of Marie de France — twelve canonical lais generally accepted as those of Marie de France.
• The so-called Anonymous Lais — eleven lais of disputed authorship. While these lais are occasionally interspersed with the Marian lais in Medieval manuscripts, scholars do not agree that these lais were actually written by Marie.
• 'The Lay of the Beach', one of around twenty Old French lais translated into Old Norwegian prose in the 13th century. This lai gives a detailed description of William the Conqueror's commissioning of what appears to be a lyric lai to commemorate a period spent at Barfleur.

[edit] Middle English Lais

• 'Sir Orfeo', 'Sir Degaré', 'Sir Gowther', 'Emaré' and 'The Erle of Toulouse', all by anonymous authors
• 'Lay le Freine', a translation of Marie de France's 'Le Fresne'
• 'The Franklin's Tale' from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. ('The Wife of Bath's Tale' is sometimes identified as a Breton lai, but in fact it contains none of the generally-agreed defining features of the genre.)
• 'Sir Launfal', by Thomas Chestre (a retelling of an earlier Middle English lai, 'Landavale', itself a translation of Marie de France's 'Lanval')

[edit] External links

• The Lais of Marie de France, in Old French from the University of Manitoba
• Online verse translations by Judith P. Shoaf
• Many of the Anonymous Old French Lais with English translations from the University of Liverpool
• The Franklin's Tale at the Electronic Canterbury Tales
• The Middle English Lais at TEAMS Middle English Texts

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ Marie de France, "Les Lais de Marie de France", p. 13, traduits et annotés par Harf-Lancner, L., Livre de Poche 1990.