Yonec Assistant Professor Sandrine Bertaux Marie de France Yonec Assistant Professor Sandrine Bertaux

“The Anonymous Marie de France” (Howard Bloch’s book title) Marie de France: a name given by convention to the author of Harley manuscripts of the British Library (13th century). Three group of literary works: 1)The Lais: twelve short poems in verse preceded by a Prologue: Guigemar, Equitan, Le Fresne, Bisclavret, Lanval, Deus Amanz, Yonec, Laüstic, Milun, Chaitivel, Chevrefoil and Eliduc. Some of these lais are also found in the French national library (Bibliothèque nationale). (around 1170) 2)A collection of Fables (1180) 3) L’Espurgatoire Saint Patrice (Saint Patrick’s Purgatory) (1189) In all three works, Marie asserts her authorship by presenting herself as Marie and as a native of France: “Now that I have begun to compose lays, I shall not cease my effort but shall relate fully in rhyme the adventures that I know. It is my intention and desire henceforth to tell you about Yonec (…)” (p.86)

Historical Context MdF dedicates her work to a king: probably Henry II Norman conquest of England by William, duke of Normandy, 1066. Replaces the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy by the Norman aristocracy

Bayeux Tapestry: The Battle of Hastings

Europe in the age of Henry II and Frederick Barbarossa

Courtly love Development of a court culture in Europe Poems and song written in the vernacular, the spoken language, rather than in Latin. “Antique Romances”– for instance,adaptation of Virgil’s Aneid in Old French and large influence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Troubadours and trouvères The troubadours, lyric poets composed in Occitan having for subject love and the notion of cortesia which literary critics capture as courtly love: the poet expresses an overwhelming love for a married noblewoman, far above him in status. If it underscores hierarchy within the nobility, the message was the power of women. Eleanor of Aquitaine (the wife of Henry II and formerly married to the French king) patronized the troubadours. The lyric love song spread all over Europe. The trouvères sang in Old French in the North. Chivalry: Lancelot was the perfect chivalric knight in love with the wife of his king, the king Arthur.

Marie: the first French woman writing in vernacular language All of Marie’s works involve translation: The lais are oral poems in Breton – part of the Celtic oral tradition-she put from an oral to a written form and translates from Breton to Old French She also claims to translate the Fables from English and the Espurgatoire Saint Patrice from a Latin text. Marie is therefore directly engaged with the linguistic diversity of Anglo-Norman England- Breton, English, Latin, and French.

Translation: Marie claimed not only to translate but to interpret obscure meanings; in her own words to provide a surplus of meaning (“surplus de sen”). Marie is highly conscious that her work is a project involves three meanings of translation: 1) translation as a literal move from one language to another; 2) as a metaphor – the preservation and transfer of learning, the translation from oral to written) and 3) as an interpretation ( a gloss on obscure meanings)

Bodily metamorphoses in Yonec and Christianity The Communion: “She opened the door of the chamber and sent for the priest, who came as quickly as possible, bringing the “corpus domini”. The knight received it and drank the wine from the chalice…”(p.88).

Conclusion Tensions between the knights (the rising cultural value of virtue) and the church : the latter condemns tournaments and refuses to bury those killed in it. In Marie’s lais, they are compatible not antagonistic.

Questions How is the knight’s world described in Yonec? Is it the same as the one of the Lady? How does the transformation man to animal compare with those in Ovid’s Metamorphoses?