The lais of Marie de France

The lais of Marie de France, are a collection of short stories that exam romanticism during the medieval era. Marie de France''s lais, told in octosyllabic, or eight syllable verse, are notable for their celebration of love, individuality of character, and vividness of description – hallmarks of the emerging literature of the times. Five different manuscripts contain one or more of the lais, but only one, Harley 978, a thirteenth century manuscript housed in the British Library, preserves all twelve. It has been suggested that if the author had indeed arranged the Lais as presented in Harley 978, that she may chosen this overall structure to contrast the positive and negative actions that can result from love. The stories include Guigemar
Equitan
Le Fresne (''The Ash Tree'')
Bisclavret (''The Werewolf'')
Lanval
Les Deux Amants (''The Two Lovers'')
Yonec
Laüstic (''The Nightingale'')
Milun
Chaitivel (''The Four Sorrows'')
Chevrefoil (''The Honeysuckle'')
Eliduc
and all include elements of magic, love mistaken identity or adultery. Marie also does something different in that she attempts to not only empower women in her lais, but she also manages to create evil women that create adultery. What Marie does that is different from the era is that she puts women as the central and leading characters in nearly all of her lais, and in tern is one of the developing writers of female fiction and feminism.