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108:, a French poet writing in England at Henry II's court between the late 12th and early 13th centuries. 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
115:. It is believed that these Breton lyrical 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.
95:; on the continent the songs were performed in various places by harpists, minstrels, storytellers. Zipes reports the earliest recorded lay is Robert Biker's Lai du Cor, dating to the mid- to late-12th century.
162:— 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.
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Take the Fair Face of Woman, and Gently
Suspending, With Butterflies, Flowers, and Jewels Attending, Thus Your Fairy is Made of Most Beautiful Things
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199:(the 'Lay of the Beach', composed by 'the Red Lady of Brittany', the surviving account of which gives a detailed description of
380:, ed. and trans. by Robert Cook and Mattias Tveitane, Norrøne tekster, 3 (Oslo: Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt, 1979).
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See, for instance, Colette Stévanovitch, "Enquiries into the
Textual History of the Seventeenth-Century Sir Lambewell", in
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295:(a retelling of an earlier Middle English lai, 'Landavale', itself a translation of Marie de France's '
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414:, eds. Leo Carruthers, Raeleen Chai-Elsholz, Tatjana Silec. New York: Palgrave, 2011. 193-204.
315:"lay, n.4." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford UP. 21 April 2010.
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Zipes writes that
Arthurian legends may have been brought from Wales, Cornwall and Ireland to
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into
Continental Europe. An example of a 14th-century Breton lai has the king of the
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Claire Vial, "The Middle
English Breton Lays and the Mists of Origin", in
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Several lais are known only in Old Norse translation, translated into
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dialects, and some half dozen lais are known to have been composed in
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Strengleikar: An Old Norse
Translation of Twenty-one Old French Lais
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motifs. The word "lay" or "lai" is thought to be derived from the
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The earliest written Breton lais were composed in a variety of
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prose in the thirteenth century, where they were known as the
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Palimpsests and the
Literary Imagination of Medieval England
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Palimpsests and the
Literary Imagination of Medieval England
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in the 13th and 14th centuries by various
English authors.
76:, which means play, melody, or song, or as suggested by
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The earliest of the Breton lais to survive is probably
401:(Oxford University Press), retrieved 7 April 2013.
244:', a translation of Marie de France's 'Le Fresne'
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277:Which layes with hir instrumentz they songe,
141:carrying away a wife to the land of fairy.
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16:Short, rhymed tales of love and chivalry
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268:Thise olde gentil Bretouns in hir dayes
261:. The Franklin describes his tale thus:
491:Arthurian literature in Middle English
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280:Or elles redden hem for hir plesaunce.
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462:at TEAMS Middle English Texts
190:Tveggia elskanda strengleikr
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428:The Lais of Marie de France
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445:Anonymous Old French Lais
438:Online verse translations
431:, in Old French from the
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481:Anglo-Norman literature
449:University of Liverpool
344:. Oxford UP. 2009 62-63
433:University of Manitoba
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201:William the Conqueror
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304:Notes and references
235:The Erle of Toulouse
454:The Franklin's Tale
399:Oxford Music Online
249:The Franklin's Tale
212:Middle English Lais
476:Lais (poetic form)
440:by Judith P. Shoaf
395:Grove Music Online
131:Chrétien de Troyes
57:tales of love and
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289:Sir Launfal
251:' from the
227:Sir Gowther
178:Guruns ljóð
26:, painting
470:Categories
223:Sir Degaré
135:fairy-lore
120:Old French
78:Jack Zipes
35:Breton lai
324:Zipes, 62
219:Sir Orfeo
113:minstrels
205:Barfleur
93:Brittany
88:(song).
59:chivalry
357:, eds.
233:' and '
139:fairies
69:and/or
297:Lanval
291:', by
193:, and
110:Breton
63:Celtic
55:rhymed
47:French
391:"Lai"
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231:Emaré
74:leich
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86:laid
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