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),

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

d tales of love and

chivalry Chivalry, or the chivalric language, is an informal and varying code of conduct that developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It is associated with the medieval Christianity, Christian institution of knighthood, with knights being members of ...

, often involving supernatural and fairy-world

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

motifs. The word "lay" or "lai" is thought to be derived from the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

and/or Old Middle German ''leich'', which means play, melody, or song, or as suggested by

Jack Zipes Jack David Zipes (born June 7, 1937) is a literary scholar and author. He is a professor emeritus in the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic and Dutch at the University of Minnesota. Zipes is known for his work on fairy tales, folklore, crit ...

in ''The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales'', the Irish word ''laid'' (song).Zipes, 62 Zipes writes that Arthurian legends may have been brought from Wales, Cornwall and Ireland to

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

; on the continent the songs were performed in various places by harpists, minstrels, storytellers.Zipes, Jack, ''The Oxford Companion to Fairytales''. Oxford UP. 2009 62-63 Zipes reports the earliest recorded lay is Robert Biker's Lai du Cor, dating to the mid- to late-12th century. The earliest of the Breton lais to survive are probably ''

The Lais of Marie de France The ''lais'' of Marie de France are a series of twelve short narrative Breton lais by the poet Marie de France. They are written in Anglo-Norman and were probably composed in the late 12th century, most likely between 1155-1170. The short, nar ...

'', thought to have been composed in the 1170s by

Marie de France Marie de France (floruit, fl. 1160–1215) was a poet, likely born in France, who 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 Kin ...

, 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

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

s. 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. The earliest written Breton lais were composed in a variety of

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

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. Breton lais may have inspired Chrétien de Troyes, and likely were responsible for spreading Celtic and Fairy, fairy-lore into Continental Europe. An example of a 14th-century Breton lai has the king of the

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

carrying away a wife to the land of fairy.

Old French lais

* ''

'' — twelve canonical lais generally accepted as those of Marie de France. * The so-called

Anonymous Lais Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

— 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. * Several lais are known only in Old Norse translation, translated into

Old Norwegian Old Norwegian ( and ), also called Norwegian Norse, is an early form of the Norwegian language that was spoken between the 11th and 14th century; it is a transitional stage between Old West Norse and Middle Norwegian. Its distinction from O ...

prose in the thirteenth century, where they were known as the ''

Strengleikar ''Strengleikar'' (English: ''Stringed Instruments'') is a collection of twenty-one Old Norse prose tales based on the Old French '' Lais'' of Marie de France">The Lais of Marie de France">Lais'' of Marie de France. It is one of the literary works ...

''. These are '' Guruns ljóð'', '' Ricar hinn gamli'', '' Tveggia elskanda strengleikr'', and '' Strandarljóð'' (the 'Lay of the Beach', composed by 'the Red Lady of Brittany', the surviving account of which gives a detailed description of

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

's commissioning of what appears to be a lyric lai to commemorate a period spent at

Barfleur Barfleur () is a commune and fishing village in Manche, Normandy, northwestern France. It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) Association. History During the Middle Ages, Barfleur was on ...

).''Strengleikar: An Old Norse Translation of Twenty-one Old French Lais'', ed. and trans. by Robert Cook and Mattias Tveitane, Norrøne tekster, 3 (Oslo: Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt, 1979).

Middle English lais

Notes and references

External links

The Lais of Marie de France
in Old French from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...

Online verse translations
by Judith P. Shoaf * Many of th
Anonymous Old French Lais
with English translations from the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

The Franklin's Tale
at the Electronic Canterbury Tales
The Middle English Breton Lays
at TEAMS Middle English Texts {{DEFAULTSORT:Breton Lai

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-wor ...

Anglo-Norman literature Arthurian literature in French Arthurian literature in Middle English