''Guingamor'' is an anonymous medieval lai about a knight who leaves the court of his uncle, a king, because the queen has sent him off to hunt for a white boar. By offering a reward for the boar's head, she hopes to get rid of the protagonist Guingamor, who has refused her sexual advances. Guingamor crosses a river and passes into a mystical kingdom. Returning with the boar's head after what seems to him like three days, he encounters a common charcoal-maker, who tells him that many years have passed since the king's faithful nephew never returned from a hunt for the white boar. Guingamor's return is triumphant and he is immortalized in a lai. The story was once presumed to have been written 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 ...

, but is now considered anonymous. However, it draws on Marie's ''

Lanval ''Lanval'' is one of the Lais of Marie de France. Written in Anglo-Norman, it tells the story of Lanval, a knight at King Arthur's court, who is overlooked by the king, wooed by a fairy lady, given all manner of gifts by her, and subsequently r ...

'', and the anonymous ''

Graelent ''Graelent'' is an Old French -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 ... Breton lai, named after its protagonist. It is one of the so-called anonymous lais ...

'': ::The definitive view of these three lays, chronologically and thematically, is that of R. N. Illingworth, who concluded that they were composed in the order ''Lanval'', ''Graelend'', and ''Guingamor'', with ''Graelent'' and ''Guingamor'' (both anonymous) drawing on ''Lanval'', but ''Guingamor'' also drawing on ''Graelent''. Moreover, although the narratives were taken largely from Marie, the two anonymous lays integrated into their stories, independently of Marie, material stemming from "a nucleus of genuine Celtic tradition".Gynn S. Burgess, 'Marie de France and the Anonymous Lays', in ''A Companion to Marie de France'', ed. by Logan E. Whalen, Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 117-56 (p. 155).

References

{{Reflist

External links

*Full English text at archive.org
Guingamor, Lanval, Tyolet, Bisclaveret; four lais rendered into English prose from the French of Marie de France and others
by Jessie L. Weston. Illustrated by Caroline Watts. Published by London D. Nutt (1900). Anglo-Norman literature Anonymous lais French poems

See also

References

External links