Poetry Codex

French

Marie de France

fl. c. 1160–1215

Marie de France was a poet who lived in the second half of the twelfth century and wrote in Anglo-Norman French, probably in England. Nothing certain is known of her life beyond the name she gives in her own verse: “Marie ai nun, si sui de France.” She is the earliest known woman poet to write in French, and her short narrative poems, called lays, drew on Breton tales of love, loss and enchantment.

The twelve lays given here are those preserved in the London manuscript, British Library Harley 978. They are read in the English prose of Eugene Mason (Everyman’s Library, 1911), which renders her octosyllabic couplets as continuous prose, preceded by her dedicatory prologue.

Poems (13)

  1. Prologue
  2. The Lay of Gugemar
  3. The Lay of the Dolorous Knight
  4. The Lay of Eliduc
  5. The Lay of the Nightingale
  6. The Lay of Sir Launfal
  7. The Lay of the Two Lovers
  8. The Lay of the Were-Wolf
  9. The Lay of the Ash Tree
  10. The Lay of the Honeysuckle
  11. The Lay of Equitan
  12. The Lay of Milon
  13. The Lay of Yonec

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