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, rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs. The word "lay" or "lai" is thought to be derived from the Old High German and/or Old Middle German leich, which means play, melody, or song, or possibly derived from the Irish word meaning "song".
The qualifier "Breton" refers to such lais that incorporate Arthurian legend material, whose knowledge was probably brought from Wales, Cornwall and Ireland to Brittany; on the continent the songs were performed in various places by harpists, minstrels, storytellers.
The earliest Arthurian lai to have survived is Robert Biket's, dating to the mid- to late-12th century. However the term "Breton lai" is foremost associated with The Lais of Marie de France, thought to have been composed in the 1170s by Marie de France, a French poet writing in England at Henry II's court between the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Not all her lais are strictly Arthurian, but many reflect Celtic folklore motifs.
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 minstrels. 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 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-lore into Continental Europe. An example of a 14th-century Breton lai has the king of the fairies carrying away a wife to the land of fairy.

Old French lais

  • The Lais of Marie de France — twelve canonical lais generally accepted as those of Marie de France.
  • The so-called Anonymous Lais — 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. Marie's lais were translated into Old Norwegian prose in the thirteenth century under the title Strengleikar. These are Guruns ljóð, Ricar hinn gamli, Tveggia elskanda strengleikr, and Strandarljóð.
  • The Old Norse prose Möttuls saga and Middle High German verse are considered adaptations of the Lai du cort mantel, whose author may have been familiar with the Lai du cor.

    Middle English lais