A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France by Jeffrey S. Longard A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Translation Studies Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies University of Alberta © Jeffrey S. Longard, 2017 J. S. Longard A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France Abstract The twelfth-century Lais of Marie de France, twelve short narrative romances in French verse, are a delightfully heterogenous mixture of old Celtic, classical, Anglo-Norman and Christian themes and motifs. At times these varied streams of influence stand together in unreconciled incongruity. Scholarly attempts to present a unified interpretation of the Lais have yielded varied and often mutually incompatible results. It is the contention of this dissertation that, while all the differing and contradictory interpretations of the Lais offer particular insights into the work and message of the author, the most important single unifying optic is understanding Marie de France as a medieval translator. Marie began with genuine artefacts of Celtic performance and transformed them, not only linguistically but also culturally, assigning to the vernacular oral tradition the same status that was accorded to the written Latin heritage and submitting it to the same sort of treatment, not only representing it in another language but reforming it to enrich its content and meaning. What distinguishes her work from her contemporaries, what in fact, I argue, constitutes its success, is that she resisted a complete transformation, retaining authentic cultural elements unassimilated to one another, and allowing them to speak side by side, even if at times this process resulted in cultural and moral incoherence. A close reading of the Lais undergirded by historical, linguistic and literary investigation frequently enables a distinction of the disparate elements which came together to make the final product, masterfully unified in terms of narrative and disturbingly inconsistent in social and moral stance. This approach reveals at every turn Marie’s strategies as a translator and her inventiveness as a writer, and suggests that what became known from the twelfth century on as !ii J. S. Longard A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France the lai de Bretaigne was actually a new genre, not of Breton but of Old French literature, in all probability created singlehandedly by Marie de France. Later attempts to imitate, resituate or translate Marie’s Lais demonstrate that her translation strategy was poorly understood. Though her influence on subsequent literature was profound, the continuing attempts to clarify the poet’s ambivalent positions, to moralize, feudalize, masculinize and harmonize the message of the Lais, reveal how unsettling was her method, and confirm how strongly her compositions have resisted —and continue to resist—any facile and reductive analysis. !iii J. S. Longard A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France To Loretta !iv J. S. Longard A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France Acknowledgements Facing the attempt to publicly recognize everyone who has contributed in a major way to the realization of this project underscores for me just how much I owe to so many. For financial support, I express my sincere gratitude to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and to the University of Alberta, especially to the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. To my supervisory committee, Dr. Lynn Penrod and Dr. Terry Nadasdi, my thanks for getting me started on the right foot and for continuing their support, input and encouragement for the duration. I also wish to thank the wider Candidacy and Final Examination committee, Dr. Andrew Gow, Dr. Selina Stewart and Dr. Francis Gingras for their notable and generous contributions of time and insight. More friends, colleagues, professors and administrators than I can mention here have intervened in crucial and selfless ways to support me in this journey, among whom are Dr. Paul Dubé, Dr. Sathya Rao, Dr. Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier, Dr. Justine Gill, Geraldine Barandiaran- Munoz, Mathieu Martin-LeBlanc, Andrea Hayes, Eva Glancy, and Jane Wilson. Finally, I wish to express my admiration and appreciation for my mentor, doctoral supervisor and friend Dr. Anne Malena, the most widely-read and sharply-focused scholar I have ever met, to whose encouragement, rigour, immense knowledge and patient guidance are owed all the better parts of this project. !v J. S. Longard A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France Table of Contents Chapter 1: General Introduction ………………………………………………………….…..…. 1 1. 1. The Lais of Marie de France ………………………………………………..……… 1 1. 2. Marie de France: A very brief autobiography ………………..…………………….. 5 1. 3. And an even briefer biography… ……………………………..………………….. 13 1. 4. Marie the person, Marie the writer: Conclusions …………………………………. 16 1. 5. The problem of the Lais ……………………………………………………..….… 17 1. 6. Conclusions: Plan of the dissertation …………………………………….……..… 26 Chapter 2: A Woman of her Times: The Medieval World of Marie de France ………………… 31 2. 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 31 2. 2. The Crusades ……………………………………………………………………… 31 2. 3. The Norman Conquest ……………………………………………………………. 33 2. 4. Translation ………………………….………………..…………………………… 35 2. 5. The rise of the feudal order ……………….………………………………………. 43 2. 6. The place of women in society …………………………………………………… 45 2. 7. Christianity, morality and marriage ………………………………………………. 46 2. 8. The Provençal troubadours and the phenomenon of “courtly love”. ..…………… 52 2. 9. Conclusions: The convergence of influences in the twelfth century ………….….. 65 Chapter 3: Normative and Creative Translation: The Breton Lais Before Marie, and After. ..… 67 3. 1. Form of the Celtic lais: Speculation and deduction ………………………….…… 67 3. 2. Content of the Celtic lais ………………………………………………….……… 81 3. 3. The question of genre ………………………………………………….…………. 85 !vi J. S. Longard A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France 3. 4. To Remember: Conservation, transformation and assimilation …………………. 108 3. 5. Marie de France on history, truth and the supernatural ………………………….. 115 3. 6. Conclusions: The Breton lais after Marie ………………………..……………… 122 Chapter 4: Reading the Lais in their Diversity ……………………………………………….. 126 4. 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 126 4. 2. Ambiguity in Relationship, Gender, and Worship: Guigemar ………..…….…… 129 4. 3. What’s Wrong with a Little Sex and Murder? The Enigma of Equitan …….…… 145 4. 4. New (or Perhaps Very Old) Ideas about Marriage: Le Fraisne …………………. 153 4. 5. Transformation, Restoration, Vindication: Bisclavret …………………………… 160 4. 6. Love Has the Highest Claim: Lanval ………………………………..…….…….. 166 4. 7. The Need for Moderation: Les Dous Amanz …………………………….………. 174 4. 8. The Hand of God in Love, Vengeance and Destiny: Yonec …………..…….…… 178 4. 9. Neighbourly Love, Courtly Love and Christian Love Collide: Aüstic …….……. 193 4. 10. A Family Reunited: Milun. …………………………………………….……….. 198 4. 11. Courtly Love is a Sad Story: Chaitivel ………………………………………… 202 4. 12. How a Lai Came to be Composed: Chievrefueil ………………………….……. 206 4. 13. Transformation from Breton to Norman Complete (and the Wonder Lost): Eliduc …………………. 210 4. 14. Conclusions: Unity in Diversity …………………………..…………….……… 223 Chapter 5: The Lais in Later French and in Translation: Making an Honest Man out of Marie 225 5. 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 225 5. 2. The Lais in later French literature ……………………………………………….. 226 !vii J. S. Longard A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France 5. 3. The Strengleikar: The Lais in Old Norse translation …………………………… 232 5. 4. The Lais in English Literature: The “Breton Lays” ………..…………….……… 238 5. 5. Conclusions: The Lais from Cutting-Edge to Cliché …………………….……… 244 Chapter 6: General Conclusion ……………………………………………………….………. 246 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………….…………. 250 Appendix: Summaries of the Lais ………………………………………………..…………… 262 1. Guigemar …………………………………………………………….…………….. 262 2. Equitan ………………………………………………………………..……………. 263 3. Le Fraisne ……………………………………………………………..…………… 264 4. Bisclavret ………………………………………………………………..…………. 264 5. Lanval ………………………………………………………………..…………….. 265 6. Les Dous Amanz ………………………………………………..………………….. 266 7. Yonec ………………………………………………………..……………………… 267 8. Aüstic ………………………………………………………..……………………… 268 9. Milun …………………………………………..…………………………………… 268 10. Chaitivel …………………………………..……………….……………………… 269 11. Chievrefueil ………………………………………………….……………………. 270 12. Eliduc …… ………………………………………………….……………………. 270 !viii J. S. Longard A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France Chart Flow-chart depicting the social, historical, cultural and literary influences on the person and work of Marie de France ………………………………………………………………………. 29 !ix A Troubled Translation: Reading the Lais of Marie de France Chapter 1: General Introduction 1. 1. The Lais of Marie de France. This is a doctoral dissertation on the Lais of Marie de France, which is a collection of twelfth- century Old French poems. I am aware at the outset that, being a doctoral dissertation, its readership will be limited. I would like to encourage the reader to continue in spite of this, not really because I want a wider readership (I am not, like Marie de France, seeking renown), but because I wish Marie to have a wider readership. She is worth reading, even at the better