Storybook Plan

Storybook Theme: 

In many (read: nearly every single one) of Marie de France's lais, infidelity/adultery is a present theme, but often it is something which is presented as neutral or even positive. I am considering taking this theme but altering it to show the negative side of infidelity, perhaps by adding or emphasizing negative consequences for those in the story who partake in it, or by including some of the stories which already have negative consequences but focusing more on them. Or, I could take another route and explore what these stories would look like if the infidelity never occurs, which might be interesting as well. So, I guess my theme would be the wrong of infidelity, or something along those lines. (That said, there's a chance I may choose to go with a different theme, in which case I will probably choose either the influence of the supernatural/mystical on the stories of Marie de France, or on the inclusion of nature in her stories.)

Story Styles:

I'm really not sure what story style(s) I'll end up using yet. I'm kind of notoriously indecisive, and it's difficult for me to choose exactly how I want to write my story before I actually sit down to write it. That said, there are a few things that I will most likely do. First, I'll probably keep a similar tone to the originals, which remind me of a troubadour's tales. They have a very magical, fairytale feel to them, and I'd like to capture that in my own writing. Consequently, I want to be sure to maintain the supernatural/magical elements that Marie de France uses - werewolves, magical ships, talking animals, etc. In fact, writing this has sparked an idea: I may actually create my stories as though they were being told by a troubadour or bard, and have that be an overarching idea that runs through all the stories. Just an idea, though, which I will likely toy around with for awhile before deciding for sure.

Story Possibilities:

For now, this will be the same as the ones I mentioned in my last project post, as I have yet to narrow it down (and, actually, am struggling greatly not to enlarge it instead! - there may end up being an inclusion of a fable as well or in place of one of these). So, the possibilities so far remain: Guigemar, Lanval, Les Deux Amants, Bisclavret, and Le Fresne.

Source for Story Possibilities:
The five stories I have mentioned above can be found here, though I may split them up and use separate sources later on, if I can find a translation I prefer, or I may just use the original French for my own purposes.

Topic Research: Marie de France

For this segment of my research, I actually decided to include five stories, because I couldn't quite pick between them. I did decide (tentatively) that I think I want to go with the lais of Marie de France, since, as a French major, her work is duly interesting to me. All of them are available at this link (much thanks to Professor Gibbs, who helped me find several English translations!) I haven't decided if this is the version I'll end up going with in the end, but it's currently the version I have saved that included all the texts in one place, so for convenience I've included it here. So without further ado:

1. Guigemar - The story of Guigemar is very much akin to a classic fairy tale. It includes true love, a beautiful young woman locked away in a tower, and a fair bit of magic. Unlike many fairy tales, however, it also includes (and glorifies) adultery. For so many reasons, I dislike this aspect, so I think it would be interesting to do a take that either cuts the adultery out, or in which the adultery results in negative consequences of some sort, rather than positive reinforcements.
   
2. Lanval (or Launfal, depending on the translation) - This lai is especially interesting because it is set in the courts of King Arthur, but told by Marie de France, a French woman living in England. In this story, a noble knight of King Arthur named Lanval falls in love with a beautiful and magical lady, but she tells him that if he ever speaks of her, he will never get to see her again. This is fine until Queen Guinevere tries to seduce him, and to defend his pride and honor he tells her that he already has a lover far more beautiful than her. Guinevere is angry and chaos ensues. This story is just such an interesting take on the court of King Arthur that I think it'd be fun to retell and play that different perspective up even more.
   
3. Les Deux Amants (The Two Lovers) - This is one of (I think) the only two lais out of the twelve which Marie de France wrote that does not include adultery. It does, however, have a tragic ending for two young lovers, and again includes many aspects of classical fairy tales - magic, princess locked away in a castle, etc.
   
4. Bisclavret - "Bisclavret" roughly translates to "werewolf" in Old French, and that is the topic of the story. Bisclavret, our main character, has a wife, who wants to know why he disappears so frequently for extended amounts of time, thinking perhaps he has a mistress. She gets him to divulge that he is a werewolf, and she gets him to tell her his secret weakness: if he cannot find the clothes he was wearing when he turned into a werewolf, he cannot change back. She betrays him, and he ends up stuck as a werewolf for a few years. In the end, all is well and the treacherous (and adulterous) wife is duly punished.
   
5. Le Fresne (The Ash Tree) - This is the only one of these five that I had not previously read, but I ended up being really interested by it. It involves a secret royal twin, true love, and all the makings of a fairy tale.

Photo of an Ash Tree from Wikimedia Commons, taken by Frank Chandler

Topic Brainstorm

Hello, everyone!

This post is a brainstorming post for my Storybook semester project. Below, I will list four topics that I am interested in using for this project:

1. The lais of Marie de France. Since I am a French major, it should come as no surprise to you that I have some familiarity with Marie de France. For those of you who don't know her work (which, reasonably, is most of you), she is a twelfth century poet from (you guessed it) France. She wrote in the form of what she called "lais," which are essentially fairy tales told in lyrical form. All in all, she wrote twelve lais, several of which I had the opportunity to read in my medieval French literature class. I would be especially interested in retelling some of these stories from the point of view of some of the side characters, or perhaps in altering the endings a bit. The stories are quite interesting, but some of the morality-related themes in them are so far from what is valued today, so I think it could be fun to address that through retelling. For example, ten of the twelve lais include adultery, and usually it is portrayed as a good thing in these stories. Obviously cheating on your spouse is not encouraged today, nor was it at that time in most of world literature, so it might be interesting to tackle that topic and see how the stories are changed if today's value system is imposed on them.
   If I choose this as my topic, I will likely find an English translation online of the specific lais I'm planning to include, but for now here is a collection of all twelve in their original Old French.

   

   Image of Marie de France from an illuminated manuscript

   
   
   
   
2. Sea monsters. To be honest, I have very little background when it comes to mythology and folklore about sea monsters, but I'd be excited to learn more about it! Despite my Midwestern heritage, I have always been just absolutely fascinated by the ocean and all its mysteries. It's simultaneously terribly intriguing and honestly quite terrifying to me, knowing just how little we know about the dark depths and what dwells there. I read online recently about a living shark that was discovered a few years back that is believed to be between 272-512 years old! That's older than our country! Plus, it's so interesting to hear about sea monster-related myths and consider what ocean-lurkers could have been behind their origins (for example, the theory that stories of mermaids came from seals/walruses/manatees, or that the kraken could have been a giant squid or eel of some sort). So I think it'd be really fun to do retellings of some of the old sea monster stories, but taking into account the (still very limited) knowledge of the sea that we have today. Here is a link to some sea monster stories included in the Untextbook.
3. Food. I saw this in the list of topic ideas and was immediately reminded of the book Like Water for Chocolate. For anyone who hasn't read it, it is a magical realism book told from the perspective of a Hispanic woman whose emotions pour into the food she makes and have wild effects on the people who eat it. I think it could be really interesting to incorporate that idea with foods of other cultures, or potentially to take myths that already include eating some kind of food and re-imagine them through that lens. For example, in this story about three sons and a king, one son claims to be a connoisseur of food, so the father sets rice before him and bids him eat. The son says no, because the rice smells to him of burning corpses, and it turns out that the rice was grown in a field near a village crematorium. If emotions really could pervade food when it is prepared, then a field of food growing next to a funeral home would be potent indeed. Also, since I work as a baker, I have a personal interest in food and its preparation.
4. Norse Mythology. I know nothing about Norse mythology, save for what comes with the Thor/Avengers movies (which I'm sure is totally accurate), and a little bit from a very abridge version of Beowulf. So this would be an interesting topic for me because I would be learning everything from scratch, so new impressions could be made. I think what little I know of this subject is intriguing, and I've heard people say there are a lot of interesting stories here, so I'd be game to check it out. Here is a link to The Heroes of Asgard, which seems like it would be a pretty good source for me!