Week Six Storybook Lab

For this week's storybook lab, I am doing some research for my storybook project, which, as you probably know from my previous posts, is going to be over the lais of Marie de France! The following are some sources and brief notes on what is known about Marie de France herself, some of which I will likely include in author's notes in the storybook project itself, and some of which may influence my retellings as well.

• Firstly, a definition of a "lai" (or "lay/leich" depending on your language preference): Essentially, a lai is a poetic/musical form that was popular in the Medieval period, especially in France and Germany. It is a rhymed poem; certain rhyme schemes were common but overall the structure was in some ways less rigid (or, at least it seems, less rigidly adhered to) than many other poetic forms we might study today, such as a sonnet or a limerick. Marie de France's lais did not utilize the traditional musical setting, and differed in that they told stories, much like fables. (I gleaned this information here)
• Marie de France, from Britannica: She was the earliest known female French poet, which is pretty cool. Not much is known about her, however, though her title "de France" indicates that she was likely a Frenchwoman residing in England.
• Marie de France, from encyclopedia.com: She is believed to have written between the years 1160 and 1210. Her reasons for coming to England remain a mystery, but could have been for marriage or her career (she was extremely well-connected in England's literary world!). She was quite well-educated, and well-respected in the royal courts of England. She was also extremely well-known for her fables, but it was her lais that earned her the respect of her contemporaries, and which are considered her greatest masterpiece. (A side note from my own personal knowledge from what I've learned in my classes: The lais deal with something called "courtly love" (amour courtois, in French!), which was a popular philosophy in her time. Courtly love had several rules, but perhaps the most important - and, I think, the one which most influenced her lais - was that being married was not considered an acceptable reason to forsake true love if it came along. I believe there has been some contention as to whether Marie upholds this idea, but the subject of infidelity is unquestionably one which she hoped to explore in her writing, as ten of her twelve lais include it.)
• Marie de France, from New World Encyclopedia: This source states that she is believed to have been born in Normandy, France, and to have moved to England after her childhood. Additionally, it mentions that some have proposed that Marie may have been the illegitimate half-sister of King Henry II, which is a rumor I have seen mentioned elsewhere as well, and which would seemingly fit well with some other aspects of my research: her move to England and her astoundingly good connections there, her presence in the royal court, and her interest in infidelity as a subject matter. That said, there is not, to my knowledge, any evidence to support this, and so I will file it under numerous other unsupported rumors I have come across as to her life (I have also heard that others believe she was a nun or abbess! Quite the difference, no?). There are only five known manuscripts existing that include her lais, and only one of them includes all twelve. Her lais range from 118-1184 lines long, and they are told in octosyllabic rhyming couplets. She also wrote 103 fables. This source includes a list of famous Marie's from that time who could have possibly been her, including the king's half-sister and multiple abbesses, but, of course, no one knows for sure. So we simply call her Marie de France, after a line she wrote: "Marie ai nun, si sui de France," which translates from Old French to mean, "My name is Marie, I am from France."
  
  
  

Painting of the main characters in Marie de France's lai, "Chevrefoil"(which translates to "honeysuckle") by Edmund Blair Leighton

Week Six Reading Notes Part A - Sindbad

Source Story: "The Voyages of Sindbad" from Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

• "First Voyage"
• Sindbad tells of how he was on board a merchant ship and, with others, stopped to explore an island. The island turned out to be the back of a sleeping whale, and when the whale dove under he was left behind accidentally by his fleeing shipmates, only to float to another island, where he finds some men caring for the horses of that island's king.
• "First Voyage (cont.)"
• The king takes him in and takes care of him, then his old ship shows up and aims to sell his possessions and give the money to his family, thinking he is dead. After he convinces the captain that he is Sindbad, the captain gives him back his things. He gives gifts to the king and receives some in return, then trades out his stuff and continues to trade successfully all the way home, where he sees his family.
• "Second Voyage"
• Sindbad sails with another merchant ship but finds himself forgotten on a deserted island, where he finds the nest of a gigantic bird. He ties himself to the bird's foot and it flies him to an island, where he disembarks, that turns out to be filled with huge diamonds and huge snakes.
• "Second Voyage (cont.)"
• Sindbad realizes that there are merchants throwing down chunks of meat in hopes that diamonds will stick to them and be carried up by eagles, so he collects a bunch of huge diamonds and ties a chunk of meat to his back. An eagle carries him up, and he is saved from the eagle's nest by the merchants. The merchant who owns that nest takes only one of his diamonds for helping him. Then he goes to an island with giant camphor trees, and sees an elephant and rhino fight each other only to be carried off by a roc. He returns to Bagdad and gives money to the poor.
• "Third Voyage"
• Sailing again, Sindbad and his crew are attacked by hairy dwarves, who steal their ship and drive them onto an island. There they find a cyclops, who roasts and eats their captain, then goes to sleep.
• "Third Voyage (cont.)"
• Sindbad and several others stab the cyclops in the eye, blinding him, after making rafts for escape if need be. Instead of dying, the cyclops returns with a horde of other cyclopes, who sink all the rafts except the one on which Sindbad and two other men are riding. They end up on another island, where a giant snake eats both of Sindbad's companions.
• "Third Voyage (end)"
• Sindbad builds a shelter to keep the snake away, then gets the attention of a passing ship, which rescues him. He discovers that the captain of the ship from his second voyage is there, along with Sindbad's own merchandise, because they believed him to be dead. His stuff is returned to him and he trades successfully, then goes home and gives money to the poor.
• "Fourth Voyage"
• Sindbad and his crew are shipwrecked onto an island full of cannibals, who capture them. Sindbad sees that they are feeding his crewmates to fatten them up and eat them, so he refuses food and becomes too lean to eat, then escapes. He finds some men and returns with them to the city where their king lives, and teaches them how to make and use saddles and bridles, so he becomes rich and important in their city.
• "Fourth Voyage (cont.)"
• The king asks Sindbad to marry a beautiful woman he has picked out and to stay in that country forever. Sindbad marries her but still plans to escape, when he discovers that a law in this country dictates that, if one spouse dies, the living spouse must be buried with them. Soon, Sindbad's wife gets sick and dies, and he is buried in a massive tomb with her and a little food and water.
• "Fourth Voyage (end)"
• Sindbad survives off his food and water until someone else is buried alive, who he kills so he can have their food and they will have a faster death. He does this several times before he notices a small animal in the cavern and follows it through a narrow passageway onto the beach. He goes back in and collects the riches from the floor of the cavern, then hails down a passing ship and goes home to Bagdad.

Illustration of Sindbad's encounter with the giant by H. J. Ford

Week Five Story: The Merchant's Book

Once upon a time, there was a poor merchant who, though he had but the shirt on his back and a small hovel to call his home, possessed a heart which was noble and good. His kindness and uprightness of character were such that a generous spirit took notice of him, and decided to reward him.

"Poor merchant," the spirit told him, "I have seen the goodness that resides in your heart, though your life is hard and lonely. Take, therefore, these three gifts, and be happy."

Whereupon the spirit gifted the man with three blessings. Firstly, where his tiny hovel had once huddled now towered a glorious palace, glimmering proudly in the sunshine. Secondly, a storeroom appeared, overflowing with cascading mountains of gold and silver, precious jewels and expensive spices. And thirdly, nestled in a box of sweet-smelling cedar, the spirit gifted the man with a book.

"What manner of book is this, that is full of naught but empty pages?" Asked the merchant, bowing deeply in humble gratitude.

"That you shall find out for yourself, dear merchant," said the spirit before wisping away on a breeze.

And so the merchant entered his new home, joyfully exploring each room, and invited all his neighbors to come and join him for a feast. For many weeks the kindhearted merchant lived generously, helping the members of the town with any plights they encountered. A widow from the street nearby came to him when a rebellious wind tumbled through her house and ripped holes through her roof; the merchant built her a new home, stronger than the last. A neighbor boy knocked upon the door, begging for a scrap of food for his ailing mother; the merchant gifted him with ten gleaming rubies to sell and purchase food and medicine and whatever else she might need.

But the time came, as it does for all men who suddenly find themselves the recipients of great quantities of gold and riches (even, dear reader, those men so kindhearted as our beloved merchant), the merchant found himself more hesitant to part with the riches which had been gifted him. At night, as he slept under silken sheets in his grand new palace, he was troubled with grave dreams, in which his neighbors came knocking and knocking again, and the glinting storehouse grew emptier and grayer until the golden mountains had passed, piece by piece, entirely out the door and into the greedy hands of others. In his dreams, too, the palace crumbled and shrank, until he found himself once more living in a filthy hovel, the cold of winter biting through to his bones, the shelves barren of food. This fear gripped him, and as the storehouse grew ever emptier, he thought more and more of closing his doors forever upon his neighbors.

When the storehouse had emptied about halfway, a crippled girl, carried by her father, came to his door.

"Please, kind merchant," begged the father, "I have heard of your generosity and goodness, and have come to ask for your help. I shall repay you in whatever way you deem fit, to the best of my abilities, but please, can you help us? We haven't any food."

"Let me think on it today, and I will answer you in the evening," said the merchant. So confused was his heart by fear of returning to his old poverty after having tasted so good a life as this that he actually found himself considering turning them away. It was at that moment that he remembered the book in its cedar box.

Fetching the book from its keeping place, he opened it to find that many of the once-blank pages were now full. He began to read what was written there, and found on the first page a story that told of a widow whose home had been blown down by a vengeful wind. The woman was hopeless, with nowhere to turn, and so she huddled in the streets each night alone, until finally the bitter winter cold claimed her life. On the next page was the story of a poor boy whose sick mother succumbed to her illness, leaving him alone in the world. The merchant realized that these stories were what would have happened to the neighbors he'd helped if he had closed his doors to them.

Reminded of the value of his generosity, he quickly called the father and his crippled daughter to his storehouse, bidding them to take whatever they needed. After that, whenever a neighbor would come to him seeking help, he would look back at his book, filling up more and more with the stories of what would have happened if he had chosen greed over goodness, then he would offer them anything they needed.

The day came when the storehouse emptied, and the man was filled with sorrow. But the sorrow was not, as he had expected, for the loss of luxury, but rather for the book he held, whose stories he could no longer replace with happy endings.

"Dear spirit," he called out, "please, if you could, let me help just a few more." The generous spirit, pleased by the merchant's actions, caused the storehouse to refill, and from then on it refilled as soon as it emptied, and the book grew fat with stories.

*Author's Note: This story is based on the story of Miemun and Khojisteh, and the parrot who prevents Khojisteh from committing infidelity by distracting her with stories. The main element that I drew from the original was the idea of stories preventing someone from giving up their good values for evil deeds. In the original, Khojisteh truly loves Miemun at the start, but is swayed by temptation when he is away. In my version, the merchant is good-hearted, but he is tempted by greed. As usual, I insisted on giving it a happier ending, though!

Bibliography. "Tales of a Parrot" by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801). Web Source.

Image of an open book from Pixabay

Week Five Reading Notes Part B - Tales of a Parrot

Source Story: Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801).

• "Of a King and His Sons"
• Again Khojisteh wishes to go to her lover, but the parrot keeps her from her adulterous act by distracting her with the story of a prince who walks past a snake that had just caught a frog. He saves the frog and gives a piece of his own flesh to the snake to eat instead. Both animals transform into men and ask to serve him. The prince enters the service of a king, and the snake and frog each perform a task for him which pleases the king, then they return to their own habitats.
• "The Merchant Whose Daughter Was Lost"
• Same thing. A merchant's beautiful daughter insists that she will only marry someone very wise or very skillful. Three men offer themselves up: one who can find anything that is lost and tell the future, one who can make a flying wooden horse, and one whose bow never misses. The girl is kidnapped by a fairy and each man puts his skill to use in saving her, but in the end the archer wins her hand because he is the one who risks his life to save her.
• "Of a Brahmin Falling in Love"
• Same thing. The story is of a brahmin who falls in love with the daughter of the king of Babylon. A magician disguises him as a woman and convinces the king to take "her" in to stay with his daughter. When the daughter realizes who he really is, they steal her father's riches and run away together, and the king never finds them.
• "The Son of the King of Babylon"
• Same thing. The son of the king of Babylon falls in love with a beautiful woman and promises an idol that he will cut off his head as a sacrifice if she will marry him. They do get married, so he goes back to the temple and cuts off his head. His brahmin comes in and sees him dead, and so cuts off his own head. The woman comes in and is about to cut her head off as well, but the idol tells her to reattach their heads to their bodies and they will live again. She accidentally puts the wrong heads on the wrong bodies, and the men argue about which one of them should be her husband. The parrot tells Khojisteh that the man with the head of the prince should get her because the head is the "seat of wisdom."
• "The Merchant's Daughter"
• Same thing. A merchant has a beautiful daughter whom he offers in marriage to the king. The king sends his viziers to see if she is beautiful enough for him to marry, and they lie to him, telling him she is unremarkable, because they worry that he would neglect his royal duties if he married someone so beautiful. So the girl is married to someone else, but the king happens upon her one day and falls in love with her. He accepts his advisers' reasoning, but when they tell him to demand that the woman's husband give her up to him, he refuses, choosing instead to die of lovesickness.
• "The Nobleman With a Snake"
• Same thing. A snake is being chased by a man who wants to kill it, so a nobleman allows the snake to hide in his sleeve. Once safe, the snake tells the man that he shouldn't have trusted a snake, and now he will kill the man before leaving. The man distracts the snake and kills it.
• "The Soldier and the Goldsmith"
• Same thing. A soldier entrusts a goldsmith with some money, but the goldsmith hides it and pretends the soldier never gave it to him. The Cazy hides two people in the goldsmith's house, and they overhear him confide to his wife about stealing the money and where he hid it. The soldier gets his money back and the goldsmith is hanged.
• "Of the Merchant and the Barber"
• Same thing. When a rich merchant gives away everything he has in charity, he is blessed with a dream saying that a brahmin will arrive and, if he hits the brahmin on the head with a stick, the brahmin will turn into infinitely regenerating gold. He does this, but his barber witnesses it and starts hitting a bunch of brahmins on their heads with a stick, thinking they'll turn into gold. The merchant is called before the judge after the barber tells his story, but they believe the merchant, who says the barber has gone crazy.
• "The Frog, the Bee, and the Bird"
• Same thing. An elephant knocks a bird's eggs out of her nest while scratching himself on the tree, so she joins together with a long-billed bird, a bee, and a frog, and they together manage to kill the elephant. They do so by having the bee buzz in his ears to distract him will the long-billed bird plucks out his eyes, then the frog leads him blindly into a place he can't escape from, where he dies of hunger and thirst.
• "The Elk and the Ass"
• Same thing. A donkey and an elk are friends, and they sneak into a garden to graze at night. The donkey wants to sing, but the elk warns him that his braying will wake up the gardener, who will catch them both and make them prisoners. The donkey sings anyway, and the gardener wakes up and takes them prisoner.
• "A King Falls in Love and the End of Khojisteh"
• Again the parrot distracts Khojisteh from going to her lover by telling the story of a king who pillages Rome to gain the marriage of the Roman Emperor's daughter, whose father forbids her to tell her new husband that she leaves behind a son from a previous marriage. She misses her son, though, so tricks the king into bringing him there, but the king suspects that the boy is her lover, and has him killed (but the murderer hides the boy instead of killing him). An old woman helps the wife tell the story truthfully but blamelessly to the king, who is delighted to hear that his wife has been faithful and that her son is still alive. After this story, Miemun returns and the parrot tells him that Khojisteh has fallen in love with someone else and has killed the other bird. Miemun kills Khojisteh, the end.

"Parrot Addressing Khojasta" by Akbar 

Week Five Reading Notes Part A - Tales of a Parrot

Source Story: Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801).

• "Miemun and Khojisteh"
• A great prince longs for a son and is finally blessed with one, whom he names Miemun and marries to a beautiful woman named Khojisteh. The two of them are incredibly close. Miemun finds a parrot in the marketplace and buys it after it gives him good business advice foretelling which spice will be in the greatest demand and earning him a good deal of money. Miemun also buys another bird, called a mina.
• "Khojisteh and the Parrot"
• Miemun leaves for a long time on a business trip, and while he is gone a prince from another country catches Khojisteh's eye and tells her that he will present her with a ring if she will come to his house at night for four hours. She plans to do so, but asks the mina bird first, who is a female. The mina bird tells her this would be a heinous action and she shouldn't do it, so Khojisteh kills the bird. Then she turns to the parrot, who realizes that if he rejects the idea he will also be killed, so he distracts her with a story.
• "The Parrot of Ferukh Beg"
• The parrot tells her a story about a merchant who leaves his wife and house in the charge of his own parrot. His wife cheats on him and when he finds out from a neighbor, assumes the parrot told him and tries to kill the bird. He survives, though, and helps her to make peace with her husband, pretending that God sent him back from heaven to convince him of her fidelity. And so Khojisteh spends the whole night listening to the story and doesn't have time to go to the prince.
• "Goldsmith, Carpenter, Taylor, and Hermit"
• Again, the parrot distracts her from going with a story. The story tells of the four men mentioned above who, in tandem, create a woman out of wood, gold, clothing, and prayers, then argue about who gets to marry her. Three other men claim she belongs to them, so the matter is taken to a Decision Tree, which opens for her and swallows her up, given that she was made out of wood. Again, Khojisteh doesn't have time to go to the prince.
• "The King of Kinoje and His Daughter"
• Same thing with parrot and Khojisteh. The story is of a derveish who wishes to wed a princess. The rajah says he may have the girl if he can produce an elephant load of gold, which the royroyan generously donates. So the rajah requires the head of the royroyan in return for the girl. Again, the royroyan acquiesces, going willingly with the derveish and offering up his head. The rajah is moved by the royroyan's generosity and offers the daughter to him to give to the derveish in marriage.
• "The Fowler, the Parrot, and Her Young Ones"
• Same thing. The story is of a parrot who is captured by a fowler but tricks him out of capturing her young, planning to escape him and return to them later. She gets him to sell her to the sick king, telling him that she is a trained doctor. She half-heals the king then tricks him into letting her go, whereupon she flies away to her young and never returns.
• "The Merchant and His Wife"
• Same thing. The story is of a man who travels a long time for work while his wife cheats on him at home. He returns home to find he can't get into his house, so he lodges elsewhere and sends a procuress to find a beautiful woman for him to sleep with. It so happens that she sends his own wife, who claims she came because she knew he was there and has neglected her. They make peace.
• "The Old Lion and the Cat"
• Same thing. The story is of a lion who keeps getting woken up at night by mice, so he hires a cat to keep watch and scare the mice away. The cat doesn't kill them so as not to lose her job, but one day she has her kitten keep watch while she is away, and the kitten kills them all. The cat loses her job.
• "The Commander of the Frogs, and the Snake"
• Same thing. The story is of a well full of frogs who have a ruler named Shapoor. Shapoor is not a good ruler, so they elect a new one and he leaves, seeking assistance from a snake. He gets the snake to eat all the frogs in the well as revenge, then tricks the snake into letting him go.
• "Four Rich Persons Who Became Poor"
• Same thing. The story is of four rich friends who become poor and go to a philosopher for help. He puts a magical ball on each of their heads which is to fall when they reach their destiny, and they are to dig where it falls. The first man finds a copper mine and offers to share, but the other three keep going. The same when the second man finds a silver mine and the third finds a gold mine; the fourth man keeps going. He finds an iron mine and is dissatisfied, so he tries to find his friends again and join them, but cannot, nor can he find the philosopher.
• "Besheer and a Woman Named Chunder"
• Same thing. A man named Besheer sleeps with a married woman named Chunder, so her husband takes her far away. Besheer goes with his Arab friend to see her, and the Arab pretends to be Chunder with her face covered so Besheer and Chunder can spend the night together. He takes a massive beating from her husband, which makes her feel bad, but he sleeps with her sister without telling her.

Image of a parrot by Angie Toh from NeedPix

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.

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My storybook project is here!