scholarly journals Love and Marriage in the Breton Lays

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Archibald
Keyword(s):  
Breton Lays

Celtic dynastic themes and the Breton Lays

1961 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Bromwich
Keyword(s):  
Breton Lays

Thematic Structure and Symbolic Motif in the Middle English Breton Lays

Traditio ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 83-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shearle Furnish
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old French ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
Thematic Structure ◽  
Sir Orfeo ◽  
Folk Tale ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
Multi Media ◽  
Breton Lays

The Breton Lays in Middle English is an enigmatic label customarily used to designate eight or nine brief narratives: Sir Orfeo, Sir Degaré, Lay le Freine, “The Franklin's Tale,” Sir Launfal, The Earl of Toulouse, Emaré, and Sir Gowther. The label is awkward because it may seem to suggest that the poems are consistently derived from or inspired by Breton or Old French sources and thus are a sort of stepchildren, little more than translations or, worse, misunderstandings of a multi-media heritage. Most scholars have seen the grouping as traditional and artificial, passed along in uncritical reception, not resting on substantial generic similarities that distinguish the poems from other literary forms. John Finlayson, for instance, concludes, “In fact, considered coldly, shortness and adventure or ordeal would seem to be the only things that can really be isolated as universal characteristics.” Some scholars have accounted for the poems as a set. The distinctions they discuss commonly include the lays' close relation to the conventions of the folk-tale, relationship to provincial audiences, and a growing sophistication of the craft of fiction.

The Breton Lays in Middle English

Books Abroad ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Robert E. Morsberger ◽  
Thomas C. Rumble
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Breton Lays
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