Love is too complicated... smh crazy people

Okay so before I go on this weird and probably over exaggerated tangent, I just want to say that I really enjoyed reading these Lais: Equitan, Le Fresne, and Bisclavret. In each of the readings there wasn’t anything that is too out there and too different from what we read today. Or correction at least the crazy and creepy shit I read in my own spare time.

Where should I start... hmmmm? I guess I will start with Equitan. Can I just say one thing? Why is this woman trying to find any reason not to be with the King aside the fact that SHE IS FUCKING MARRIED!!!  To me that would be one of the most obvious reasons why you should not start an affair. BUT NOOOOO she only tries to tell him that she is not worthy because she is not in the same class as he is. I don’t think class should really matter when it comes to love, but that if there is something else like (cough cough… A MARRIAGE) then you should re- think how great you love is. Plus no offense but how can you fall in love or want a woman when you never seen her. I love (note the sarcasm) how he doesn’t want to hurt his seneschal because he owes him as much to not steal his wife but then he throws that thought out cuz he wants a lover. Like WTF you just had a good thought to be loyal to your guy, but then you say, “Fuck it all!!” 

 

Well all I can say is that the King and the wife got what they deserved. YOU SHOULD NEVER LET THE PENIS RULE YOU!!!!! At least not where you’re becoming a home wrecker.

  

 

So now onto Le Fresne all I have to say is that Jealousy is a vile thing. Why would you go and start a rumor over a woman, let alone your neighbor just because she is carrying two twin boys. Instead of being happy LIKE ANY NORMAL PERSON you have to become a petty b*ach and start spreading rumors. Well guess what Karma must have been hella hungry cuz they came and bit you in the ass. Now it is you who is having twin girls. So to makes sure you don’t sound like a hypocrite you give away your baby. Does no one see anything wrong about giving up your baby to be sent to a convent?  But at least in the end it is on a happier note. The long lost twin is reunited with her family and then she got to marry her love. It was weird but ok I will go along with it. At least no one died.

Bisclavret was probably my favorite of the three. Maybe it is because I am OBSESSED with weird supernatural beings. All I know is that if my husband was part werewolf I would be jumping for joy. Well at least I would once I made sure he wouldn’t hurt me. If he was anything like Jacob from Twilight or like Scott from Teen Wolf.

 

I thought love meant that you stick together like glue and even if you know your man or you turn into a hideous creature your partner/lover should love you just the same If not more because your partner can TAKE CARE OF YOU BETTER!!! She a stupid hoe!!! How you going to abandon a great guy to marry an average Joe? like why would you give up on the sexiness????

  

In line 139 I liked how it said, “When the hounds were unleashed” it reminds me of hearing stories about the hounds of hell and how they were wild but protective of who they loved. I just find that interesting and I just got to say it’s her loss maybe she should have stuck with the sexy werewolf then she would still have a nose.

 

Hypocrisy and Loyalty...One in the Same?

Out of the stories we had to read for this week, the story of Equitan really got me thinking. It made me think about how some people are nothing but hypocrites. I assume that most people would expect that their significant other would be loyal to them, but for some strange reason, people sometimes think it's okay to do the exact opposite of what they want their partners to do. Take the seneschal's wife, for example. She clearly states to Equitan that he must remain loyal to her, while she, on the other hand, has no loyalty to her own husband. In other words, she's committing adultery, but doesn't want to be the victim of cheating herself. WHAT A HYPORCRITE!!

I'd like to compare this to modern day ideals on this subject. Cheating is, unfortunately, a regular occurrence in today's world. Sadly, I don't think the hypocrisy has gone away either. People can cheat all they want, but no one wants to be on the other side of it, meaning the cheater becomes the one being cheated on. I just don't understand why people can't be honest with each other. It is evident that cheating on someone isn't a new idea, so why hasn't anything been done to fix the problem? If people are honest about their feelings toward others, perhaps people won't jump into boiling water/throw their disloyal lovers into a boiling pot of death.

Evil Wifes, Long Lost Daughters, and Werewolfs By: Ariana Moore

First off, I have to say that these lais are very entertaining to read. I absolutely loved these stories. I believe that Marie de France was feeling some type of way when she wrote these lais. All of these stories captured my attention with all the betrayal, secrecy, and mystical creatures and most books or short stories don't always capture my attention. In Equitan, the betrayal of the wife for the King was epic. This story reminded me of the Story of David in the Bible. Just like how the king sought after David's wife, the king wanted to fulfill his own desire's with the seneschals wife. The fact that she gives in to the king's desires is not surprising to me. Females can be very devious and evil. The ending has to be my favorite part where the king and seneschals wife get caught in their own plot. The tub of hot boiling water becomes both of their way of  death. The moral of this story was a good one, "He who plans evil for another may find the evil falling upon himself".

 

 

 

Le Fresne was a really sweet story. I didn't think that the wife had to go and bash the other wife for having twins, but hey karma is a bitch! This is a smooth point of why you shouldn't talk bad about people. Since she had spread a rumor about the other wife, she had to give up her own child just so she wouldn't contradict herself. That my friends is very sad and that's what she gets for spreading lies. Later on when the daughter returns after her lover was suppose to marry her twin sister, I thought that was a beautiful family moment. Just like the Parent Trap movie both sisters found their way back to each other unexpectedly which was really sweet.

 

 

 





Now I love mystical characters, creatures, and fantasies. This story had the most action and thrill. I know when people think of werewolf's everyone screams "Twilight".  I have seen classic black and white movies that have the werewolf theme and that was my thought of what werewolf's would be in medieval times. I couldn't stand why the wife couldn't accept the fact that her husband was a werewolf. And when he ran off for quite sometime into the woods, she just decided to up and marry someone else. At that point she deserved to be bitten in the nose by her ex-husband. She should've stayed and helped him through his problem. See females today, when things get to tough or they don't like something that their "significant other" does they would just up leave. In the end at least he gets changed back into a human, but its still cool that he becomes a werewolf. He was about that life.

 



Cultural Connections

So, this week we're to have read three more lais for class: Equitan, Le Fresne, and Bisclavret. I have to say that I was way more enamored with these stories than I was with Lanval, though that wasn't Lanval's fault - I just like adultery, near-infanticide, and werewolves a bit more than I like mopey knights and possibly-fae ladies romancing them and saving the day (you go, fairy lady). I like drama and intrigue, and there was a lot of that in the readings for this week. 

Out of all of these, I was most surprised by Equitan. I was expecting them to get their comeuppance somehow, because they both cheated and that violates the rules, but getting boiled alive was a little bit extreme I thought. I did do an image search to see if there were any period cartoons to describe this, as it was a real way that medieval prisoners were tortured, and oh! fun fact: Google actually auto-filled "medieval boiling torture" as a search parameter. I'm slightly disturbed. But what I thought was interesting was that this search directed me to this website (warning: if you're easily triggered by violence and/or torture devices, I would stay off this page), which stated that "torture was used almost exclusively for the crime of treason" - if you consider cheating on your spouse, who you married before the eyes of God and the government and the universe, a form of treason, then was their punishment deserved? 

(Obviously, cheating is wrong unless you're both into that, but death is a little over-the-top. You shouldn't let your marital problems come to a boiling point.) 

Knight on the left is like, "you're so going to hell, dude." 

Le Fresne I found to be formulaic, but happy - I was actually more interested in the trope of the separated twins and the foundling child than I was in the actual plot of the story, because this is an archetype that's seen throughout the world. The fact that nobody died is a plus too. I was actually struck by the similarity between Le Fresne and a tale from the Arabian Nights, whose specific title I don't actually know, but is called The Story of the Speaking Bird at this website. In this tale, two sisters are jealous of the other, who is married to the Sultan. They steal each of her three children and replace it with an animal as soon as it's born, and tell the Sultan his wife has delivered a monster. The three children are raised happily by a gardener, ignorant of their heritage. Anyway, I won't spoil it for you, but it was just interesting to note. 

Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree, Maxfield Parrish, 1906

And lastly, there is Bisclavret. I liked Bisclavret, not only because I like werewolves, but because the lai was just... funny-ish? It was humorous, in a strange way, because Bisclavret was a different kind of werewolf than we expected. A werewolf here is more akin to "a man wearing a wolf's skin" than a separate supernatural species, kind of like Viking berserkers, who were called that because they wore bear pelts (the ones who wore wolf pelts were called ulfhednar), and changed their mentality but not their form. Here, like in Equitan, there is a form of marital treason at the hands of the wife - a story where Marie is not particularly kind to her own gender, which is interesting to note because she can sometimes vacillate between extremes when it comes to perception of women. 

And to wrap this up, have a lyric video of Arthurian-mythological song about Mordred, and Morgan le Fay. Some of you might have heard it already but... (by the way, this artist specializes in Celtic music, and she is amazing.)

Heather Dale, "Mordred's Lullaby", Avalon or The Trial of Lancelot 

Works Cited: 

• McDonald, James. "Medieval Torture." Medieval Warfare. Castles and Manor Houses Inc, 11 Apr. 2012. Web. 02 Feb. 2015. 
• Wikipedia - "Berserker", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker
• Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Princess_Parizade_Bringing_Home_the_Singing_Tree.jpg
• "THE STORY OF THE SPEAKING BIRD." More Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2015. 

I DO NOT KNOW WHO TO TRUST IN THESE LAIS!!!!

I DO NOT KNOW WHO TO TRUST IN THESE LAIS!!!!

By: Rory Conklin

            Okay, it goes without saying that the present day world we live in is one not to be well trusted in the hands of others. But after reading three short lais; Equitan, Le Fresne, and Bisclavret, my eyes have been opened even wider as to how sick and twisted these people were, and how little trust was actually appreciated and upheld by anyone, even within the bonds of matrimony does it mean nothing to these people. It was well put in Le Frense, and what turned out to be in my opinion the main theme to these lais, "Whoever slanders another never knows when it will rebound on him" (Le Frense, 87-88). The biggest karma statement ever and it showed to be true! Whether it had been about spreading rumors or just plain and simple adultery, it always came back to haunt them or seal their fate.

            Starting with Equitan we return to the adultery and hierarchy playing a significant factor. At first the wife tries to defend the love of her husband and claims that any love between her and the King would be forced and unforgiving in the long run. But in a few short pages she went from the cliché "oh woe is me, I am not worthy" nonsense to basically an "Eh, alright let's do it" with the King.

 

And then to top it all off plans to KILL her husband the seneschal!!! I FOUND THIS RIDICULOUS. I did get a kick out of how the Kings life was ended however, a foot-first dive into the boiling water and an instant unforgiving scalded death. Classic!!! Karma you art thou a heartless bitch, but hey they were asking for it am I right?

            In the lai, Le Fresne, I did not find this story nearly as annoying, but rather ironic and simply weird how okay everyone was at the end when the Knight was marrying his mistresses long lost sister, but then they found out and practically said "Whoops! Start over! Marry her instead" because after all Fresne was royalty and that is all that matters right? I find that love in these lais do not mean a damn if a rich and powerful ranking in the classes was not completely behind the decision making. Everyone was just a go with the flow until a call needed to be made. Can anyone explain to me why everyone was so calm and forgiving at the end? If I had been Le Fresne I would have been asking a million questions.

             

And finally, the one girl that did not jump in excitement to the idea of being married to a werewolf. Just her!! Okay maybe that is an overstatement. But its moments like these, the lai of Bisclavret where you would think love would triumph over minor, although difficult to believe, circumstances such as your husband turning into a werewolf for three days a week. Okay, again this is a little supreme. However, this goes back to what my main point was, how does anyone trust anybody in these times? When will they learn that karma almost always comes back around, like how the werewolf bit off his wife's nose, and then later she gave birth to nose less offspring?? It is pretty obvious that someone was not taking their couples therapy seriously.

            Overall these were very entertaining reads, and definitely gave me something to think about when I am bored!

An Upgrade from Beowulf!

These lais were pretty fun to read, especially considering I read Norse Eddas and Sagas and Roman Lays. So instead of reading about the awful things men do to men, I can read about the awful things men do to women and women to women! And wolf-men to men and women. Yikes. At least before I was reading the old time-y version of 300...

Right from the start we get violence from Equitan which shows us that you shouldn't be evil lest evil be done to you. Good moral. Of course, this plan was doomed from the start (what do they think this guy is? seafood dinner?). And a victory bone in the tub should be done after the victim is killed, not that I would know. Because it seems less like karmic fate in the end and more "maniacal justice."

The correct way to prepare a boiled dinner.

At least no one died in Le Fresne. Still, ruining your neighbor's life just because you're jealous is a bit extreme. Especially considering your jealousy is over gross babies. The first act of this story essentially repeats the moral of our last story with less "Game of Thrones" worthy murders before moving on to the love story and concluding with the ever so familiar "long lost relative" story. Surprisingly, this ends happily! Must've gotten all the drama out of our systems with the intro.

Bisclavret threw me off a bit. When I think "Medieval werewolf," I think "rampaging monster" and not "dude who needs to keep his clothes on." Well, that's one modern stereotype that doesn't conform with past ideas. What about "sexy" werewolves from trashy romance novels? Well the wife didn't want anything to do with that furry mess. Then what were werewolves doing in those old stories?!

Pictured: Not our werewolf.

Even more surprising is how cool everyone was with it like, "Dude! A talking buppy!" Wasn't this supposed to be the time of superstitious fear mongering? And he attacks a knight at a party and everyone is privy that it's for revenge so they just forgive him! And he rips his wife's nose off and everyone thinks, "She had it coming maybe. Let's torture her to find out... Yeah, she had it coming." Way to go Medieval people... at least you stick to the fun stereotypes. In the end the wise man helps the knight assume his human form and everyone good lives happily ever after. How does the wise man know so much about werewolves anyway? I'm glad the story ended with the disclaimer this all actually happened for realsies. Cause a noseless lady having noseless kids? I would've thought all these stories were made up otherwise!

-Brian

True Love? OR NAH????

They say love is a topic that many people appreciate, and others can hate until the end days. Love has been existent since the medieval ages. In, “The Lais of Marie de France,” the epic story of Equitan described an epic knight who was pissed the hell off at his lover.

This is what brings up the mighty question, was love in that time period classified as true love? Or even better, do the people of today know the true definition of love? And if so, do they truly follow it?

Oxford English Dictionary defines love as, “A feeling or disposition of deep affection or fondness for someone, typically arising from a recognition of attractive qualities, from natural affinity, or from sympathy and manifesting itself in concern for the other's welfare and pleasure in his or her presence” (Love).

With this as the following, do we actually follow this, or do we go straight to the aux cord, and pull out the iPhone and listen to Jeremiah’s Birthday Sex and get some sweet horny action in!

In today’s world, I believe that we are following the same standards as Equitan did. All we do in this day of age is find the closest person next to us, and go after a quick fuck session. We never go through the styles of love that Nicholas Sparks proclaims in every single one of his books.

The styles of Equitan would leave me to believe that this could leave to domestic violence, brutality, or even death. Just leave it to be foreshadowing to Eminem’s Kim, “Don't you get it, bitch, no one can hear you? Now shut the fuck up and get what's coming to you You were supposed to love me NOW BLEED! BITCH, BLEED! BLEED! BITCH, BLEED! BLEED!”

Overall, love is still something that still boggles my mind. Whether it may be about love preferences, or if it comes to sexual preferences. However, if the any reader follows the ways of the, “mighty,” Equitan, then we will end up seeing more and more baby daddies.