A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short (typically 600-1000 lines), rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Literature is literally acquaintance with letters as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character (letter)). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts, mainly novels, drama and poetry. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... See also order of chivalry Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, allegorical Scene. ...

The earliest Breton lais to survive in writing are probably The Lais of Marie de France, thought to have been composed in the 1170s by Marie de France, a French poet living in England in the late 12th and early 13th century. From descriptions in Marie's lais, and in several anonymous Old French lais of the 13th century, we know of earlier lais of Celtic origin, perhaps more lyrical in style, sung by Breton minstrels. It is believed that these Breton lyric lais, none of which has survived, were introduced by a summary narrative setting the scene for a song, and that these summaries became the basis for the narrative lais. 'The Lay of the Beach', one of around twenty Old French lais translated into Old Norwegian prose in the 13th century, gives a detailed description of William the Conqueror's commissioning of what appears to be a lyric lai to commemorate a period spent at Barfleur. The Lais of Marie de France are a series of short narrative poems in Anglo-Norman, generally focused on glorifying the concepts of courtly love by describing the adventures of a certain hero. ... Marie de France (Marie of France) was a poet evidently born in France and living in England during the late 12th century. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... Traditional coat of arms This article is about the historical duchy and French province, as well as the cultural area of Brittany. ... A minstrel was a medieval European bard who performed songs whose lyrics told stories about distant places or about (real or imaginary) historical events. ... West Norse is also called Old Icelandic or Old Norwegian. ...

The earliest written Breton lais were composed in a variety of Old French dialects, and some half dozen lais are known to have been composed in Middle English in the 13th and 14th centuries by various English authors. These include: Old French is a term sometimes used to refer to the langue doïl, the continuum of varieties of Romance language spoken in territories corresponding roughly to the northern half of modern France and parts of Belgium and Switzerland during the period roughly from 1000 to 1300 A.D... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion in 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ...

• Sir Orfeo, 'Sir Degaré', 'Sir Gowther', 'Emaré' and 'The Erle of Tolouse', all by anonymous authors
• Lay le Freine, a translation of Marie de France's 'Le Fresne'
• The Franklin's Tale from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. (The Wife of Bath's Tale is sometimes identified as a Breton lai, but in fact it contains none of the generally-agreed defining features of the genre.)
• Sir Launfal, by Thomas Chestre (a retelling of an earlier Middle English lai, 'Landavale', itself a translation of Marie de France's 'Lanval')
• Lai du Cor, by Robert Biket

Sir Orfeo is an anonymous Middle English narrative poem. ... The Franklins Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. ... Canterbury Tales Woodcut 1484 The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). ... Chaucer: Illustration from Cassells History of England, circa 1902. ... The Wife of Baths Tale is a tale from Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. ... Garrett, E. H (1853-1929), Sir Launfal Scorns a Beggar from: The Vision of Sir Launfal. ... Thomas Chestre is the writer of the middle English romance, Sir Launfal ...

External links

The Lais of Marie de France, in Old French, are provided online by the University of Manitoba (http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/french_spanish_and_italian/leslais.htm). Judith P. Shoaf has published online verse translations (http://www.english.ufl.edu/exemplaria/intro.html). Other hardcopy and online editions and translations are listed on the website of The International Marie de France Society (http://www.people.vcu.edu/~cmarecha/).

Most of the Anonymous Old French lais, with modern English translations, are available online as part of the University of Liverpool's 'Liverpool Online Series: Critical Editions of French Texts' (http://www.liv.ac.uk/sml/los/).

The Electronic Canterbury Tales links to texts and modern English versions of Chaucer's Franklin's Tale (http://hosting.uaa.alaska.edu/afdtk/ect_franklin.htm), and the TEAMS editions of the Middle English lais are also available online (http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm#menu).