sphinx reviewed Proud Knight, Fair Lady: The Twelve Lais of Marie De France on + 97 more book reviews
This book is a very interesting historical document, being a collection of tales from the 1100s, which were considered to be very old even then. I would not recommend reading these tales to children, as they endorse a very archaic misogynist view of women that is inappropriate to teach to children.
Women in the stories are literally the property of their male relatives (as was the case for thousands of years up until the 1800s), and are treated as such. Their only value is their beauty, in most cases, and all problems that occur in the stories are blamed on women, rather than the men whose selfish, lustful behaviour generally derails the action (a knight cheats on his wife and lies to his young lover about being married, and when this goes awry, the young girl's beauty is blamed for the disaster and it is suggested she should be killed 'to appease god' - just one example of many in this book how men's bad and reckless behaviour is excused and blamed on the women, despite the fact that the women have literally no power or freedom).
Read with a critical eye, these tales paint a dark and horrifying picture of what life was like for women in the Dark Ages. The story "Rapunzel" is not simply a story - it was evidently fairly commonplace for wealthy old men to keep their young possessions /wives locked away in near-total isolation out extreme possessiveness and a sadistic disregard for the humanity of their captives.
On a lighter note, you will find herein an ancient werewolf tale, a story of a woman who could be considered one of the Fair Folk, and a possible precursor of Little Snow-White. But again, unless you want to expose your kids to horrible violence against women, I would not recommend sharing these tales with children!
The illustrations are lovely in a naive way that fits the age of the text - the anatomy is often very wrong (as it was in art of the time period), but the images have an elegance and decorative appeal that is hard to deny, though the illustrator seems obsessed with blonde hair, which appears on the vast majority, if not all, of the characters.
My favourite tale is "Milun", which has a happier ending than many of the others, and reflects a relatively equitable relationship between the female and male main characters, as well as having some memorable 'magical' elements.
If you enjoy studying ancient folk tales, myths, and legends, this is a book worth reading, and the fact that it was originally written down by a woman makes it noteworthy among such books.
Women in the stories are literally the property of their male relatives (as was the case for thousands of years up until the 1800s), and are treated as such. Their only value is their beauty, in most cases, and all problems that occur in the stories are blamed on women, rather than the men whose selfish, lustful behaviour generally derails the action (a knight cheats on his wife and lies to his young lover about being married, and when this goes awry, the young girl's beauty is blamed for the disaster and it is suggested she should be killed 'to appease god' - just one example of many in this book how men's bad and reckless behaviour is excused and blamed on the women, despite the fact that the women have literally no power or freedom).
Read with a critical eye, these tales paint a dark and horrifying picture of what life was like for women in the Dark Ages. The story "Rapunzel" is not simply a story - it was evidently fairly commonplace for wealthy old men to keep their young possessions /wives locked away in near-total isolation out extreme possessiveness and a sadistic disregard for the humanity of their captives.
On a lighter note, you will find herein an ancient werewolf tale, a story of a woman who could be considered one of the Fair Folk, and a possible precursor of Little Snow-White. But again, unless you want to expose your kids to horrible violence against women, I would not recommend sharing these tales with children!
The illustrations are lovely in a naive way that fits the age of the text - the anatomy is often very wrong (as it was in art of the time period), but the images have an elegance and decorative appeal that is hard to deny, though the illustrator seems obsessed with blonde hair, which appears on the vast majority, if not all, of the characters.
My favourite tale is "Milun", which has a happier ending than many of the others, and reflects a relatively equitable relationship between the female and male main characters, as well as having some memorable 'magical' elements.
If you enjoy studying ancient folk tales, myths, and legends, this is a book worth reading, and the fact that it was originally written down by a woman makes it noteworthy among such books.
