Chevrefoil/Honeysuckle/ Goatleaf

There are not many complaints that I have regarding Chevrefoil, but the ending of the lai threw me off a bit. When the King's nephew, Tristram, was sent off to Wales to live a lonely life it was understandable that he would simply sit there and come up with a plot to re-enter the Queen's life. Eventually he manages to sneak close enough to the Queen and they reunite in a lovely woodsy setting, but when the King allows him to live in the kingdom once again...the story just ends. There is no true explanation on whether or not Tristram, the hero knight in this lai, was able to actually achieve his goal of winning the Queen. I may be missing things, and hearing the story from someone else's perspective in class will certainly help, but this lai actually confused me a bit.

In footnote number four, the translator talks about how Marie de France is using very curious and different ways to describe all the different art and literary forms within the lai. There is the lai itself, written by Tristram so as not to forget it, as well as the lai itself in the way that Marie tells it from the stories she has previously heard, and then there are many other references to writing and singing within the lai. All these create a large circle of the character writing the story at the same time that Marie is telling the readers that she speaks the truth. It comes down to what form of story-telling is the longer lasting one. This simple debate between spoken/written words and a song turns into an interesting one.

When thinking about songs that we listen to nowadays it is hard to imagine that in five years we will no longer remember the lyrics or the beat, but when you think of all the songs we learned in middle school it's clear that most of us can remember the chorus, but not much else. The rest is slowly mumbled along to the beat. But then when presented with a solid story told by mouth or by the page it is incredibly easier to recall. I bet everyone in our class can outline the entire plot of Toy Story or The Lion King with no issues. Stories told in very elaborate ways, longer poems or novels included, have a way with sticking with us more. I can remember the life story of all my friends and their families, but the song that has played on the radio a million times in an hour still escapes me. Memory can work in many different ways, but humans naturally appreciate permanency. Having a story written down is clearly going to help it outlive any other forms.