The Use Of Vivid Descriptive Imagery In Lanval By Marie De France
In “Lanval” Marie de France uses vivid descriptive imagery to highlight the disharmony between great love and the real world. “Lanval” contains many vivid descriptions, but these primarily pertain to the fairies of the lai (though the fairies are not explicitly named). When Lanval’s lady finally arrives during his trial, de France claims that “on earth / none had such beauty, none such worth”, suggesting an almost ethereal quality to the lady. The author proceeds to provide at least seven images in twenty lines related to whiteness and light in the lady’s description: the lady arrives mounting a “pure white palfrey” and dressed in a “white chainse and a chemise”. Her neck is “white as a branch in snow, ” “her face is white”, “her forehead fair”, and “gold thread cannot give off such light / as does her hair in sunbeams bright”.
In addition to providing vivid descriptions of the fairy’s beauty, de France also emphasizes her wealth in the same passage: Splendid adornments bore this mount; under sweet heaven no king nor count could ever buy them, have and hold unless his lands were pledged or sold. By claiming that no royalty under heaven could ever obtain the lady’s adornments unless he sold his land, de France suggests that the lady possesses wealth that is beyond this world; therefore, the author also implies that the lady herself is not of this world either. De France repeatedly uses this imagery of unsurpassable beauty and wealth in the lai to emphasize the pure, good, and otherworldly nature of the fairies. When two fairy servants approach Lanval as he is lying by the river, one of them carries two golden bowls, which the author emphasizes as “pure pure gold each lovely bowl”.
Subsequently, Lanval then meets his lover for the first time, who resides in a tent described as “splendidly set, magnificent, ” and “not Semiramis, opulent / and at the zenith of her power, / her wealth, her wisdom in full flower, / nor that Octavian, great Rome’s lord” could afford even the right flap of the door’s tent. In addition, the lady is “so much lovelier” than a “lily” or “new rose” that appears in the summertime. Little description, however, is provided of the society in which Lanval lives. Thus, de France contrasts the lavish world of the fairies with the darkness of Lanval’s society; King Arthur, who has an obligation to provide for his vassals, neglects the loyal knight and leaves him to dwell in poverty, thus failing to fulfill his feudal duty.
Queen Guinevere, who is ready to commit infidelity with Lanval, plots to have him killed by lying to the king after Lanval rightly refuses her. While “none put in a good word” for Lanval in the beginning, people only begin to acknowledge Lanval once he displays enormous wealth. Therefore, through the actions of the people in this world, de France illustrates the flawed state of society and the feudal system. It is clear that the love shared between Lanval and his lady is meant to exist apart from this society. From the beginning of the tale, Lanval himself is presented as an outsider — a foreigner “far from his heritage” to serve under King Arthur. To escape the despair of the reality he lives in, he “mounts, and rides out of town, / coming to a meadow all alone”. It is here, away from society, where he meets his lover and finds his true happiness. The lady promises Lanval “joy beyond measure greater than emperors or kings” and claims to love him “above all things”, and Lanval vows to devote himself to her completely, implying that he is willing to throw away his knighthood under King Arthur, who belongs to the real world, in place of allegiance to his lover, who belongs to the otherworld: I know of nothing you might ask I would not honor as my task if it lay in my power at all — though good, or evil, might befall. I will do all that you require; forsake all those I might desire, and never seek to part from you — this, above all, I wish to do!
The only thing that the lady requires of Lanval is for him to keep their relationship a secret, for as previously stated, their bond has no place in an ugly reality. She then says she will meet him secretly in a place “without reproach or calumny, ” or away in isolation from the corruption of society. When Lanval leaves to go back to the city, he wonders if his encounter with the fairies truly happened, with further emphasizes the ethereal nature of their world and displaces the love he shares with his lady from reality: Shaken by all these strange events, disturbed, depressed in heart and sense, amazed, he could not trust his thought. Had it all truly been, or not?
In the end, Lanval’s lover takes him with her to the mystical island of Avalon; not even the best the King has to offer in his palace is enough to keep the two in the real world.
