What are the characteristics of a Breton lay?

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.

Is Breton lay genre?

The “Breton lays” are short romances, often (but not always) based on the earlier French lais of Marie de France. Most often they involve love and the supernatural; Chaucer calls his Franklin’s Tale a “Breton lay” but it is a very unusual example of the genre.

What are Breton lays or Lais )? Why are they called Breton lays?

Alternate titles: lai Breton. By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History. Table of Contents. Breton lay, Middle English Lai Breton, poetic form so called because Breton professional storytellers supposedly recited similar poems, though none are extant.

Why are the Breton lays written in French?

The lays were first written in Old French of the 12th century, especially in that kind of French known as Anglo-Norman because it was spoken in England at the court of the Norman and Angevin kings.

What is a medieval Lai?

lay, also spelled lai, in medieval French literature, a short romance, usually written in octosyllabic verse, that dealt with subjects thought to be of Celtic origin.

What languages are spoken in Brittany?

The main language of Brittany nowadays is French, however the traditional language of Breton (Brezhoneg) is much older. Records can also be found in Latin.

Is Lai a genre?

A well-established genre in the Middle Ages, the engaging Breton lai remains a popular part of the medieval canon today. In addition to being attractive to scholars and students of the Middle Ages, the obvious appeal of these fantastical tales has often resonated with wider audiences.

Is a lay a poem?

A lay is a short narrative poem of between 80 and 200 lines concerning a single heroic episode in the life of a warrior from Germanic legend. It is distinct from the heroic epic (Beowulf, Nibelungenlied) which combines a sequence of episodes into a longer narrative.

What is a lai in literature?

LAI (plural lais, also spelled lay): A short narrative or lyrical poem, usually in octosyllabic couplets, intended to be sung. Helen Cooper called the genre the “mini-Romance” since the typical theme and content deals with courtly love and the other concerns of medieval romance.

Is lai a genre?

What percentage of Brittany speak Breton?

It is said that, in 1914, over 1 million people spoke Breton west of the boundary between the Breton- and Gallo-speaking region, roughly 90% of the population of the western half of Brittany. In 1945, it was about 75%, and today, in all of Brittany, at most 20% of Bretons can speak Breton.

Is German spoken in Brittany?

What is a Breton lai?

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.

Does the Breton lay need a third formal category?

12 See Donovan’s comparison of the two forms in The Breton Lay. Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale and Wife of Bath’s Tale, written in decasyllabic couplets, require a third formal category.

Is there a Breton lay in fourteenth-century England?

[Claims that the Breton lay was not as well-known in fourteenth-century England as many have claimed.] Bromwich, Rachel. “A Note on the Breton Lays.” Medium Aevum 26 (1957), 36–38. [Notes the relationship of Marie’s lais to Welsh sagas told in the ninth and tenth centuries.] Bullock-Davies, Constance. “The Form of the Breton Lay.”

Is Middle English Breton lay a genre?

But the poems also call themselves contes, stories, gestes, and romances, a tendency that suggests that the Middle Ages felt no clear need for generic types. Needless to say, this has created confusion among scholars about the validity of calling Middle English Breton lay a genre at all.