The Lay of Marie and Vignettes in Verse

A narrative poem set around an Anglo-Norman female minstrel of the thirteenth century, portraying her beauty, upbringing by a romantic father, and the social tensions that surround her performances at court. Through cantos and lyrical lays it depicts feasts, martial triumphs, courtly patrons, and personal anguish as questions of birth, love, loss, and honor emerge. The poet alternates descriptive passages of pageantry and interior reflection, interweaving traditional lays and appended vignettes that illustrate medieval manners and morals. An introduction and appendices supply historical and biographical context and twelve additional lays that illuminate the period's narrative and poetic conventions.