One of my favorite texts we read this week was Marie de France’s poem “Lanval”. The reason I think I loved it so much was the fact it kept you entertained the whole time. “Lanval” is a love story and as a reader I love that because it takes you out of reality when you’re reading it. In a love story or a fairy tale story the knight always comes and saves the woman in trouble, but in this story Sir Lanval gets saved by his amie. It shows a twist to the traditional way of the woman being saved and instead the man had to be saved. This poem shows the female role as a more powerful figure instead of a weak and defenseless figure. At the end of the poem it say, “Swiftly he sprang the horse to straddle, And sat behind her on the saddle.” To me it shows how Lanval’s amie has the power because after she saved him and was leaving he jumped on the horses back even though she didn’t ask him to and she was the one in front and in charge not Lanval. She portrays a powerful, wise, and confident woman. This poem shows Lanval admiring her beauty and he wisdom. Lanval also shows his dedication to his amie when King Arthur’s wife tries to seduce him and he rejects her because of his love for his amie. I think this poem is a classic fairytale. The princess gets saved by her knight and they ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. This poem however has a twist because instead of a woman getting saved by a knight it was a knight being saved by a woman. Overall I personally loved the poem because it showed a woman being powerful and having the control instead of the man. I also like it because I love fairytales and this was definitely something that got you out of reality and put you in a fairytale.
